How to remove GUILT from OCD

guilt associated with ocd it's pretty common to feel shame or guilt with intrusive thoughts related to ocd this can be such a hindrance however when someone is working through treatment they may believe that their guilt is a verification or a confirmation of their feared topic or theme let's go through why some people feel guilt and shame within their ocd and what we're going to do about it [Music] hi my name is nathan peterson i am a specialist with ocd and anxiety related disorders i create videos every single week on different tips and tricks that are going to help you with your ocd and anxiety make sure you're subscribed so you do not miss any of these upcoming videos so many people experience guilt or shame when it comes to their ocd extreme guilt certain symptoms can trigger this feeling such as having a sexual or violent thought believing that you're responsible for something happening or you're responsible of causing harm to others i have seen these guilty feelings arise in multiple ocd topics it's almost like the body's last effort to trick the individual into thinking that what they are experiencing is so true and so absolutely real almost like they deserve to feel this anxiety they deserve to feel guilty for these thoughts in their head you know those thoughts they never put there in the first place but their brain wants to make them feel guilty for yeah those thoughts it wants to produce this guilt and shame because of these intrusive thoughts this definitely does not seem fair it can make the person believe that they are producing these thoughts all on their own that even through treatment if they produce these thoughts on their own which sometimes we do you still need to feel guilty by them you need to feel a lot of shame because of these thoughts it can cause somebody to spiral so quickly in this treatment people are just trying to figure out and discover the thoughts in their head finding ways to remove this guilt it's so uncomfortable this is typically done by some kind of compulsion we have the belief that if you have done something wrong it can lead to you being extremely self-critical where you must punish yourself for thinking in this unacceptable way such as this sexual or violent thought or for causing potential harm to other people remember this is ocd thoughts you may have also found that you are starting to withdraw from others because of this guilt and shame because it's just too much for you to worry about you're afraid others are going to judge you if they ever found out those thoughts that are in your head you might even feel like you don't deserve to have friends if you were dealing with ocd and you were experiencing guilt because of these symptoms it is important to understand that people will still want to support you they'll still want to connect with you a person with ocd can experience thoughts that lead them to struggling with guilt and shame if you experience thoughts related to harm you may feel guilty in moments when you believe that you have caused damage or destruction to another person or being some of the obsessive thoughts can lead to feelings of guilt and these include the following making a mistake or doing something wrong you may worry that that email that you sent was considered rude you may really have been offensive to that person you can also think that you've left an electrical appliance on in your home you forgot to turn that stove off that microwave is still going you're curling iron you forgot to lock the front door that's a lot of responsibility at work you may worry that you made a mistake somewhere you're going to get the company in trouble it's going to be all your fault you better feel guilty for having a thought like that uncertainty over causing an accident or disaster you may obsess that you knocked somebody over as you were driving a pedestrian or after you leave work you may worry that you didn't do everything you needed to and you're gonna come back to work the next day and there's going to be a fire or a flood you may have an urge to prevent harm or bad luck towards people you may believe that if you're seeing or hearing something unlucky it is your job to undo it undo the unlucky number turn off the news story whatever it is that is associated to this if you do not do it and something bad happens to somebody else you better feel guilty that is what the brain wants you to believe you may also feel guilt or shame if you struggle with what the world may see as unacceptable you can't have thoughts like these some of these thoughts can include the following thoughts or images about sex or violence this can be with adults kids really about anything immoral or sacrilegious thoughts and images about god and blasphemy you may obsessively worry about these thoughts despite having no desire to offend god in the first place you're reading some scripture and your brain says god's not real and you're like oh dang it i better feel guilty for this i can't believe my brain thought that doubts about whether you truly love your partner you may really think about this all day long do i really love them are they the right person for me did i make the right choice if i get married to them i'm going to be stuck with them forever despite loving the person and wanting to be with them your brain's having all these thoughts which causes guilt some people may doubt their sexual orientation they may obsessively worry about themselves despite having a really good understanding of actually who they are and what their identity is it just hits them and they better feel guilty about it thoughts or doubts about doing or saying something awful or improper or maybe even embarrassing you may really be concerned about this even though you have no desire to do any of these things you may be fearful that you'll act on a thought of extreme harm or violence towards others you may worry about whether it has happened in the past think about past experiences is that who i am as a person i don't think i'd ever do that i've never done that before so if you think about it how do you not naturally feel guilt for these thoughts most of us would i can see where this would be so difficult for most individuals but for those who struggle with ocd it's going to be extremely difficult because it sticks around but what we know is that if you think about it does the guilt you're experiencing actually match the situation hmm think about it for a moment does it match the situation is it matching a perceived threat or is it matching something that actually happened for instance if you feel like you hit a pedestrian and you're like i'm not sure if i did and you're feeling really guilty about it you get home you're feeling really extreme guilt now that it's possible that you maybe you did this thing does the guilt match the situation it's a thought it's a wonder it's i don't know versus i saw myself hitting a pedestrian i saw everything somebody came to my car and said hey did you see what you just did there's no denying it i decided to ignore it and go home and i feel guilt hmm taking these two situations which one do you feel like you need to feel guilty about which one do you think is warranted for this guilt one of them's a perceived threat it's a wonder it's i don't know it's obsessive it's anxiety one is like i really did it not to use this as reassurance but more of a way for you to learn more about yourself in a way for you to feel guilt it's okay to feel guilt ask yourself this question does the guilt match the situation there are always compulsions when it comes to ocd these compulsions are the things people do to make themselves feel better or gain certainty here are some that i see people might check their locks check their appliances make sure everything is off they do not want to cause harm to anybody they may check their emails their work documents make sure they did not make a mistake they'll check important things make sure they don't lose something make sure that responsibility of harming somebody else whether it's mentally or physically doesn't ever happen they may frequently check in with others make sure that they never did something bad or they didn't actually offend them they may mentally review they're just thinking about thinking about thinking about all the scenarios checking sometimes people will count to certain numbers if i count to eight tends to go away they'll check their level of arousal i feel this arousal i feel guilt must mean that i'm a bad person they'll check this to see am i a bad person or am i not they may check the internet for answers they'll research online go to forums what do other people experience how do you get this to go away they may ask their loved ones for answers so what is the treatment we know the treatment is exposure and response prevention typically we do exposures to whatever the perceived threat is whatever the topic or fear is if guilt starts to come in and this is not something that we've learned to embrace we need to learn to embrace it we almost act as if this feeling has no value in your life when it comes to your ocd we get into the mode of actually enjoying the guilt and i know that literally makes no sense to you but enjoy the guilt because we know we're doing treatment with it that's the whole point we're doing an exposure we know the guilt doesn't belong in that zone so we're going to act just like everything else that it has no power so i might say oh i love this guilt this is so awesome i hope it sticks around i might put my shoulders back put a big smile on my face act like it's not a big deal that impending doom inside me that's like you better feel guilty this means something i'm saying yeah boy yes it does it feels so great and i love it i hope it sticks around this is so wonderful you're welcome to stay as long as you want guilt join the party i love it when you come and join this makes the exposures more fun thank you so much for joining because if i don't treat it this way then i'm showing that the guilt has power i'm showing that it has value in my life in this moment and even though it might feel absolutely real that you are warranted to feel this guilt you often need to risk that it doesn't belong in this zone right now few things i look for you have some perceived threats you have some anxiety a lot of uncertainty and that guilt mixed with all that we already know this is ocd this is a skill to learn every time the guilt comes this is a skill to say put your arm around it this is going to be your body it's going to join you every time if it wants to if it doesn't want to that is great also you almost learn to even just welcome it put your arms out you're welcome to join the party my friend allow your brain to say how much you just don't care that it's there allow it to go if it wants to you can allow it to stay as well but you're not going to push it and you're not going to figure out why you feel the guilt if it means something for you you're not going to figure out what the motives are essentially what this is doing is teaching your brain that this guilt does not belong the reason we're even supposed to feel guilt in the first place is for us to learn from the experience learn from that negative experience that we had so how can i learn from a perceived threat nothing happened i understand that i'm making this sound very simple this is a skill just like any other that you practice over and over and over and over again you might come up with your own plan and anticipate that this guilt is going to happen what are you going to do when it happens usually when people try to come up with this plan as it's happening it's so much harder come up with it beforehand yes you may feel like you're doing a lot of pretending and acting but it doesn't matter learn to feel the guilt be okay with it don't figure it out it is not your job to figure out if this guilt right now should be felt or not if it really means something or it doesn't have your catchphrase of like sweet i love this thank you for joining the party oh i love this feeling inside oh i'm so scared that you brought me some guilt right now your job is to stay uncertain about this don't figure it out guilt does not need to play a part in your ocd the only time it plays a part is when you give it power and guess what you're not giving it power anymore so do you need a little extra help with your ocd i've created an online course that takes you through understanding your ocd topic taking you through the evidence-based treatment strategies that work for ocd everything i teach individuals in my office and realistically it's more affordable than one session with a therapist you can start for free i'll link it in the description below so here is my question for you do you experience guilt within your ocd what theme or topic does it want to associate with and if you watch the video all the way through what are you going to do to teach your ocd and guilt it has no power and remember when it comes to eurocd it is your job to face the unknown

Channel: OCD and Anxiety

Views: 36,146

Rating: 4.9643121 out of 5

Keywords: guilt and ocd, stop the guilt with ocd, remove guilt from ocd, ocd and guilt, intrusive thoughts and guilt, OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, ERP, exposure and response preventi, reassurance, compulsion, iocdf, scrupulosity, contamination, cbt, recovery, fear, doubt, intrusive thoughts, anxiety, pocd, hocd, perfectionism, act therapy, treatment for OCD, Allen Texas, therapist, Nathan Peterson, reassurance seeking, pandas, mental illness, symmetry OCD, guilt from ocd, deal with guilt from ocd

Id: ULrjNW_j3HY

Length: 14min 2sec (842 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 21 2020