Overcoming pure O?

What is the actual way to overcome pure O? I feel like all these self help OCD books just throw in so much unnecessary information just to add bulk to their books and sell them. Why don't we have some solid golden rules written out in less than 20 pages on how to overcome a thought problem like overly obsessing about thoughts?

I know theirs tons of different groups of therapies and different techniques and methods but what is the most effective? I know a lot of people just throw in CBT but CBT is so massive and is CBT not just thinking yourself out of a thinking problem to begin with? I know its not just rationalizing thoughts that CBT targets but still its very much based around that. I rationalize and usually looking back it feels that it can become a obsessive inner compulsion instead of actuality helping.

I feel like the soundest way to overcome pure O is the subject of acceptance and observing the thoughts and learning not to react to the thoughts, not to do the compulsions in your head like counting to 10 or thinking of something positive. Realizing that overtime it gets a lot easier because you find out that nothing bad happens, your still YOU no matter what your thoughts are doing and if your using acceptance correctly then it shouldn't be emotionally harming instead it should just be seen as thoughts.

I'm not sure though and I feel a lot of people like myself just hang around in the middle not taking action because their seems to be so many different ways. They try one way for 2 days and think it mustn't be the one for me and then go onto the 67th one and 68th etc. To no avail because their is no persistence and their is no faith in the "method" if you want to call it that is supposedly the answer that every author and blogger and doctor seems to know.

So what is the actual effective way of overcoming pure O?

Try checking out the post stickied at the top of the forum, Pure-O / HOCD, READ ME. It is a very good set of descriptions and advice in my opinion. Other than that, you could look at my post history if you want, b/c I've been in a bunch of discussions about this topic b/c I have suffered from "Pure-O" in the past.

I have always seen CBT as a band-aid, not a real solution by any means (disclaimer: I have never done CBT, but I have a friend that has told me all about their experience with it and they agree).

When I have dealt with OCD, things like work and such would force me to take my mind off the OCD and I felt better for a time, but it would come back with a nasty vengeance.

I think you are right about not reacting to the thoughts. My fears want me to panic. I once feared that someone once knew my "secret" - I had so much fear I felt like I was going to pass out, every though deep down I knew that was ridiculous. I would have fears of the people I was around screaming at me for doing what I did - it was horrible. It was like in the movies where there is a cut scene of what the person is thinking, and then back to the real scene where it isn't really happening.

One thing that really helped me was actually a result of my obsessive checking. I scoured the whole internet for someone who dealt with the closest thing possible to my issue (like hundreds if not thousands of articles and stories). After months, over a year, of scouring I found a woman on yahoo answers who had almost the exact same issue as me. She was panicked just like I was and asked what I feared the worst - am I a horrible person who committed something horrible? From my perspective, as an unbiased reader, I quite readily dismissed her concern as OCD. Even though I couldn't pinpoint how, I just *knew* that she didn't do anything wrong and that she had OCD bigtime. In judging her situation, I was really judging my own situation and finally concluded that for me too it was OCD and not something horrible. So now if OCD tries to creep up, I just remember that woman's story and my conclusion, and I have been fine so far. I haven't been obsessively scouring the internet lately so that is a good sign.

So maybe one thing that would help you is to imagine someone else dealing with the same issue - would you be as hard on them as you are yourself? If you were as hard on them as yourself, would that be reasonable?

Lionchaser wrote:I have always seen CBT as a band-aid, not a real solution by any means (disclaimer: I have never done CBT, but I have a friend that has told me all about their experience with it and they agree).

When I have dealt with OCD, things like work and such would force me to take my mind off the OCD and I felt better for a time, but it would come back with a nasty vengeance.

I think you are right about not reacting to the thoughts. My fears want me to panic. I once feared that someone once knew my "secret" - I had so much fear I felt like I was going to pass out, every though deep down I knew that was ridiculous. I would have fears of the people I was around screaming at me for doing what I did - it was horrible. It was like in the movies where there is a cut scene of what the person is thinking, and then back to the real scene where it isn't really happening.

One thing that really helped me was actually a result of my obsessive checking. I scoured the whole internet for someone who dealt with the closest thing possible to my issue (like hundreds if not thousands of articles and stories). After months, over a year, of scouring I found a woman on yahoo answers who had almost the exact same issue as me. She was panicked just like I was and asked what I feared the worst - am I a horrible person who committed something horrible? From my perspective, as an unbiased reader, I quite readily dismissed her concern as OCD. Even though I couldn't pinpoint how, I just *knew* that she didn't do anything wrong and that she had OCD bigtime. In judging her situation, I was really judging my own situation and finally concluded that for me too it was OCD and not something horrible. So now if OCD tries to creep up, I just remember that woman's story and my conclusion, and I have been fine so far. I haven't been obsessively scouring the internet lately so that is a good sign.

So maybe one thing that would help you is to imagine someone else dealing with the same issue - would you be as hard on them as you are yourself? If you were as hard on them as yourself, would that be reasonable?

Hey man, thanks for the reply. I hope all the best and really really hope you live a great life without OCD, it sounds like your doing great so far so I'm very pleased. You've opened up a whole new perspective of OCD and wow it really blew my mind for a second. I mean looking at problems other people have we can advise and help them on how to overcome them and how they're exaggerating the problem and how it really is not to worry about a lot easier than if we personal suffer from the problem. I've spent a lot of time helping other people, advising other people on Yahoo Answers and in fact I love doing so because its something that feels good and its something which outside views can really help people with. I mean someone without a fear of heights can really help rationalize and help someone with a fear of heights to understand their fear and how to combat it. I rambled on a bit there but the point is I think you've really came up with a brilliant way to tackle pure O and that is looking at it objectively from an outsider view and imagining you've just logged into Yahoo Answers for instance and someones asked this question. I've not done it yet I will do it tomorrow on word, I already feel relief thinking about the question because I know how ridiculous and how I would advise someone with this problem. It makes the whole problem much more realistic and is one hell of a help.

Thank you Lionchaser from the heart.

-- Thu Nov 21, 2013 10:55 pm --

thinking13 wrote:Try checking out the post stickied at the top of the forum, Pure-O / HOCD, READ ME. It is a very good set of descriptions and advice in my opinion. Other than that, you could look at my post history if you want, b/c I've been in a bunch of discussions about this topic b/c I have suffered from "Pure-O" in the past.

Thank you thinking13, I hope everything is good at the present. I'm going to check that post in a moment and your previous history, thanks!

You nailed it.

I spent most my life trying to combat Pure OCD by suppressing and forcing the thoughts away through CBT techniques. This was extremely energy draining and took tremendous effort. I repressed all the thoughts temporarily for them to still be lingering in my subconscious. Instead of letting them arise and not trying to fight them but simply just observe them, I held them against their will inside my subconsciousness and this allowed them to resurface in the future.

As all pure O sufferers know, thoughts course through our mind like a deafening waterfall. Living in the moment (also called mindfulness) is a state of active, open, intentional attention on the present. When you become mindful, you realize that you are not your thoughts. You become an observer of your thoughts from moment to moment without judging them or attaching yourself to them. Mindfulness involves being with your thoughts as they are, neither grasping at them nor pushing them away. Instead of letting your life go by without living it, you awaken to experience.

I sincerely wish more professionals would promote mindfulness to their patients. Nothing has come even remotely close to the benefits mindfulness has had on my pure OCD. Benefits from medication and therapy compared to mindfulness would be like comparing a bucket of sand to a whole beach of sand. This is based on my own personal experience, so please do not stop any medication or therapy. I could have compared it to a grain of sand but I don't want to exaggerate or be unrealistic. A bucket to a beach of sand. Mindfulness was and still is my miracle.