Can You overcome OCD on your own?

Simple question I suppose.

Can you do CBT therapy on yourself and get rid of the OCD?
Obviously, I know no matter what therapy, on your own or with a therapist, it'll never go completly, but that you have practacices in place so that it isn't ruining your life.

I just can't afford therapy. It's hellish expensive, and whose to know how many of those sessions you'll need?

I keep hearing of people who have supposedly gotten rid of OCD on their own. I believe mark freeman on YouTube who I'm a big fan of did this, and he teaches others how to practice CBT techniques so they can too.

I'm just really struggling.
Was hoping for some advice.


Thanks.

The short answer is: yes. Obviously the more severe your anxiety is, the harder it's going to be, to do it alone.

I took a quick glance at the subjects Mark Freeman laid out, and it's not much different than what we talk about here, or what people talk about at other web sites, and with therapists.

But as you may have seen here, you can talk about it all day, but the rubber hits the road if the person who is suffering can adopt those "ideas" and work them into self therapy.

My course action was first meds, to slow the anxiety down, and then take it upon myself to learn techniques (like Mark). Once those were established I cut down on my meds.

Methods for getting better vary for each person. The first step is to own it, and then do something about it. What eventually works for you, will become apparent when you start trying things out.

Otter.

It's possible.

I need to study CBT. I've no idea if I've unknowingly done that, or not.

I've had harm-ocd since about 1974.

I still get intrusive harm thoughts, but it's very rare that they bother me, at least the more outrageous intentional harm thoughts. Accidental harm.... It's a sliding scale for me. Committing murder is fairly Out There. Inadvertently running over a pedestrian is not so preposterous, so it has the potential of getting thru my defenses.

I still get intentional harm thoughts, but as Ot said, I own it. The thoughts come, and then they go. And I am not perturbed. They're just thoughts. They only have power if I let them.

If I wasn't also ADD and inattentive, I probably wouldn't worry as much about accidental harm as I do.

I've done it. Albeit through a twisted method at first, but eventually finding the root. A key to therapy is talk about & finding the root of what causes your ills, coming to accept & "settle" it in a way. If you can do this in your head, then it works just as well.

Otter wrote:The short answer is: yes. Obviously the more severe your anxiety is, the harder it's going to be, to do it alone.

I took a quick glance at the subjects Mark Freeman laid out, and it's not much different than what we talk about here, or what people talk about at other web sites, and with therapists.

But as you may have seen here, you can talk about it all day, but the rubber hits the road if the person who is suffering can adopt those "ideas" and work them into self therapy.

My course action was first meds, to slow the anxiety down, and then take it upon myself to learn techniques (like Mark). Once those were established I cut down on my meds.

Methods for getting better vary for each person. The first step is to own it, and then do something about it. What eventually works for you, will become apparent when you start trying things out.

Otter.

Thanks for the post, that's interesting.

That did pass through my mind. I mean, surely everything these people on YouTube like Marc are saying is essentially what the therapists tell you anyway?

What do you mean by own it? Come to realisation you have it, or?

Also, what sort of meds? Like anxiety tablets? That kind of thing?


Thanks again

-- Mon Nov 09, 2015 3:43 pm --

snaga2.0 wrote:It's possible.

I need to study CBT. I've no idea if I've unknowingly done that, or not.

I've had harm-ocd since about 1974.

I still get intrusive harm thoughts, but it's very rare that they bother me, at least the more outrageous intentional harm thoughts. Accidental harm.... It's a sliding scale for me. Committing murder is fairly Out There. Inadvertently running over a pedestrian is not so preposterous, so it has the potential of getting thru my defenses.

I still get intentional harm thoughts, but as Ot said, I own it. The thoughts come, and then they go. And I am not perturbed. They're just thoughts. They only have power if I let them.

If I wasn't also ADD and inattentive, I probably wouldn't worry as much about accidental harm as I do.

Interesting, so, do you mean to say you kind of got out of it bu accident or with your own form of therapy?
From what you're saying, it seems You utilised CBT methods when you talk about letting the thoughts come and go and accepting that.

Thanks allot for the reply.

-- Mon Nov 09, 2015 3:45 pm --

BornWarrantyVoid wrote:I've done it. Albeit through a twisted method at first, but eventually finding the root. A key to therapy is talk about & finding the root of what causes your ills, coming to accept & "settle" it in a way. If you can do this in your head, then it works just as well.

Interesting, so are you free from OCD now from doing this? Obviously I know the thoughts will always come, but so that they're not ruining your life now?

LL96 wrote:
Interesting, so are you free from OCD now from doing this? Obviously I know the thoughts will always come, but so that they're not ruining your life now?

Not entirely I suppose, but my OCD habits don't control me anymore; I control them. I became more mindful of my compulsions & do have to put myself in check on occasion, but one thing that helped was conditioning myself to use my obsessiveness in more healthy productive manners like finishing a project.

A big thing that helped when I recognized I was being OC; I accepted it & instead of getting angry at myself, I light heartily laugh at myself in a way.

Idk. Just got tired of worrying I was going to kill my partner I guess. Hadn't killed nobody yet so I made the decision to stop letting the thoughts scare me. They mostly don't scare me, now, and I keep the anxiety tightly controlled. It's about the only anxiety I have control over. But I do. The frequency and intensity of intentional harm thoughts are much decreased as a result. Still get the thoughts but I've accepted I'll always have them. The fact I can post on here about it is quite something. Used to be I could never acknowledge I had harm ocd.

Accidental harm is another thing. I'm working on that, now, but it's very hard to not drive back to check on invisible pedestrians.

LL96 wrote:Thanks for the post, that's interesting.

That did pass through my mind. I mean, surely everything these people on YouTube like Marc are saying is essentially what the therapists tell you anyway?

What do you mean by own it? Come to realisation you have it, or?

Also, what sort of meds? Like anxiety tablets? That kind of thing?


Thanks again

Owning it, means to accept that you have a problem and it needs to be worked on.

And yes, anti-anxiety meds.

It seems allot of you have almost inadvertently got through this then.
Well done to you, all, anyway.

Otter, are there any side effects with the meds?

LL96 wrote:Otter, are there any side effects with the meds?

Yes, but it is different for each person. You should talk about it with your doctor. For me, there was a decrease in sexual desire. But this went away after a while. The effectiveness of anxiety meds is also different for everyone.

For me it was a life saver. I had severe OCD issues. In a matter of weeks it cut down my symptoms by 70%. It was like living in a new world.