Been slowly reading through this book over last month or so. I might ink a review when I finish it but suffice to say that so far it's been an interesting read over the first three chapters with some sections very familiar and skip-able if you have any basic understanding of OCD symptoms and Relaxation techniques. None of the book has made much difference to my issues thus far although I have introduced daily (trying to do it twice daily) relaxation/mediation periods of about 20 minutes.
I've made some notes along that way of the bits that actually meant something to me; i.e. words that hit a mark and just made perfect sense, or said things in a way I'd not really thought much about before.
What follows are not always copy/pasted quotes from the book as some have been shortened or edited to make more sense when they are read on their own, instead of being part of a paragraph.
Hopefully some of the following is useful to others and might push others to buy the book.
- To react to OCD is to jump into compulsions. To respond to OCD is to observe what your mind is doing and choose your next step.
- It’s the “What if”, not the “What is” that OCD lives in. In the “What is” there’s no material for the OCD to work with.
- Thoughts are thoughts, not threats.
- The primary difference between people with OCD and those without it is not simply the content of the thoughts, but their perspective on the thoughts.
- When you experience an OCD thought you are also being made aware of all the things to which you relate to that thought.
- The thought of being contaminated isn’t the same as being contaminated. Its a thought of it.
- Feelings are feelings, not facts.
- Feelings are basically thoughts about physical sensations.
- Feelings are ideas about physical experiences. Like thoughts, they are born empt and given meaning through behaviour.
- Mindfulness practice invites you to shrug your shoulders at the OCD and say “Well, that’s a feeling”.
- Sensations are sensations, not mandates to act.
- Physical sensations trigger feelings, which trigger thoughts, and they all converge in your mind.
- Mindfulness suggests you see thoughts not as distractions but experiences.
- When you become aware of thoughts that trigger you, you make assumptions about the meaning of those thoughts, and this drives you toward compulsions.
- OCD based on fear, not on evidence.
- You can’t predict the future.
- Feeling at risk doesn’t place you at risk.
- Mindfulness element is about acknowledging the feelings as just feelings you are having/. OCD insists those feelings must mean something.
- Perfection is an illusion.
- By stopping compulsive and avoidance behaviours, we stop negative reinforcement and learn over time that we can tolerate the presence of unwanted thoughts
- You cannot control what thoughts, feelings and physical sensations you have. Your job is to choose your behaviours.
- You have no say in what kinds of thoughts happen or you think of.
- If you try to control thoughts by judging or suppressing them, you are doing a compulsion.
- You get to decide what you do with your thoughts, not what thoughts you happen to have. The same is true of feelings.
- We all have complete control over our behaviour.
- Compulsions are behavioural choices.
- Change your behaviour and the thoughts and feelings follow.
