Distraction not recommended for dealing with OCD

[Natureloverpeace]

Sometimes well-intentioned people suggest using distraction to deal with OCD but OCD experts don’t recommend it. It brings short-term relief, just like any compulsion does, but it ends up feeding the OCD cycle. Doing things to directly reduce the distress from OCD reinforces the OCD cycle because it teaches us that we can’t tolerate the distress and uncertainty from intrusive thoughts. We get the short-term relief and since we got it, we end up seeking it again. Compulsions, including distraction, provide very temporary relief but then we end up turning to compulsions again and again. It’s never enough. Compulsions are a quick fix but they aren’t effective for the long-term. They can’t satisfy the “need” for certainty. Accepting uncertainty is vital for effective OCD management.

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I literally just watched a video on this topic last night, and, you're 100% right. Uncertainty is the uncomfortable answer.

I'm terrified of some of the treatments I'm going to do like uncertainty. But, it's necessary.

Thanks for sharing!

[Cherryfizz34]

Is this like the need to confront someone (compulsion)

[Mcfly64]

100 percent correct

[Mlk307]

So many times experts told us things that turned out that they were wrong. There is no better expert in this life than people who suffer really! How do they know what we live deep down , what about an expert called Jeffrey Schwartz who developed the time delay before performing compulsions? He says do anything pleasant before performing the traditional ritual, so this expert is saying the complete opposite than others and yet it works.

[Existing in reply to Mlk307]

What an interesting coincidence. I don't have OCD, but I've been experiencing some things that feel more like it than my depression or PTSD. So, I just searched OCD on here and came across your post. What I know about OCD and Tourette Syndrome beyond basic psych texts, comes from working in a lab in and after college that had several projects and focuses of various mental health conditions, a few on OCD and Tourettes, and Jeffrey Schwarz was involved as this was his field, but also because and my boss were good friends. So, I've met him, although I was focused more on schizophrenia and depression, so I didn't know much about what they were researching. But that was a top lab at Uc San Diego, and Schwartz was out of UCLA, and I believe he was also one of the grad students doctor for his Tourettes. My point is I never picked up anything from any of the professionals I met in any field who were not among the best and brightest. In addition, they were truly sincere about what they were doing to try to help people.Schwarz has been around for years, since that was early 90s I'm talking about.

So, don't know exactly what you were referring to, but I would say he knows his stuff, and I would trust him.

Hope that helps.

[Natureloverpeace in reply to Existing]

What I am referring to is how distraction can be used as a compulsion and how it feeds the OCD cycle. Jeffrey Schwartz’s book, Brain Lock was one of the first books to come out on OCD. He has made important contributions to the field but the knowledge on OCD has grown a lot since then.

[Mlk307]

Probably knowlege have improved a lot. May be to much knowlege is the problem ? It is what you do that count in therapy. Should I wait 300 years from now to feel better because we would understand really the origin? How about people who lived 2 Centuries before? They certainly had less knowledge but more force and conviction to face the Monster.