Can anybody recommend a wash basket?

[phil06]

It’s difficult as each day it’s something new tonight I became obsessed with the hotel in stay at next week. The toilet is outside the shower room so I worry I won’t be able to wipe my backside before I shower so I was worried I had to cancel the hotel. When I get all worried like this I fall asleep and my head finds lose ends and I think about the bin germs from the bush and how they will follow me to the hotel. Course that’s not true but it shows the level of over thinking I am doing. My ocd is in hyper drive right now.

I don’t think further CBT will help. I think perhaps my anxiety is quite high and that’s whats keeping my ocd being so bad? I am in beta blockers which sometimes helps my anxiety. It’s not unusual I wake up after weird thinking patterns and come up with lots of rubbish in my head.

Course i take responsibility for not doing more to help myself I can be lazy. I can see how the ocd gets worse. The avoidance becomes greater. I have had lots of advice like doing exposure therapy and so on. Sometimes it works touching the item other times it makes my anxiety greater. So yes what can I say I believe I am stuck in obessive ways but I think there’s alot of anxiety going on perhaps I need to use ways to treat the anxiety rather than exposure when I find that doesn’t work well?

[phil06]

If you do then you need to define why & when. I personally don't want to see a culture of blocking people off because certain other people on NMP don't like to see their posts. We've been through all this so many times on here and with some it has got to the point of calls for bans and I don't believe it is always about the person's health and more about certain people not liking certain things as can be seen with arguments like "for the good of the forum" which just reminds me of "think of the children".

Simple. Don't post. Let those who want to, do.

Reassurance is certainly an issue but change how you reply. Replying is not just feeding something, unless everyone thinks every doctor and therapist is also an enabler?

You may also want to think about deleting, or rather censoring, the replies of others. It could isolate the OP and it will likely annoy the person taking their time to help too.

Yes I would rather have posts from people who have time to help I don’t want to annoy anybody. I quit forums and it made me feel ten times worse. I still feel the guilt of how I left the ocd forums and returned

[phil06]

OK, to be fair phil you are doing some things e.g. you cut the bush when you could have not, you stopped getting out of the shower to wash, etc. But there is a lot more you need to do and keep doing it. I feel you are just bouncing around with now plan. Firefighting doesn't work.

You have books, have a read of them. Why buy more when you already likely have much of the self help there is? A large number of the self help market books are rehashes of everything that came before. I saw one just the other day in Tesco, an ex sufferers book, and what sprang to my mind was he was in the media already so can churn out a rehash of a million books that came before him. Why feed their pockets, it ended years ago when the likes of Paul David published. Much if Claire Weekes is all anyone needs although with OCD things have moved on and there are other things to try too.

CBT has it's forms but you don't need 100 different books to explain that, much of which is free online anyway. If it's a different CBT form (e.g. ACT) then obviously you need to purchase it but otherwise there may be little difference.

I have always believed anyone who buys book after book is searching for cures. Commit to one.

Well yes I mean I took the advice and cut the bush. I often say I have taken advice but it opens a box of more ocd worries that’s what is stopping me doing exposure. If people can see how if more stuff becomes contaminated in my head they could see it opens a box of more worries.

I have read Claire weeks but I will be honest and say I don’t own any book for ocd right now anything I did was digital I purchased on my phone. Often with phones you lose stuff and it gets muddled up. Often you can’t a proper book. I am sure I have an ocd book somewhere which was good but I will have to look it out. After i moved house last year stuff became lost.

So yes what’s the advice I do something like cut the bush and worry about the dirt it’s like I can’t win? The box of worries keeps opening

[phil06]

In terms of forum posting I at one stage was posting on 5/6 forums but I am only using these forums so I feel my forum use is under more control as I don’t require as much advice over all

[MyNameIsTerry]

Well yes I mean I took the advice and cut the bush. I often say I have taken advice but it opens a box of more ocd worries that’s what is stopping me doing exposure. If people can see how if more stuff becomes contaminated in my head they could see it opens a box of more worries.

I have read Claire weeks but I will be honest and say I don’t own any book for ocd right now anything I did was digital I purchased on my phone. Often with phones you lose stuff and it gets muddled up. Often you can’t a proper book. I am sure I have an ocd book somewhere which was good but I will have to look it out. After i moved house last year stuff became lost.

So yes what’s the advice I do something like cut the bush and worry about the dirt it’s like I can’t win? The box of worries keeps opening

In my opinion Weekes isn't the best for OCD. I'll admit I haven't read her books but I have read things she has said about OCD in the media and found some ignorant which will be because they knew less back then and later on Weekes would have updated her work. We have to bare in mind understanding of the brain has moved on. But at the same time I also know Weekes was more putting a roadmap together and a lot of what she says has always been conventional wisdom (and lets not forget even CBT has it's roots in antiquity). That makes it very relevant today. (I can also remember seeing her on Pebble Mill when I was a child!) Asking my dad about how he treated his depression, pre Weekes era, and he said a lot of what she said. So, it can work and I expect others on here who likes Weekes could explain how with their modern understanding of OCD.

Exposure is supposed to make you feel worse. That's part of what it is for. It is to make you feel bad so the more you stay in it, and practice it, the more your brain realises nothing bad happened. The problem is it doesn't always work to that graph they show us and you can end up worse for days like you can from any trigger. But what is the alternative to facing fear? And doesn't that only make them fears that the subconscious thinks are rational and required?

Exposure also requires a plan. It's not just go & do it. That's the old way of exposure therapy, and it was usually the worst of your fears to create maximum effect, and isn't as successful as working through a list of goals. This is what your therapist should have been helping you construct. The bush won't cure you, well maybe a burning one would , it will just stop you avoiding more & more. However, to get better you have to work on confronted fears in a ladder approach when it comes to exposure and this means months and more of practicing it.

This is where we are saying you want find much success because you aren't keeping the challenging going.

That's just exposure, there are many ways and you have to find what works. Certainly exposure alone isn't as powerful as combining techniques from something like CBT. And I would be wary of saying you have had CBT because I had it too and from reading about it realised I had hardly any of it.

There is nothing wrong with purchasing an OCD book then. I thought you had one. They have them in the library. The NHS book list is available at libraries (might differ in Scotland) as we can get book prescriptions. Have a look at the NHS book list, I think it will likely be somebody like David Veale you will come across or maybe Salkovskis.

[Carys]

If you do then you need to define why & when. I personally don't want to see a culture of blocking people off because certain other people on NMP don't like to see their posts. We've been through all this so many times on here and with some it has got to the point of calls for bans and I don't believe it is always about the person's health and more about certain people not liking certain things as can be seen with arguments like "for the good of the forum" which just reminds me of "think of the children".

Simple. Don't post. Let those who want to, do.

Reassurance is certainly an issue but change how you reply. Replying is not just feeding something, unless everyone thinks every doctor and therapist is also an enabler?

You may also want to think about deleting, or rather censoring, the replies of others. It could isolate the OP and it will likely annoy the person taking their time to help too.

I agree entirely, as much as Phil drives me absolutely potty with his repetitive documenting posts, his seeming inability to take any action or follow any advice, his inability to use any techniques and circles of constant repetition - being on 'frustration level 100' (lol) it is easy to see why people, and myself, become cross. However, it is a slippery slope to start deciding who can and who can't post on this forum. Maybe documenting his thoughts processes helps him to stay calmer and avoids complete crisis point, in which case simply cutting off his replies and ability to post would be hugely damaging. Cutting off serial posters is a lame response to 'finding them too hard to deal with/too hard to understand/annoying'. We aren't mental health professionals and we aren't here to form judgements, or to presume that we know what is driving their posting style (I know sometimes I lose the plot too, its human to do so). We may think we know the problem, we may think this will help or that will help, we may think that this will cure things by simply cutting off the posting - it won't and we can't presume that we know Phil's full diagnoses in terms of his mental health. Its not black and white, and it isn't for other serial posters, they will find somewhere else to post on the WWW and at least here they are 'safe' and getting support and advice, however long it takes for them to deal with things....is as long as it takes.

[Fishmanpa]

perhaps I need to use ways to treat the anxiety rather than exposure when I find that doesn’t work well?

Again.... use a period at the end of the sentence to make it statement as opposed to a reassurance seeking question. It's a small thing and you may feel it's petty but psychologically it's huge. It puts the decision on you and you already know the answer anyway

Positive thoughts

[phil06]

I am stressed again today another situation my partner put some rubbish in the bin where the toilet plunger is and there was clean washing outside now it wasn’t touching but I don’t like rubbish going out when there is washing out. My ocd will tell me the clothes dryer and clothes are dirty if I use a clean towel all I will see in my head is green bin germs. This is the problem with my ocd I am obsessed by the green bin due to the toilet germs people might think it’s easy just to forget these worries but I fear I will be covered in green bin germs despite being close. I mean I went and stood by the green bin to see it wasn’t close so technically my clothes would also be contaminated but my ocd doesn’t think that’s the case only the clothes on the airier?

How can I be sure I don’t need to replace the clothes airer I don’t wanna tumble dry the clothes from the line or put them away and have worse ocd that the drawers or tumble dryer need replacing? I am annoyed as this never usually happens but the bin sitting there doesn’t trouble me with clean clothes but opening the bin lid is what is causing the anxiety as I fear the germs will be near the clothes even if they are not? Will the ocd win or can I avoid replacing?

[Fishmanpa]

I mean I went and stood by the green bin to see it wasn’t close so technically my clothes would also be contaminated but my ocd doesn’t think that’s the case only the clothes on the airier.

I don’t need to replace the clothes airer I don’t wanna tumble dry the clothes from the line or put them away and have worse ocd that the drawers or tumble dryer need replacing.

I am annoyed as this never usually happens but the bin sitting there doesn’t trouble me with clean clothes but opening the bin lid is what is causing the anxiety as I fear the germs will be near the clothes even if they are not.

The ocd will win if can't avoid replacing.

Positive thoughts

[pulisa]

Do you understand what we are asking you to try, Phil? I realise it will be difficult for you to modify your style of posting on here after all these years of unresolved questions and little take-up of advice offered.

Could you accept/tolerate this idea? Countless questions thrown out randomly are pretty pointless and suggest someone who is in denial about taking responsibility for their mental health. Stating facts and facing up to the extent of your OCD without seeking reassurance may be a way for you to feel more in control and responsible for how you approach and manage your condition.

But this may not be a technique you wish to attempt. (No question mark needed)