Certainty v.s Uncertainty Within OCD.
Acceptance of the Uncertainty:
Aspects of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that cause such distress involves uncertainty and doubts. OCD loves to make a person search for 100% certainty. That person may engage in compulsions as a response to that urge, feeding OCD with each compulsion. We tend to see that getting 100% uncertainty is an impossible standard to meet. As far as we know, we are 100% certain we will all die at some point in life, but how many other things do we concretely have 100% certainty for? If we are trying to win a fight that is unwinnable, we can only expect further distress to follow. Perhaps we can learn how to take ourselves out of that fight before it even begins.
While OCD tries to make us feel uncomfortable because things are uncertain; in treatment we will look at taking the fear and power away from OCD. To come to learn and accept that it is possible to deal with uncertainty without compulsions. We live a pretty uncertain life, yet OCD tends to make us obsess over a few specific parts of uncertainty in order to get us to engage in a compulsion. Acceptance of that uncertainty tends to take away the fear and distress.
In counseling, we will look to address a few areas of uncertainty:
Learning how to not avoid uncertainty.
Staying in the present moment.
Learning to be more mindful.
Not getting involved in the fight with our thoughts or emotions.
Living a life more in line with your values.
It is easy to attribute meaning to all of our thoughts and emotions. A person with OCD tends to attribute a great deal of meaning to their thoughts; so when something intrusive comes in, distress tends to follow. OCD is like a broken fire alarm, trying to get us to react to all the noise when there might not be any actual fire. In therapy, you will learn that you can control your reactions to thoughts and emotions. That you do not need to engage in compulsions as a response to those things. Resisting the compulsions helps starve OCD of power and puts you back in the drivers seat. Just because a thought pops into our head, doesn’t mean we need to react to it or believe it.
Therapy will show you that decisions can be made based on information that is present to you currently. Sure you might feel uncertain still about making that choice, it is OK to feel uncertain. We can learn acceptance towards decisions and thoughts changing in the future as we learn and gain new information. But we do not need 100% certainty to make choices or decisions. That pressure brings on unrealistic expectations and beliefs, leaving us more likely to engage in a compulsion.
Treatment for OCD:
Treatment for all forms of OCD is the gold standard of treatment, exposure and response prevention (ERP). Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) looks at the idea that triggering situations and thoughts are at the core of OCD. Ongoing exposure to these triggers without engagement in rituals can reduce the severity felt. As a licensed mental health therapist trained in ERP, I will assist you through the exposures and how to implement effective response prevention measures. If you feel that OCD has had a negative impact on your life, you might consider counseling and ERP to learn how to handle it more effectively. Please feel free to reach out for a free consultation, where we can discuss the impacts of OCD and benefits of counseling/ERP.
