Can Six British Teens Overcome Their OCD? | Extreme OCD Camp S1 Ep1 | Only Human

paper was light gold in medieval times i want tobacco sugar [Music] that everything we thought we knew about the world might turn out to be completely wrong [Music] six young brits are on the journey of a lifetime [Music] they're heading deep into the north american wilderness but this is no ordinary track [Music] he was having thoughts of beating her up of punching her in the face i just keep saying it over and over again him just lying there lifeless at the bottom they've all signed up to a radical treatment program for mental illness i want to tap the law of my elbow you might have been born with a stupid voice i was because all of them have obsessive compulsive disorder [Music] it's impossible to describe what turmoil my brain is in the lid in case my clothes touched it the plushie it's pathetic this is not how my life should be ocd has robbed them of their independence and made living normal lives impossible they've been unable to get the treatment they need and they're desperate for help my parents have been through so much i hate the men i thought i should have been at 22 that i'm not 22. he's so pissed off that ocd has robbed him of his life so in a last-ditch attempt to reclaim their lives they'll spend the next 10 days at one of the world's most extreme ocd camps [Music] 22 year old essex boy jack is about to do something he hasn't done in almost a decade you ready yeah okay drink from a glass in a public place he's undergoing radical treatment to combat his pathological fear of germs psych [Music] jack is out shopping with his mum buying essentials for his trip to the states i need um toothbrush toothpaste soaps oh yeah paper bowls play plates lots of books he's petrified of getting sick so going anywhere without his own disposable plates and cutlery is unthinkable jack suffers from contamination ocd he sees germs lurking everywhere even in the relative safety of his own home [Music] he spends every waking moment avoiding contamination i've not eaten something with my hands over my fingers since i was 15. [Music] mealtimes are the most stressful part of jack's day he has to sterilize everything his food touches i can't touch the milk handle so when my milk would say get poured inside on porridge i'd have to have someone there to do it you know my mum who lives in me she'll be the one that will pour that in it's a 20 25 minute half hour sometimes processed before i've even eaten it robs a little bit of dignity from you the whole time i'm just sitting there thinking you know it's really pathetic this is not how my life should be in an effort to turn his life around jack's committed to 10 days at an extreme ocd camp in the u.s he and five other ocd sufferers are on their way to london to stay the night before flying to america tomorrow jack's the first to arrive at the hotel lovely aren't you if i could just get your address uh i've got a pen here i got my ones on the side touching someone else's pen is not an option oh god do i sign this now can i come down and sign this once i take my bags up um yeah that's that'd be fine cheers [Music] 22 year old josh is next to arrive how far have you come from we've come from blackpool so um quite far for the best part of 10 years josh has been plagued by symmetry ocd i have to touch everything with my left and right hands my left and right feet equal amount of times everywhere i go 24 7. it's constantly such about torture transformation you know i haven't touched it yet why haven't you touched it it's constant it's constantly there i remember burning myself when i was 13 years old on my left hand on an open at my nuns house i felt compelled to burn me over two things on my right hand quite badly as well ocd has caused josh to drop out of university and he can't get a job he hopes that going to ocd camp will get his life back on track i'm hoping that when i go on the camp um it will improve my life my social life and hopefully it might help me to find someone [Music] imogen is next to arrive at the hotel at 17 she's the youngest member of the group i'm feeling nervous i don't think it quite feels real yet but maybe when i meet everyone it'll be like oh my god it's actually happening a level student imogen is plagued by thoughts that terrible things will happen to her family she believes the only way to stop these bad things happening is to constantly tap her surroundings it really does scare me like the thought of i'd know like if you don't trap that tree your mum's gonna die you know it's not logical because it's just a tree but that fear is so strong that it just feels so real to me next to check in is 21 year old university student olivia at the moment i'm feeling about a nine on the anxiety level because i really really really want a shower because um i've been looking in these bags around london and i've been extremely warm and i'm very very warm now in this hotel room factory like jack olivia suffers from contamination ocd but it's not germs that bother her it smells if you think of your biggest fear some people's biggest fear of getting ill maybe or dying my biggest fear is anything that smells bad when i'm showering it feels like someone is every time i feel like i'm clean is throwing a bucket of mud on me and then i have to start again using the toilet is olivia's biggest nightmare so she's developed an extraordinary way of coping i would make sure i took photos of sort of the seat and maybe the lid in case my clothes touched it and the flusher and the floor any kind of mark on the floor i will take a photo of and then afterwards if i was still anxious about it i could look at the photo and i could be reassured or i could show some on the photo and they could reassure me that there's nothing wrong with that mark i just like to be able to make my own judgments make my own calls on things um and just go about day-to-day life without it controlling me without controlling every move the group are about to meet each other for the very first time for most of them it will be the first time they've met anyone else with ocd hello hello hi how you doing you're right i'm jack olivia nice to meet you now yeah that's okay hi how are you have a seat i don't know hey enjoy okay i'm jack hi nice to meet you i'm olivia yeah i'm andrew how old are you 23. 23. it's getting older yeah i'm 21. 22. i know one year old so yeah one up each time my ocd does primarily revolve around avoiding the number 13. andrew repeats the most simple actions over and over again to be certain that he never does anything 13 times that'll probably do now andrew sees the number 13 all around him every hour it comes to 30 minutes past so you know between 10 past and 20 past every hour i cannot do anything ideally i'll just sit completely like a statue if a son which has touched my lip with my tongue i have to do that again when it gets to 20 past as well as ocd andrew has aspergers which makes social situations very difficult for him i just wish i could chat more i'd like to be able to be able to express myself a bit more instead of being in a shell we're just talking about tattoos all right i've not got any eighteen-year-old megan from nottingham arrives next week she's constantly plagued by thoughts that people she loves are going to be harmed are you feeling i'm excited yeah are you how are you feeling we're all a bit like i'm never i was kind of like regretting it a little bit before you think this morning i was like oh god olivia nice to meet you hi sorry man i'm not handshaking sorry noise okay i'm andrew nice to meet you hey dude right i'm not too bad yeah a little bit nervous for him i bet it goes yeah welcome to a strange surreal dinner yes yes a little bit how far you come from blackpool yes why are you the only southerner yeah slightly racist the last to arrive is imogen hi olivia hello hey jim where you come from uh hertfordshire savannah thank you as the group start to get to know one another the conversation moves on to ocd i like pick up glass of water and i'd have to do a left hand on the right is that why you shake with two hands [Laughter] extra friendly i think obviously the nature of the beast is that i love a lot of it isn't what you can see so the people like my best friends don't know yeah until i tell them it's mainly in truth of thoughts so thoughts there's always thoughts about bad things happening to my family and friends it's always about preventing harm thoughts soon turn to ocd camp the track sounds really scary and it'll scare me when i get up to it but it was just meeting everyone and wondering what everyone's going to be like i really don't like surprises what is everyone's goals for the week besides my routines you know i just want to increase my independence yeah make some more friends i'd be extremely happy if there was just one minute of a day where i wouldn't have to do my things i'd love to like you josh to have a minute out of the day where i'm not carrying out some compulsion in my head i'm not really expecting like a miracle cure or anything but if something changes or maybe this will help in some way it would just be brilliant really tomorrow is the start of their journey together one that could change their lives forever it's departure day it's nothing ready let's go the group are about to leave the safety of their home turf and fly over 5000 miles to the usa [Music] for josh even the journey is a source of anxiety the fear of not being able to get out of vm seats when you're not allowed to you know that's the only thing i don't like not having that control and josh isn't the only one with problems welcome to the toilet but obviously right now i'm not going to use it myself because that is disgusting if i needed to use the toilet and the seats down which the majority of the time it is i'll just use my foot to lift it up and again obviously they're heading to seattle on america's northwest coast for the next 10 days they'll undergo intense therapy deep in the washington wilderness hello hi therapist pete vice and psychologist dr travis osborne are ocd experts and have been running their ocd camp for five years [Music] pete and travis have already spent hours on skype consulting with each of the group meeting pete he kind of had a little bit of celebrity status in my head because i'd like spoken to him so much and you know in preparation for coming here and he's someone that's got such a big role in possibly making me better pete's no stranger to taking ocd sufferers on wilderness trips but this camp's going to be a bit different this is the first time i've ever taken a group with this severe ocd with the goal of helping them to work on their ocd it feels like we're treading new ground which is exciting but it also makes me a little bit nervous [Music] 14 hours after leaving london they finally arrive you guys we made it rhode island what do you want to see your rooms yes yes let's go [Applause] oh wow wow any bed honestly i'll take a single you want double them you can go and double yeah yes it is one two three quite fancy i found it quite fancy which one do you want which top yeah the group have come almost halfway around the world but tomorrow their real journey begins it's the first day of ocd camp pete and travis and their team have got just over a week to help the group reclaim their lives by taking on their ocd this extreme programme will force the brits to fight their ocd by getting them to face their biggest fears and do things they'd never dream of doing back home exposing to the fear not doing the ritual then we raise the bar and do it again and raise the bar and do it again straight after breakfast the battle begins in a place jack fears the most the bathroom we're trying to find a spot whether it's a wall or something on the wall ceiling that you can touch is there anywhere within the actual room where the toilet exists that you could actually do that yeah i mean like as far away from the toilet as possible okay let's just have you touch it with the pinky and then just kind of hold that pinky up for a while how's that sound yeah i'm still taking my sleeves up though because i want to get mine okay yeah you gotta be precautionary okay it's there what could be on your pinky bacteria of the toilet seat and just the what this toilet what this room's about and um yeah like water from the toilet when it's been flushed and because it's not got like a seat to it probably in so this is what we're gonna do jack i don't always do this but i think it's actually going to help you we're going to have you touch your pinky around your body because i think it's actually going to make it it's going to be harder at first but then it will get easier faster get that bacteria p urine nastiness all over you my mouth went dry my chest was beating i was like sweaty and i my eyes were dying around the room i couldn't focus like i felt kind of like i was gonna faint although it may seem like a very kind of like simple task for everyone else it was actually a big ordeal [Music] in travis's group josh is first up he's about to be exposed to his greatest fear his challenge is not to ritualize your goal is going to be to touch something with one side of your body you can choose whether it's with your hand or your arm or your leg whatever you choose we're going to try to have you go five minutes without equalizing it out on the other side so what could you touch with your foot so not just you know once in a while i'll just okay it's even about just that line like that this line right here okay okay okay so let's try that again without without equalizing okay all of them go all right okay so let's have you sit back down okay you're that did you see your body pulling you yeah to redo it okay now what's happening with your anxiety right now i feel it i feel all right but i think it yeah you feel all right but what yeah and you can feel it already can you yeah i think we all can see the second you do that we can just see your face instantly change right can your family tell yeah yeah they know but yeah you get tongue-tied they know what yeah they know when i get it's like a suspicious man annoying when you're that confident confident and it just sort of just drains away yeah it's not nice three minutes into his exposure josh has an overwhelming urge to touch the line is it in general harder with your feet than your hands or is it usually about the same yeah no um i mean no no um it's it's only it's not it's the same yeah okay okay yeah you think you can make it another two minutes yeah all right moments later josh has reached his limit josh yep can i go with you you're at time so if you want to ritualize you can okay can you try to talk to me for a second is your anxiety climbing yes no it's fine now did it did it did it oh because when you walked over the line you touched it yeah okay so it just felt like you couldn't go any longer yeah okay i think you actually made it to five minutes which is great so we'll let you cool down for a little bit before we try again yeah yeah yeah okay yeah just what i mean i don't like running away that's what all to do i know but you're we're just starting right right in most kind of situations the natural response is just to get out there just get out there as fast as you can because that's just what i've learned to do you know it's just become second nature now i'm a little bit annoyed about running away back in the bathroom imogen is about to do her very first exposure are you ready [Laughter] pete plans to trigger imogen's fear that something bad will happen to her family but not let her tap to compensate he'll ask her to rate her anxiety on a scale of one to ten what's the tiniest most minut movement that would cause you to want to tap um stepping forward okay so what i want you to do is you're going to move your foot just the time it was a little bit go for it i know it's in my head i know it's not real so i want you to say something different than that though this is going to be harder maybe it's real maybe it's true nice work nice work that is fantastic [Music] maybe it's very good okay just stop there what do you have um quite high pretty bad like yeah a little higher than we wanted to but we're just going to sit there what do you want to do for a ritual i want to tap the wall of my elbow yeah i can tell that's hard when i moved my foot forward i instantly was aware of all my surroundings all these thoughts going around my head like i had really really powerful thoughts about bad things happening to my mom which was very very scary can you can you say it again the maybe statement maybe it's real maybe it's real yeah good work and you're doing so well yeah this is unbelievable this is really obviously very tough you are a picture of courage right now what you just did was phenomenal but it doesn't mean your ocd is going to go away because you're going to move and you're going to do a ritual in just a few moments here and that is okay that doesn't mean that it's not going to get better or that you should lose hope after waiting over an hour with contaminated hands jack ends his exposure by washing the group have made it through their first day of therapy with exposures over they can stop fighting their ocd until tomorrow [Music] i think maybe after a long hard day everyone gets a chance to chill by the campfire well you guys survived your first full day of ocd camp how do you feel tired tired yes i bet you guys worked really hard today what you guys got a taste today of when we started exposure therapy was how hard it is to actually fight this beast right so what we've asked you all to think about is kind of what your ocd has cost you and these are the things you're going to need to keep in mind in those key moments when what you want to do is kind of just give in to the ocd to help you push and find a way to keep fighting the reason i want to fight and beat my ocd is because i'm just fed up here after so long it does no good it's made me light on a family many times and it's made me lie to my friends and people that i shouldn't have lied to just because it's much easier than saying that you've got ocd i'm just completely done now with letting it be the biggest part of my life i hate everything about it and i hate everything about the what is taking away from me and i hate the man i feel i should have been at 22 that i'm not 22. i owe it to myself to fight it as hard as i can fight anything i hope one day i can grow up and i can have a family and a job and not have to worry about what i'm going to have for dinner or can i make it out the front door without tapping like four times or something that that would be quite nice my parents have been through so much um like my parents have been through so much supporting me they've just been amazing my sister too not just all my family and they've kind of spent their whole life looking after me and i feel like if i get better then they've they've kind of achieved something they've helped me to get better um just so they can live a stressful life without worrying about me i have a motto for you guys for this week and the motto is with just one word and that word is maybe and there's a badge that comes along with maybe and you're all going to get that badge in just a moment here and the badge is the question mark whenever you look at this it's a reminder that maybe the bad thing could happen maybe it could maybe it couldn't and i want you guys to take this with you for the rest of your lives [Music] are you ready for your tattoo well i'm gonna tell you that's great [Music] it's day two at islandwood yesterday was stressful and disorientating for everyone so pete decides to kick off with a confidence building challenge out on the lake but for olivia even this triggers her ocd i don't know who's worn it and life jackets usually smell like damp if people are falling in and i just put clean clothes on and had a shower i don't really want to wear it and she's not the only one this is the kind of thing where it's so everyone's tightly together you can't leave yeah so let's say you do feel trapped because there's a good chance that could happen um and we're not gonna let you jump overboard so you're gonna have to wait what i want you to do is i want you to tell me that it's happening okay but pretty quickly they all find their sea legs even jack [Music] so i'm just curious how it went for you guys see it was absolutely fine it was finally enjoyed it what did you learn about the difference between anticipating something and then the actual experience itself like probably won't happen or maybe we'll maybe it will employ probably now maybe inspired by the raft challenge jack's motivated to push himself further than he's ever gone before for almost a decade jack's been so fearful of germs that he's only junk from disposable cups but now he wants to try to drink from a glass that's been used by other people with a little help from the islandwood kitchen staff it's ben all right ben this is jack how are you doing you're nice to meet you exactly and cheers yeah so it's not quite boiling yet but jack is saying that it's probably good enough okay for him so whenever you're ready to put a glass in that would be fantastic all right yeah this is a hot cup there's one condition he needs to see the glass being sterilized [Music] i don't like the water that's in there being too much on it so as much as we can get out by like doing what you're doing now it's perfect i'm going to set it on the would you like it set set down on um there's fine wherever it's fine really but yeah as long as it's the right way up perfect if you wait like one minute all that water it's evaporated hey ben i want you to see what he's about to do what's something that you were terrified of what are you afraid of yeah i always joke about this um bears lions and uh i'm not afraid of much i can't that i can think of actually but but bears yeah that's a good one right and so if you were to walk into a cage with a bear i wouldn't walk into a cage with a bear okay that's exactly the same mental process that jack is about to take when he takes a drink out of this thing it's like even like obviously even just touching the glasses a bit [Music] strange it was weird like when's the last time you drank out of a glass nine years ago wow impressive strange feeling i'd high-five you if i could ever air bomb with ben maybe for jack this is a huge achievement and he's keen to show off his latest victory over ocd to the others this is the most self-conscious drink [Applause] [Music] such a long time it's just so good though they're supporting each other and i don't even know if i could have predicted that that would happen to this degree but it's so clear that they're they're simultaneously dealing with their own fears and their own exposures but then they're giving to others and that's phenomenal that they can shift out of that space and it's not just all about them pete has discovered that four hours after imogen's exposure yesterday she returned to the bathroom to ritualize by tapping the wall so today he's going to raise the stakes how could we do an exposure where it's impossible to do a ritual afterwards i see your face just dropping what would that thing be um actually like when i'm walking like sometimes i have to like tap certain stones and so if we went for a walk outside and if you stop where you want to actually do a ritual on a certain stone that's what you're telling me we could do okay we'll start the exposure and then we'll make a decision about whether or not we're going to throw the rock anywhere okay [Music] that one already yeah okay tell me if you were to get rid of this rock or not tap it what's what could happen um something bad late to my family what's the statement maybe something bad will happen again maybe something bad will happen again maybe something bad will happen oh dear [Music] maybe something bad will happen imogen's frozen to the spot for half an hour before she's able to calm down [Music] so let's talk about what we're gonna do with this rock can you take it you want me to what what do you want me to do is i just pick it up right now hold it okay you put it in your pocket yep can i see how it goes yes we can we can just keep this in my pocket and we'll see how it goes i think that's a fantastic idea you're welcome this is another full day of therapy everyone is going head-to-head with their ocd megan is plagued by thoughts of bad things happening to people so travis wants her to look at a picture of her friend and imagine her getting sick you're going to get ill okay and what do you notice about your anxiety right now it's probably two or three okay yesterday josh managed to wait five minutes before ritualizing today he wants to break that record what would you like to set at the goal for this time i'll put it if i put it at 10 and i can see you've been counting down i think that would be quite good right so you go ahead what do you want to do this time all right yeah okay all right how high is the anxiety around it um i'd say something like a three three okay so a little bit lower yeah than yesterday yeah okay while josh rides out his exposure olivia's challenging her fear of smelling badly okay you ready all right go for it go this way great keep your hand there for a minute and then we'll just go straight for the hair good work so josh where's your anxiety at right now i'm not sure okay is it over a five yeah okay is it over a seven i don't know who i want to go yes you're feeling really strongly like you want to go okay and you know what it is about leaving that helps it's being alone it's been it's just been alone okay it's been alone when it's yeah it's like a painkiller yeah josh makes it to the 10-minute mark it's the longest time he's ever gone without equalizing two and one nicely done are you feeling exhausted yeah everyone's making progress but back on the porch pete's about to start working with his most complex case andrew's ocd is very severe he's probably the most severe in the group and it's further complicated by the fact that he has asperger's he's afraid of the number 13 he is afraid of contamination that uncomfortable feeling he gets he doesn't ritualize is intolerable pete is starting with andrew's contamination ocd he's asked him to put his dirty hands on his skin does it come off nope hands on the head still you're doing a fantastic job i know this feels like it's getting married i know i know i'm a bastard what was the maybe statement can you say it maybe my skin will get bad on my forehead it's not just saying it because that's only words i don't like sounding my own voice say um yeah maybe my skin will like flare up yeah pretty bad louder i'm feeling really quite bothered now jack can you help me out again so we'll open this door before pete can begin to treat andrew's ocd he needs to tackle his crushingly low self-confidence there's no he's never going to hear now just it's not gonna happen okay i'm tempted just to shout but it just sounds so ridiculous my spots might get bad and flare up i can't get any more than that because if my voice really kicks in and louder than that i don't i don't want to fail that i do not want to shout out people are about andrew see maybe my voice is completely stupid my voice is completely stupid i have a completely stupid voice i have completely stupid advice yeah you say that with such confidence say it again it's just the truth yeah it's true it's totally true yeah yeah maybe it's true i'm plagiary for the rest of my life you might have a stupid voice you might have been born with a stupid voice yes you'd say that really annoys me because it's just true that's what people suppose told me what's that i've got a stupid voice you're right but i don't you actually said it i said maybe i'm pretty angry now yeah [Music] i'm sure people have thought he just can't communicate properly with his voice yeah so if you shout you might be rejected by all of us like you're rejected when you're a kid i'm always being rejected yeah yeah there's a difference between then and now we're not children andrew just has a you know it's a monolithic barrier to what he wants to really do in life to what he can do because the fear is that he's absolutely worthless so he's has this massive hurdle that he's trying to jump over and it's just it's almost unbearable to watch he's got one last chance to make jack hear him my slots could get quite bad or flare up there's a guy he's here how do you feel we're okay what's that we're okay i'm so hoping that you feel at least a little tiny bit proud of yourself for what you just did when do i try with me i'm such a loser i don't know i don't even know i try it we try because we see something you don't that's the problem right you wouldn't be here if that wasn't the problem if there is a proud feeling in your brain a proud thought my suggestion is to take that seriously right now i do feel pleased that spoke a bit louder actually i think it's improved my voice because now that i've sort of projected it a bit more and i'm speaking quiet i think sound a little better i think it might actually somehow help my vocal cords or something [Music] tomorrow everything is going to change the group are getting ready to leave the comfort of islandwood lodge we are going to shift gears now and we are heading tomorrow into the wild unknown and we have to get ready and we have to get packed as much whatever you take you're gonna carry on your back yeah so if you take a lot you're gonna carry along i'm really worried this bag's gonna be really heavy you need one pair of these and that one pair of trousers is that it and you're gonna wear them for three days and it's gonna be okay we've gotta be up for well we've gotta be up and out for half five i think that's gonna be fun but we are going to the high ropes course which will be fun yeah yeah gonna be good we've all spent so long about how much looking forward to it everyone's gonna [ __ ] themselves i'm sitting outside now about 12 30. even though we're just two days into eight of exposures there's a few of us really struggling now myself included i'm gonna sleep tonight i don't think many of us gonna sleep tonight because it's so intense you know we're a few hours away now and uh yeah tomorrow is another day but it's another hard day and i think everything's about to get harder [Music] it's day three and pete has the group on the move moving is an important part of the therapy as often people with ocd have difficulty leaving places as it adds to their anxiety [Music] howdy how are you pete's upping the stakes again this time a physical challenge with a real element of danger they'll be clumbering along inch-wide cables 130 feet in the air if they can push themselves to do this it should give them more confidence to fight their ocd it's high it's high i'm just getting shitless the reason we're here is um to help them learn how to live with uncertainty to take all sorts of different risks in life today they will be taking actual risks first to attempt the ladder is imogen no i want to get straight down we will but if anything would happen to you so you would faint no worries because let me tell you what'll happen i've got you and nothing will happen to you come on yeah yeah it's just it's really fun it's like [Music] 30 feet up she freezes it's not the start the group had hoped for whenever you're ready i got up like the fourth one then i thought i could come down late i could feel my legs going next up is andrew do you want us to just feel a bit like overwhelmed it's just a really an awful lot going on in all directions and i can't really handle more than one thing happening it just seems to be stuff happening everywhere it just kind of throws me a bit it's just getting me ready for andrew who's been virtually a prisoner in his bedroom for the last five years it's a huge step [Music] all right now just stop right there okay right there now let go with that hand and just stand there don't go anywhere relax down here in your hips once i got up i felt a little bit better then as i did more and more things it just started to become like i just became more confident and towards last ones that i were doing it was just no problem at all spurred on by andrew the rest of the group climb up to the canopy [Music] i think andrew is heavily enjoying himself up there he has a big perma smile on his face and it's making us all happy it's quite contagious it's joy [Music] just seeing everyone up there and like you can tell that everyone is going through their own little exposures [Music] that's a hard one jack and andrew held hands and jack can't hold people's hands i mean this is incredible perfect perfect [Applause] [Music] and the group shares a bonding moment american style this is our big thank you to bernie all right thank you and olivia come on [Music] big squeeze the ropes course has given the group great confidence now they think they can do anything so josh wants to take on another challenge he's touched pete with one hand but not the other just minutes in things start to go wrong joshua's in the middle of an exposure and he's only done a couple exposures in a confined space like a van so he essentially has a panic attack let's get home whatever you need let's go should we head over okay we're gonna pull over jordan okay pull way off thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] i had to jump out of his way for him to get out of the van he nearly knocked me out he's probably had a bar seat belt came out with him and everything it's hard watching anyone go through it because i know how tough it is you just need to get as far away from that situation as possible because it feels like your body tells you that you are in danger to me it is like seeing a bus come towards you the natural thing to do is just get the hell out of the way [Music] when you do feel pure fear you can always taste it witnessing a full-blown panic attack has stunned the group you know better than anybody what it's like to have a panic attack so you can't explain what's going on for you it's just it feels like the biggest rollercoaster the biggest like being afraid of fire or being afraid of drowning or being afraid of a bomb being afraid of anything like that all in your face all in one go all of those things it's like fear personified it's 15 minutes before josh feels well enough to get back into the van it's a massive setback for him but there are even bigger challenges to come [Music] still shell-shocked from josh's exposure the group check into a motel [Music] they have less than 12 hours to pull themselves together before the next stage of the camp what's scaring me the most is if i've come here and gone through all of this just to go home and be exactly the same as i was before i left then i'm gonna feel like it was time wasted when josh did his exposure and had to leave i was really actually scared for him because he wanted fear of kind of being trapped yes he can't move so it's like both together but there's one person on a high i do feel quite different in myself really i think it's it's just been like day one a little bit better day two and you know just as days have gone by i think i've just felt as if just more accepted into a group and it is just making me feel a lot more confident in general [Music] ready for the cameras with an evening off from therapy some of the group head for the hot tub it's turned into more of a rap video oh oh my god [Music] the group are up early for a hearty breakfast at a classic american diner spirits are still high from last night yeah i can't believe that that man thought i was involved in a poor i love you [Music] two days ago back at the camp jack drunk out of a glass for the first time in nine years you ready okay he's now decided to do it in a crowded restaurant [Music] this time there's no way for jack to sterilize the glass he has to make do with running it under the hot water tap i think i'm only taking this one [Music] okay what's your number six now [Music] ugh so sake travis what'd you get let's what was it was it the glass was it the sink or the kitchen everything jack's ocd is is very intense he's constantly being triggered and he has so many different things going on at different levels at the same time [Music] i didn't sleep at all last night and sometimes it affects me i get angry and stuff and i'm kind of keen nervous the only thing gives me a little bit of relief is to hit something but there you go trying really hard not to it's the halfway point and from here the group face a four-hour boat ride to reach the start of their trek it's already been mentally draining imogen she was questioning whether or not she was really even going to be able to do exposures on this program and uh over the course of four days she's made a huge amount of progress the thing that is most scariest about doing things is not the actual doing of it is the anticipation of doing it i've completed challenges that i wouldn't have completed before i came here [Music] i felt more relaxed and i felt in 10 years and that's because i've just gone around talking to everybody yesterday i did i went in the hot tub with everyone which was something i've never done i never thought that i would do it give me such a lot of confidence i just need to make the most of it initially i wanted to just have a minute of a day without ocd but now i feel like i can do a lot more than that i still get the intrusive thoughts the same amount but i'm training my brain to not automatically ritualize now we're going out in the woods and it's going to be very physically uncomfortable what i think is truly unique about what we're doing is is the environment that we're taking them to i don't think that there's anywhere else in the world somewhere where people are taking six people with a mental health disorder out into the woods it's another way of teaching them that they can push themselves so much farther than they think they can next on extreme ocd camp the group strike out into the great outdoors this is not i'm not made for this i'm like a city boy it's the worst thing ever michelin quality yeah an environment that will take them to breaking point he's just pushing and pushing to go further and further they're terrifying themselves over and over and over again they're completing an ultra marathon here [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Only Human

Views: 119,077

Keywords: British teens with OCD, London meetup, OCD awareness, OCD challenges, OCD exposure sessions, OCD therapy, Only Human, anger management, bonding over OCD, camp leaders, coping strategies for OCD, coping with OCD, emotional journey, exposure therapy sessions, human experiences, life journeys, mental health journey, mental wellness, personal growth exploration, remote camping therapy, wilderness therapy

Id: -wirZbc_imA

Length: 57min 19sec (3439 seconds)

Published: Mon May 10 2021