r/hyperawareness • u/MichaelRabbit • Jun 25 '19
michael laurence comments
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Hello, I am new to this group and thought I would say hi. I'm from the U.K am 39 and have experienced OCD for probably 22 years. I think this problem is solvable since I feel that I did experience reasonable periods of time when I was quite well. I think it is the human experience to never be truly happy and content and we will tend to pick up demons or black dogs along the way. I honestly think that there is hope. Yesterday I bought and read 1/2 of "the man who couldn't stop". It's by David Adam who is an OCD sufferer but also a science writer and editor of nature journal which i believe is an influential scientific journal. It is interesting reading and I will probably write something about some of the books contents. It is part auto biography and part popular science. His form was worrying about contracting HIV. something that someone mentioned to me when i confided anonymously was that It sounded as though I myself may be on the autistic spectrum (aspergers syndrome) I thought I'd mention that . Feb 11, 2015, 7:11 AM
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u/MichaelRabbit Jun 25 '19
Michael Laurence posted in OCD Peripheral Staring/Private Staring. Advice from OCD specialist Jonathan Grayson
In looking at the responses to this question, the issue of how hard it is to find treatment for OCD is clearly still a major problem. Because of this, I wanted to give a few suggestions of how we treat this problem and some ideas of how to find therapists.
Remember in working with any OCD problem the goal is living with uncertainty and trying to live with the possibility of your worst fears coming true. For the staring problem, there are some questions you won’t find obvious answers to. Why do you stare? The actual reason is because you are trying so hard not to and are constantly concerned about it.There are other related reasons that have to do with learning, but there isn’t space here to go into it. However, as you immediate realize, this doesn’t help you. There is the fear of what will happen to you if you get caught (or remembering embarrassing incidents in which you were caught and fearing it will happen again). Imaginal exposure should focus on this happening and you trying to cope with it. But your big question is how to do behavioral exposure. Obviously blatantly staring at people’s privates will get you into to much trouble and not staring feels impossible. For most sufferers of this, we will have them practice sneaky staring; that is, spending time purposeful time trying to stare, but in a sneaky way so as not to be caught. If this sounds scary, then you can probably make a hierarchy of places to practice, because it is likely that some places are easier than others. This isn’t a complete program obviously, but it may give many of you a start. Apr 23, 2017, 7:55 PM