Can you recover from OCD/ anxiety and be ‘normal’?

[june35]

I feel like I was born this way and no amount of medication or anxiety will make it go away. I can learn to live with it day by day with these things but it’s always there. I understand CBT techniques and have read a lot of self help but I still can’t get rid of it.

I wonder therefore, if I do have a condition (which you apparently can recover from) or if this is just who I am?

I find it so exhausting. I wish I was ‘normal’ and have at times have really tried to act like I am. But I always reach a point where I have to go back on medication (usually within a year after stopping).

Hi op
Sorry you’re suffering with ocd. There is a thread about it, if you can find it!
have you had ERP therapy. It’s exposure therapy and is supposed to be the best treatment.

I’m similar by the way. Have just paid to speak with a psychiatrist and he was quite helpful. I mainly spoke about my anxiety though. He’s prescribed vortioxetine.

I agree about exposure therapy. You can actually do it yourself without a therapist. You could ask chat gpt to set some exposure tasks. You start very very small with something you can manage and gradually build up. If you fail you go back a few steps until you can do that and then step it up again.

I hope there is a way out as my 9 year old DD is suffering with both. She has no childhood at the moment and is awaiting medication from CAMHS

Sean Flores. Just watched his webinar. Very positive. 👍🏻 He said CBT and ERP used jointly. Plus the meds if needed. Talk therapy has been given to my DD and 4 years later they are still offering talk therapy. This will not help OCD apparently. It would with other issues of course.

Good luck.

Yes, I’ve seen people recover from a range of OCDs with CBT. It isn’t an easy road and sometimes longer treatment is needed than adult therapies will/can offer. You also have to be ready to engage with the therapy wholeheartedly as negotiations with the OCD can impact how effective it is! It will take and take if you let it.

Edit

Shaun Flores

No, I think it’s the way your brain is wired. Slightly controlled with medication and other techniques but never gone.

source, someone living with an ocd parent, diagnosed 25 years ago.

No, I think you either have it or you don't cbt and medication can help you control it better and live a relatively normal life but it never goes away and you will find periods of your life will cause more symptoms then others

Thanks all. Yes I’m having talking therapies again but we haven’t got to ERP yet.

Yes I think I agree, I also have an OCD parent and I think I learnt behaviours from them at a young age which makes it even harder to get rid of as it’s what I grew up with and thought was normal.

Very true, stress is a big trigger which is difficult as you can’t avoid stress, plus they say a healthy amount of stress is good for you

I think a healthy amount of stress is fine for mentally healthy people im not so sure its as beneficial for people with mental illness

@june35CBT for OCD is the best evidenced approach. When you say you’re having talking therapies is it specifically CBT or counselling? CBT will incorporate Exposure Response Prevention but not at first because ERP has maximum benefit after quite a few sessions understanding how what we understand about the drivers of OCD apply to you, how it affects you, what the nature of your intrusive thoughts/images and doubts are. Also a CBT therapist will make sure the ERP is properly structured and actually not just an endurance test or learning to tolerate something.

There are quite a lot of CBT techniques that are helpful but really nothing beats having a collaborative relationship with a therapist who takes an idiosyncratic approach and picks up on misunderstandings and spots small avoidances and safety behaviours that can sneak in. AI can be useful but it can’t challenge you which is what you need as you face your difficulties.

I really feel for you. OCD is very tough. You sound very determined in your attempts to deal with it and I am sure, with the right help, that will serve you well. As for the idea of being normal. In all my years as a CBT therapist, talking to all sorts of people about their problems I become less and less sure about what normal looks like. I don’t think it exists!

Thank you. I’m having CBT but so far it’s been a lot of talking about how I think and why that might be. I understand it’s a process. The problem is I understand the process behind it, but I still have the voice in the back of my head with the ‘doubt’. In my mind, there is the rational most likely process , but that doesn’t mean the unlikely reality never happens. I feel like the CBT techniques are tricks to turn you into an optimist or at least not a pessimist, but it doesn’t mean the unlikely possibility doesn’t exist.

I had debilitating ocd as a child, teen and into my 20s
I had Cbt and emdr in my mid 20s. Being realistic I consider myself to still have ocd in that when I’m a bit stressed I feel myself want to do the old compulsions a little bit, and sometimes I get some intrusive thoughts, but generally it’s prettily easily manageable now, and day to day I don’t even think about it. I forget I even had/have it for months at a time and I don’t do any compulsions anymore. Maybe it’s there more than I realise but it doesn’t impact me day to day, I live a happy life and I don’t recognise myself from the person I was before. It was really important to me to tackle it and to do my best to pass it on to dc or have them grow up in a house with the level of anxiety I was exhibiting before. Just wanted to give you a bit of hope because when I was in it I couldn’t imagine feeling differently.

I don't know if this will help but concentrating on a healthy lifestyle, not eating processed foods and keeping active does wonders for the brain chemistry. It's worth a try? It's tiring being anxious so the time.

*not pass it on

obviously

@june35 I totally understand what you’re saying. What do you understand as the process behind it?

CBT for OCD shouldn’t be a series of techniques applied to you, it should be a collaboration that you agree on with your therapist and you can see why the therapist is focussing sessions in a certain way. If you have questions or are unsure what the point is make sure you voice it. I assume it’s CBT with a CBT trained BABCP accredited CBT therapist?

The therapy shouldn’t be about becoming a better optimist and saying “it probably won’t happen” and just becoming better at overriding the doubts. That’s what most people with OCD spend their waking hours trying to do anyway.

Obviously I don’t know the details of your OCD so it’s tricky to comment usefully but I would say that it’s important to ask what the plan is and make sure they’ve understood your goal for the sessions and are open to answering questions. I hope it does well for you.

Hello,
I’m so sorry you are suffering. I really suffered with OCD throughout my late teens and twenties and especially when I had my daughter. I genuinely thought I would never be able to have a ‘normal’ moment let alone a ‘normal’ day, week, month. However, with lots of CBT and trialling different medication (I am now on a low dose of clomipramine), I have managed to get to a place where I am well and happy nearly all the time and it doesn’t impact my day to day functioning. As well as medication and the CBT, I have found that t’ai chi, walking, being in nature and trying to eat healthily have all also made a really positive impact. I do also have to be alert to stress as this is definitely a trigger for me. I just wanted to share this to give you some hope that you can get better as when I was at my lowest, I thought it would never ever happen. I had almost given up hope. I hope so much that you can begin to get some relief from the OCD and wish you the very best.

But the point isn’t to get rid of the doubt the point is that life is filled with doubt and uncertainty and you have to learn to live with it and be less uncomfortable with it

Maybe ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) might be more helpful for you?

You don’t examine your thoughts or try to fight them with ACT.

@BeigeCardiganthere is no careful examining of the contents of thoughts or fighting thoughts in CBT. It’s more about allowing those thoughts to exist and responding to them differently and dealing with whatever the internal or external compulsion is. @Pineapplec0reis right. Having intrusive thoughts/doubts and images is not unusual, most people have had these kind of shocking or frightening thoughts but haven’t engaged with them in quite the same way, the problem is not the thoughts, it’s the interpretation and there are a many circumstances that can make someone vulnerable. Sometimes therapists offer strategies to soothe, distract from or minimise the thoughts/doubts/images. This isn’t the solution though it feels more palatable but it’s a solution that then becomes the problem. ACT is a great approach, not taking away from it.