frosty4
02-14-2005, 04:54 PM
HI! Has anyone done or (doing) the Four Steps from "Brain Lock". Wow, it really sounds hopefull! I really think Behavior therapy is the only way to truly end this disease. Well I have been doing them (4 steps) for about a week and I feel really crazy with my obsessional thoughts (pure O). I basically have not been ruminating on them. I know the obsessions get worse at first and then fade, but does anyone know when they start to fade. I am not practicing the 15 minute rule, so I guess you can say I am quitting the compulsions cold turkey. One thing that is hard is that my obsessions/compulsions are about reality, my identity, senses, etc so I basically have quit reassuring myself about it! I just feel so crazy, when will it end.
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frosty4
02-15-2005, 07:09 PM
:confused: :D
frosty4
02-18-2005, 05:37 PM
help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Blue102
02-22-2005, 10:48 AM
I dunno, but I'm going to look up that Brain Lock thing and see if it works! Sorry I can't help... :)
PS. Amazon has some reviews on it, and they look positive....
PS. Amazon has some reviews on it, and they look positive....
hosein
02-27-2005, 08:40 PM
Hi, I think I have the same type of obcession! It is reassuring the reality, reality of me and the world around me! It may seem crazy, but it is what I think. As I am done with the process and that all is as it should be, then the obcession starts again! Sometimes when I say: this is just OCD and all is fine, it aleviates a little but still it is there afterwards. Are you experiencing the same/
frosty4
02-28-2005, 06:08 AM
Yes, sounds familiar! We have to remember and believe its just ocd and move on... Its hard and I feel for you. Were you always an analytical thinker? My brain wants to figure everything out... I have to reasure myself (ocd) by recalling memories, then I will think "do I remember this, how do we remember, how do we think...ahhh" The worst feeling is this empty feeling where I feel like a stranger to myself, as if I am unfamiliar with myself... It is very disturbing.
hosein
06-02-2005, 04:58 PM
Hi frosty4, Thanks for the reply. I exactly understand you. It is very disturbing when as example I shold be happy in an occasion, thinking what is this feeling-happy mechanism? Who is me that is happy or .... a lot of other thoughts. Sometimes, I say, OK, I do not know and need not to know all, and the way I think is NOT realistic, but this by itself is also something that needs its own analysis!!!!
I do know that this is not natural, (what is natural though) and the reason is that I do not feel good (accepting that feeling good is good without any reasoning!) when disturbed by these thoughts, however, they are there!
Sometimes I try to remember my childhood that all was normal without any reasoning analysis, etc, still it does not help.
Sometimes, I reason for myself that this way of thinking (analytical, proving etc.) maybe just good for materialistic stuff such as Physics, etc., but not for the human being nature as it is something superior and not governed by the same laws (I mean the same world, or say same existance-nature) and it is a mistake to try applying this analytical thinking to that.
Also, to analyze myself (again analysis) I think that implicitly I am somehow trying to convince myself that I am in a safe state of existance (strage!)(because of past feeling of being unsafe, when confronted by other schools of thought which directly touched my basic beliefs and the way I looked at the world or to be general, the whole existance) So, if I get a little bit of something that people call "enlightment", meaning to see and feel the real world (as people meditating claim to experience that) it may help a lot to correct the way of thinking. I mean: a sense of peacefulness will overwrite thos obsessive thought.
Thaks for posting and I love to hear more. It helps a lot to know that I am not alone in my world! By the way to give you a little information on myself, I have been studying all kinds of philosophy, mystic, books and anything related to religious, spiritual stuff since I was 18 (for close to 25 years, being 43 now).
Thanks a lot.
I do know that this is not natural, (what is natural though) and the reason is that I do not feel good (accepting that feeling good is good without any reasoning!) when disturbed by these thoughts, however, they are there!
Sometimes I try to remember my childhood that all was normal without any reasoning analysis, etc, still it does not help.
Sometimes, I reason for myself that this way of thinking (analytical, proving etc.) maybe just good for materialistic stuff such as Physics, etc., but not for the human being nature as it is something superior and not governed by the same laws (I mean the same world, or say same existance-nature) and it is a mistake to try applying this analytical thinking to that.
Also, to analyze myself (again analysis) I think that implicitly I am somehow trying to convince myself that I am in a safe state of existance (strage!)(because of past feeling of being unsafe, when confronted by other schools of thought which directly touched my basic beliefs and the way I looked at the world or to be general, the whole existance) So, if I get a little bit of something that people call "enlightment", meaning to see and feel the real world (as people meditating claim to experience that) it may help a lot to correct the way of thinking. I mean: a sense of peacefulness will overwrite thos obsessive thought.
Thaks for posting and I love to hear more. It helps a lot to know that I am not alone in my world! By the way to give you a little information on myself, I have been studying all kinds of philosophy, mystic, books and anything related to religious, spiritual stuff since I was 18 (for close to 25 years, being 43 now).
Thanks a lot.
Musical_Muse
10-30-2005, 09:19 PM
Hi Frosty and Hosein! :wave:
Just to share a bit about myself:
I don't so much have known obsessions, as I do compulsions. When I was little, I used to have this compulsion to feel "balanced" so I would touch things with one finger (one side of my body) the same number of times that I would touch it with same finger (it had to be the same finger) on the other side of my body. This behavior was prominent when I was about 4 or 5 years old (at one point, I scraped my finger against the seat belt of my dad's car, and I intentionally scraped the seat belt against the same finger on my other hand!! :eek: ), and I continued with it until I was about 13 or 14 years old. In the middle of this time period, I began feeling compelled to count a certain number of squares of toilet paper out each time I used the bathroom. Other little rituals like these cropped up here and there, but they never really detracted from my productivity, even though they bothered/annoyed/frustrated/worried me endlessly. I remember one particular behavior that others did know about that frustrated me: When I was learning to write (in preschool/kindergarten), I would sometimes erase holes in my papers at times when the letters/words that I wrote didn't look "just right" to me. My kindergarten/preschool teacher became a little concerned when I would readjust objects that I had glued on the paper for several minutes on end, as others moved on to the next page. I would complain that it didn't "look right" as it did not fit in the lines properly. My mom wrote it off as perfectionism, which runs in my family, as she and my teacher knew that I learned well and quickly. For most of my life, I have hid these behaviors as much as possible, as I know these behaviors are weird.
These days, at 26 years old, I still have one or two of these behaviors that manifest themselves every now and again. One of them, which is EXTREMELY troubling and I have been doing since I was very little, is that I pull out strands of my scalp hair. I HATE (!!) this, as I love my hair dearly, and I want to have beautiful hair. My hair looks pretty good, but I have been pulling my hair a lot more recently. I think it may be due to drinking more caffeine and not getting as much rest as I need.
I have borrowed the book Brain Lock from the library, and I have glanced through it. I think that it will prove to be an excellent read, as its approach to dealing with these OCD behaviors is behavioral--something that I have had some experience with while dealing with my mild bouts of depression.
I will definately tell you what I think of the book once I have finished reading it. If I don't post within a reasonable amount of time (which is only one or two weeks for me), please post a response so that this discussion will be moved up to the top of the list :) .
Take Care and Take it Easy on Yourselves :wave:
~Colleen
P.S. I am also a thinker--a teacher of mine called me this at one point :p --so I tend to think deeply, as well as analyze, everything around me. I LOVE philosophical discussions about the universe, nature and religious perspectives (like Hosein, I am also into New Age/Wiccan/Buddhist trains of thought). I love to reflect on ideas and life, and I am very into learning new things and new ways of looking at things.
Just to share a bit about myself:
I don't so much have known obsessions, as I do compulsions. When I was little, I used to have this compulsion to feel "balanced" so I would touch things with one finger (one side of my body) the same number of times that I would touch it with same finger (it had to be the same finger) on the other side of my body. This behavior was prominent when I was about 4 or 5 years old (at one point, I scraped my finger against the seat belt of my dad's car, and I intentionally scraped the seat belt against the same finger on my other hand!! :eek: ), and I continued with it until I was about 13 or 14 years old. In the middle of this time period, I began feeling compelled to count a certain number of squares of toilet paper out each time I used the bathroom. Other little rituals like these cropped up here and there, but they never really detracted from my productivity, even though they bothered/annoyed/frustrated/worried me endlessly. I remember one particular behavior that others did know about that frustrated me: When I was learning to write (in preschool/kindergarten), I would sometimes erase holes in my papers at times when the letters/words that I wrote didn't look "just right" to me. My kindergarten/preschool teacher became a little concerned when I would readjust objects that I had glued on the paper for several minutes on end, as others moved on to the next page. I would complain that it didn't "look right" as it did not fit in the lines properly. My mom wrote it off as perfectionism, which runs in my family, as she and my teacher knew that I learned well and quickly. For most of my life, I have hid these behaviors as much as possible, as I know these behaviors are weird.
These days, at 26 years old, I still have one or two of these behaviors that manifest themselves every now and again. One of them, which is EXTREMELY troubling and I have been doing since I was very little, is that I pull out strands of my scalp hair. I HATE (!!) this, as I love my hair dearly, and I want to have beautiful hair. My hair looks pretty good, but I have been pulling my hair a lot more recently. I think it may be due to drinking more caffeine and not getting as much rest as I need.
I have borrowed the book Brain Lock from the library, and I have glanced through it. I think that it will prove to be an excellent read, as its approach to dealing with these OCD behaviors is behavioral--something that I have had some experience with while dealing with my mild bouts of depression.
I will definately tell you what I think of the book once I have finished reading it. If I don't post within a reasonable amount of time (which is only one or two weeks for me), please post a response so that this discussion will be moved up to the top of the list :) .
Take Care and Take it Easy on Yourselves :wave:
~Colleen
P.S. I am also a thinker--a teacher of mine called me this at one point :p --so I tend to think deeply, as well as analyze, everything around me. I LOVE philosophical discussions about the universe, nature and religious perspectives (like Hosein, I am also into New Age/Wiccan/Buddhist trains of thought). I love to reflect on ideas and life, and I am very into learning new things and new ways of looking at things.