Think I'll never get rid of my ocd

[TigerAtTheZoo]

I have had my ocd for 18 years. It has got alot worse in the past few years. I have had cbt in the past and it helped but I just got new intrusive thoughts and rituals that are now worse than ever. There is alot of avoiding things as well. I'm trying cbt again and I find it very difficult to not do the ritual and just sit with the anxiety. It's all I can think about. Any tips or advice? I don't want to live with this my entire life as i feel like a prisoner in my own mind.

Hi there, I don’t have OCD but my DH does. It’s been horrendous. With hindsight, he’s always had it, but it started affecting him a lot more about 4 years ago and he had to give up his job.

Do you have any support? I just want to say keep going, you can do it.

We found The Mind Workout by Mark Freeman and Brain Lock by Jeffrey Schwartz really helpful. His current therapist (and we have tried a few) is using ACT therapy. He’s responding well to this as couldn’t get to grips with ERP. The other therapists wanted him to work on the compulsions straight away, but she is focusing on the root causes for his anxiety. She told him to not worry about stopping the compulsions and guess what...because he feels like he has ‘permission’ to do them...he doesn’t feel the need as strongly. He’s still doing the compulsions, but feels like he could stop. This is a major breakthrough for him. Her reasoning is that if you feel secure and able to handle uncertainty, then you won’t need to do the compulsions and they will fall away by themselves.

All the best x

PunchBall thank you for the reply. I have a cbt therapist at the moment and my husband helps me alot. He also helps with getting stuff I'm avoiding to do because of my ocd which I suppose isn't really helping. Thanks I'll check out those books and I'll take a look at ACT therapy (not heard of it before). I definitely need to feel more secure about and better at handling uncertainty. Thanks again