Reddit reviews Freedom from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: A Personalized Recovery Program for Living with Uncertainty

I can’t tell if this is serious or not but as someone who suffers OCD and is a Christian and former catholic I would say this is seeking assurance and would only make matters worse.

u/thowawaythract what you are describing is 100% without a doubt OCD. But me saying that won’t give you 100% certainty, will it? ;) I’d recommend anyone with ocd to read Jonathan Grayson’s book it helped me a lot. https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder-Personalized/dp/042519955X.

definitely don’t feel bad being around this
Knife. In fact exposure therapy would say the best way to beat this is to be in the room or touch the knife to induce anxiety as part of exposure therapy. I would definitely recommend you see someone who specializes in exposure therapy for ocd. I go twice a week and it helps with my various obsessions. At least read that book to start. You can beat this!! I promise!

Things can also progress from small seemingly innocuous things to severe debilitating obsessions and compulsions. I used to have small compulsions like you, I used to move the mouse clockwise around the edge of the screen until it felt even, only then could I make a click. Also used to have a small need to wash my hands. One day, out of the blue, BAM, I have full on severe OCD. No other warning signs or anything. I've since gotten help and through therapy have been able to get most of the symptoms to subside.

My sugestion to you would be to nip it in the bud as soon as possible. Pick up this book and readup on the subject. Also try to fight your compulsions. Walk around feeling "unbalanced" as long as possible. Realize that the anxiety will subside but you have to fight through it. Be conscious of it and what it is doing to your body, ie increased heat rate, feeling of being locked in/can't move, really key into this. But most of all you need to force yourself to be unbalanced.

At any time if things are too difficult seek professional help sooner than later. I realize there is a huge stigma about seeing a therapist, I avoided it myself, but it really is the best thing I ever did. If you do decide to seek professional help ask the office if they do CBT with ERP (cognative behavior therapy with Exposure response prevention). If they don't know what you mean, hang up and try the next one. ERP is the best known way to treat OCD. Therapists that specialize in other things will probably just put you on meds and try to "fix" anxiety from another angle.

I do suggest trying to see a therapist, but if you can't which I'm aware a lot of people have that issue, then I would get yourself a book,

http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder-Personalized/dp/042519955X

This book literally helped change my outlook towards OCD. a lot of what we deal with is feared consequences.

What would happen if you called 911, how would people view you, etc...The OCD is like a bully, and once that bully finds a weakness it keeps going back to it.

Also I do know know a lot of times you can feel alone, just remember that you're not, there are tons of us dealing with OCD, and Intrusive thoughts. Start doing homework and learn to become the bully and help yourself! You're strong! You can be the bully

This book is really helpful for exposures: https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder-Personalized/dp/042519955X

It has scripts that you can use and helps you to understand how to do exposures for pure-O.

Check here to see if anyone in your area is listed: https://iocdf.org/find-help/

If you can't find anyone local, there are a few OCD therapists who will also do sessions over Skype, which can work just as well - especially if they help outline a plan that you can stick to on your own time. I also recommend Dr. Grayson's book, Freedom from OCD (https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder-Personalized/dp/042519955X).

My last bit of advice, there are a lot of therapists who claim they know how to treat OCD as it technically used to fall under anxiety disorders (it's now its own thing in the DSM). If within the first 1-2 sessions they don't use a "Y-BOCS" test to assess you, run away =) they probably don't know what they're doing. It's the standard assessment for severity of OCD.

https://iocdf.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Assessment-Tools.pdf

There are tons of books on OCD. Check out your local library. I have heard great things about thisbook.

Really sorry to hear that. I've been going through a rough patch recently myself. It just feels like no matter how much progress I make, so new issue always comes up and ruins everything. Nevertheless, I have to say, I am much better than I was last year. Like worlds apart. The thing I credit it to is exposure/response prevention therapy and reading thoroughly about OCD. I didn't know about ERP until last year. I saw a therapist but it was just talk-therapy, he didn't really know anything about OCD. It was completely useless. I took medications too and I thought they did absolutely nothing. Surprisingly, I've found the ERP stuff to be very effective. This is the best book on ERP I've have read thus far:
https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder-Personalized/dp/042519955X

I'd check it out. Made a world of difference for me

ACT can be helpful to everyone - regardless of where they are in life. Learning to live a more psychologically flexible, and more meaningful life, is valuable all around.

ACT is often used as a way to "front-load" ERP treatment, since many of the concepts (e.g., making room for the feelings/thoughts/urged that arise, taking valuable actions regardless of how they try to get in the way) lay the ground work for both exposure and response prevention. Within that framework, ERP becomes a tool used to help a person broaden what they are willing to tolerate. That said, it's an incredibly powerful tool. Response prevention - that is, not giving into compulsions - is at the heart of ERP. Whether your therapist is using ACT or ERP, they need to be able to help you identify what your compulsions are, and help you understand how your compulsions may be keeping you stuck. A helpful place to start looking at compulsions is to ask yourself, "what do I do when I feel anxious about these intrusive thoughts? What do I think I need to do to try to get rid of this anxiety?" Compulsions are an attempt to get rid of anxiety. Sometimes the things we do in life to get rid of anxiety are healthy, and positive. But when OCD shows up, differentiating betwen what's a healthy and positive response and what's a compulsive response becomes quite tricky for a person to see through.

As others have pointed out, [Freedom from OCD]
(https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder-Personalized/dp/042519955X) is a great book. Off the top of my head I can't recall if there's a section on scruplosity, but the concepts work the same.

Finally, you mentioned that your therapist is the only one around you who takes insurance. While I don't doubt that's true, depending on your insurance plan, you may be able to still see someone out of network and get reimbursed for it.

m4meredith, This does sound like OCD to me. The constantly checking things and tapping. It sounds like it is affecting your life to a certain degree and starting to get worse?
Depression and stress will fuel your ocd along with lack of sleep and caffeine. I would imagine the lack of sleep may help at the moment but might be fueling this later on. It's similar to someone who may drink for relief of their ocd but the next day that drink may flair things up.
The more you indulge your compulsions the more they will continue to grow down the line. So it's best to cut it off right away before it starts to turn into other things. At least you have the power to stop them, many don't or are working towards that.
To get better from it you need to be active about it.
You might want to look into seeing a family doctor, or a therapist who specializes in ocd.
I would suggest you get some books and read up on ocd so you have a better understanding on how it works.

Here are a few of the most refereed books from r/ocd:
OCD Workbook Breaking Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
http://www.amazon.com/OCD-Workbook-Breaking-Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder/dp/1572249218

Freedom from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: A Personalized Recovery Program for Living with Uncertainty
http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder-Personalized/dp/042519955X/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

*Brain Lock
http://www.amazon.com/Brain-Lock-Yourself-Obsessive-Compulsive-Behavior/dp/0060987111/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332741170&sr=1-1