Articles and educational documents by Carol Edwards
Bring out your strengths! Write them down on sticky notes and stick them to your computer, your door, your wall (wherever you like) and remind yourself that you have what it takes to be successful. Get past the negative hurdle about your memory by accepting uncertainty. In other words, ask yourself, what is the likelihood that I have a memory problem? Now scroll down to tip 5 to put uncertainty into perspective!
In public, I unthinkingly cover my ears to drown out sudden noises and will briefly close my eyes to “visual sounds” that make me nauseous (eye-rubbing, nose-wiping, poking ears etc.).
Several things can cause procrastination. These might be fear of failure, boredom, depression or anxiety. A quote by an unknown author is ‘Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.’ The point in all of this is to ask yourself, why am I burying my opportunities? Why do I have a fear of failure? Why am I bored? What’s making me depressed or anxious?
I see fellow students learning things very easily, but me, I seem to have to put a lot of effort into learning things. For example, any concept for me is hard to grasp lately, and I have to study long hours to make learning material clearer. It’s like my memory is failing me. I have OCD, and I’m wondering if this plays a part in the mental blocks I’ve been experiencing.”
Cognitive restructuring helps alter thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and improves insight. Subsequently, agreeing to face obsessions (exposures) and resisting compulsions (response prevention) shows how this active process eventually weakens obsessions, further increasing rational perception.
These illogical thoughts had latched on to what mattered most to John – his morals. Subsequently, and despite the real-event theft situation, he failed to see that his intrusive thoughts were at odds with his true moral values, or at least doubted it. This is an example of what is known as trait-guilt, meaning that the corresponding emotion is rigid. In other words, John’s previous healthy beliefs about himself shifted to thinking instead that he truly was a sinner and a traitor to his religion.
By understanding and using the “early warning system”, a therapist or caregiver can help a teen grasp the difference between feelings and facts and how to determine what it is that caused their mood change in the first place.
One of my exposures was leaving the door unlocked and living with risk; it helped me see that my decisions before remission were influenced by anxiety and emotional evaluation.
My guest post by Becky Jane Stephenson is an example of how OCD can show up and how exposure-response prevention (ERP) works.
Non-contact contamination fears, also known as mental or emotional contamination OCD, can be linked to an unpleasant memory or event. This can, but not always, be the environmental onset for developing OCD, if predisposed.
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
How does ruminating about an obsession in OCD differ from worrying, generally? It could be said that worrying makes you…
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
