Going Backwards In Your OCD Recovery?

03:52

Going Backwards In Your OCD Recovery?

by Dr Liz White

Rated

5

Type

talks

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Beginners

Plays

11

When OCD thoughts, anxiety or compulsions return after a period of feeling better, it can leave you wondering whether you're losing all the progress you've made. In bitesize video, Dr Liz White, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, explores why OCD flare-ups can feel so frightening, how the meaning we attach to them can deepen our distress, and how to find a kinder perspective on the ups and downs of recovery. Disclaimer: This recording is for general educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute psychological therapy, clinical assessment or individual advice, and is not a substitute for professional mental health support.

Ocd Recovery Emotional Resilience Psychology Anxiety Mental Health Ocd Management

Meet your Teacher

London, UK

Meet your Teacher

London, UK

Transcript

You're doing better. Life has become easier. And then suddenly you start experiencing OCD thoughts, Doubts, And compulsions, All of which you thought you'd left behind you. And it feels as though all your progress has just disappeared. I'm Dr Liz White, A consultant clinical psychologist and I specialize in OCD. Now there is something particularly painful about an OCD flare-up when things have been going well and it's not just that the anxiety and the compulsions and the thoughts have returned, It's what all of that means. What if I'm going back into that horrible period in my life again? And there can be a huge amount of fear contained within that one question. Because you remember what that period cost you. The hours lost to compulsions and rumination. How difficult it was to concentrate on anything else. How small your life had begun to feel. And now something about the way that you're feeling feels horribly familiar. Perhaps an intrusive thought has become quite sticky again. Perhaps you've asked for reassurance after months of not needing to do that. Or maybe you've just spent hours reviewing something in your mind even though you know that that doesn't help. It can feel as though the distance that you created between that period in your life where OCD was showing up and your life now has suddenly just disappeared. And sometimes it can feel like you've failed. Failed to stay recovered. Failed to use the strategies that you learn in therapy. Perhaps you feel like you've failed the people that you love because once again you are being pulled into those compulsions that really put a strain on your relationships. And sometimes there's even grief because you had started to trust life could be different. Perhaps you'd begun doing things more freely, Making plans or feeling more like yourself and it can feel as though all of that hard work that you put in to your recovery has just been taken away. So you feel like you're going backwards but I think the going backwards idea can Paint a bit of a misleading picture of recovery as though recovery is this straight road and that every difficult day moves you further back towards the beginning. But recovery rarely works like that. Just because you are caught in an old familiar OCD pattern doesn't mean that you are going back to how you were. You can do a compulsion and still have all the experience that you gained from the times that you responded differently. Sometimes what you've learned just feels harder to reach. It can be a little like knowing a path well but not being able to see it because there's such thick fog. You may need to move more slowly. You may doubt where you are or take a wrong turn before something starts to feel familiar again. But you haven't returned to the place where you first began and that is the crucial point. A flare-up can disrupt your life and shake your confidence. No one's denying that. You may need to return to things that helped before, Possibly with support, And begin practicing the strategies and the tools that you learned the first time around. So this isn't about pretending that the flare-up doesn't matter, Or trying to force yourself to feel fakely positive about it. It's about remembering that struggling again and starting again are not the same thing. And I hope this video has helped.