When we get into the rationalization of all compulsions, you will observe that the methodology for dealing with all of them is almost the same. Why, you would ask. If you observe how your ROCD works...
There seems to be a common misconception among people that they would be expected to stop everything all at once. Some people come for therapy with a feeling of hopelessness and claim that they have...
You would have experienced the following three states from time to time: Anxiety without intrusive thoughts about your relationship Intrusive thoughts without any accompanying anxiety. Anxiety with...
Most times, an ROCD attack is not a simple attack. ROCD attacks in various layers, at various levels. When you first learn to use the principles of ERP to deal with your ROCD, you expect that if you...
Before your ROCD is diagnosed, you may have already begun to do some compulsions even if not too many or too severe - such as avoidance or distraction. But in the beginning, what seemed like a...
When you have an obsession about whether your partner is right for you or not, or whether your partner loves you enough or not, you inadvertently find yourself engaging in a debate. The question...
Think back to when you have had a baseless, futile argument with someone. Who wins a baseless argument? The person who doesn’t listen to the other side. The person who does listen to the other gets...
In this chapter, we shall understand the concept of agreeing without accepting. We start off by reiterating that Kay is a liar. Kay is not interested in making you feel better. Kay is only...
We often say I got triggered by this or I got triggered by that. But what actually are triggers? Triggers in ROCD are those events that bring about obsessions, which in turn lead to compulsions and...
Obsessions are thoughts that cause anxiety, are intrusive and disturbing (Goodman et al., 2014). Obsessions in ROCD may take many forms. They may take the form of a thought. Thoughts could be in the...
What do you do when the obsessions seem real? According to the metacognitive model (Myers & Wells, 2005), people suffering from mental disorders like OCD consider having the thoughts as being...
We do not need to solve all the doubts our ROCD throws at us. But it seems like the mind will not find relief until we do. There is intolerance of uncertainty which could be both prospective (I...
Sometimes despite being told that our thoughts are untrue, we keep seeing evidence of our fears coming true. When you think that your partner has stopped loving you, you will begin to notice how her...
A self-fulfilling prophecy is the phenomenon where someone 'predicts' something bad, and ironically the person's behavior to prevent the bad from happening results in causing the bad to happen,...
Being attracted to others is okay. We do not have to be attracted only to our partners. We also do not have to be always attracted to them. Let us see why. We shall take the example of a cisgender...
Often when people are asked to rate the levels of anxiety that their obsessive thoughts may cause them, they may be unable to assign a number. The anxiety may feel too high and it may be difficult...
Let us now see what kind of compulsions there could be in ROCD and how to identify your compulsions. Compulsions are actions (either physical or mental) that you may engage in to deal with the...
In this chapter, we shall further understand the importance of acceptance and mindfulness in your recovery journey. Sometimes you may think that your compulsions come without obsessions. Sometimes,...
Let us now look at a peculiarity unique to ROCD. OCD itself is difficult to understand. Recovery is so nuanced that sometimes people may know what is to be done, but not how or when. The same act...
The anxiety hierarchy is one of the most important worksheets you will fill in your recovery journey. An anxiety hierarchy is a list of all anxiety provoking stimuli arranged from the least anxiety...