"Pure O" OCD: Letting Go of Obsessive Thoughts with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Description

Let go of the struggle and obsess less. With this unique guide, you’ll find the tools you need to get unstuck from obsessive thoughts, overcome fears, feel more grounded, and live a life that truly reflects your values.Pure obsessional obsessive-compulsive disorder, or “Pure O” OCD, is a subtype of OCD that is characterized by intrusive thoughts, images, or urges without any visible symptoms. These “hidden compulsions” can include constant reassurance seeking, obsessive regret or worry, and may involve avoidance, excessive preparation, and thought rituals. They can also cloud your judgement, causing you to make decisions based on fears and compulsions instead of your values. But trying to stop or change these fearful thoughts only leads to more anxiety and fear. So, how do you break this obsessive cycle?Grounded in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and written by a renowned ACT and anxiety expert, “Pure O” OCD explains the cognitive fusion underlying your obsessive thoughts, and how it can lead to social anxiety, not feeling good enough, panics and phobias, and even other disorders―all of which then reinforce the fusion in an unhelpful, positive feedback loop. Using the five skills in this book―labeling, letting go, mindfulness, purpose, and acceptance―you’ll learn how to finally break free of the struggle, worrying, and avoidance that keep you stuck.With practice, you’ll find that you can counter your anxiety and obsessive thoughts with your own, values-based narrative, and learn how to better accept your thoughts and feelings, so that you can proceed freely and purposefully toward a life that reflects what matters most to you. Review: Very well written - I write as a psychology professor and author of an autobiography written as a sufferer from OCD. I found Chad’s book most illuminating and particularly liked how he included his own ‘obsessional quirks’. This made him feel so approachable and almost one of the club. I would raise two related issues, as follows. I wonder (‘obsess over’!) whether the title “”Pure O” OCD” is something of a misnomer. By ‘pure’, this suggests that there can be O without any associated C. As far as I can see, this does not exist since in even invisible O, as in cognitive rumination without any visible behavioural C, the brain will generate an invisible cognitive C. Also, as Chad illuminates, even a so-called pure OCD-er will often seek reassurance. Having said this, I cannot find any better title for the phenomenon or the book! Related to this, Chad does not describe the phenomenon where there is a real unambiguous thing to fear (feel bad about), such as having a diagnosed terminal illness, a troubling life-long deformity, a rumination on death or the existence of evil in the world. Let me draw a contrast: Jack might agree that it is illogical to obsess over the fact that someone sneezed near his coat but still can’t stop obsessing over it and would prefer not to do so. Bill is a sex-starved incel who is desperately unhappy. He feels it to be perfectly rational to experience intense negative emotion at his status. However, he wishes to stop the torment of being reminded every few minutes of this. In the street, reading magazines or getting a wedding invitation, Bill is bombarded by images that remind him of his plight. Bill tries to ignore the aversive images but to no avail. I believe that Edna Foa’s term ‘over-valued ideation’ might describe this but ‘over-valued’ is a subjective term. Here, somewhat in the spirit of Woody Allen, one might argue that it would be abnormal not to have perfectly rational moments of negative emotion linked to one’s obsessional theme. However, one would still not wish to have such fears pop into the conscious mind every few minutes. In summary, I strongly recommend this book. (Prof.) Frederick Toates, UK Review: excellent - Definitely worth a read as has great examples I can relate to as someone who would identify as having Purr O about my partner. I would have liked to know if sitting down and rationalising the thoughts or worst case scenarios would ever be useful. As in Albert Ellis’ work on irrational beliefs driving the anxiety. I think with Pure O rationalising can often end up confusing the picture however if the compulsion is to over rationalise in a way of gaining certainty then could increase stickiness and thought fusion. For me I think it’s a bit of both. Thank you for the excellent book.