OCD3: What is Responsibility OCD?

[Music] responsibilities OCD is a subset that somewhat different than classical OCD involves a combination of not only anxiety but there's a strong component of guilt the person with responsibility OCD is not concerned about their own welfare and safety which is a classic topic of OCD but they're concerned about the potential that they might pose some harm or risks to others this could include contamination OCD where I don't mind that I might touch a subway rail but I don't want to now shake your hand because I might be giving you some type of danger transferring that those germs to you so the focus is on the idea that the responsibility OCD sufferer is always looking out for the potential that they avoid not only the anxiety of harming others but the idea of guilt and this component makes this a much more difficult subset of OCD to treat you know a person with contamination OCD is willing to touch a toilet seat and then eat french fries but the idea of touching a toilet seat and then handing a french fry to a loved one unbeknownst to that person that their hands had touched the toilet seat that creates a stronger sense that their idea of their identity gets involved in the picture the idea of being a bad person for potentially harming of others whether the strangers or and that makes it such that you know people's responsibility OCD often say hey I'd be willing to do this to myself but I can't really risk you know the idea that others might be harmed because of me the common subtypes of responsibility OCD involving anxiety and guilt can be someone that might drive around the block thinking that they might have hit someone it might be someone who will have an association in their mind about some metaphysical harm happening to another person and then them having to mentally work out that they didn't mean it where they might even start to pray that harm doesn't come to the person there can be a lot of hand-washing to protect you know those around them that they might be putting at risk and the idea of their character coming into the picture is a very very strong component of responsibility OCD trying to make sure that they're not seeing themselves as a bad person persons with responsibility OSI in contrast to day-to-day concerns for others welfare involve a tremendous amount of endless reassurance seeking or endless rituals to prevent any association that they might be responsible for someone else's on a patient I worked with many years ago would walk down the street and if you saw a refrigerator that still had a door attached he was aware that it's illegal for people to dispose of refrigerators with doors on them because the old and refrigerators used to have locking doors and he would go to a hardware store and make sure that he himself detached the door so whereas we might engage in some happy natural life process to keep others safe or to not endanger others person with OCD goes to extraordinary lengths that are never-ending and always coming up with the potential to be in some way responsible for someone else's risks or harm it's a tremendous preoccupation and it's a tremendous alteration in one's [Music] some of the misconceptions about people with responsibility OCD is that these people might actually care more about others than those in the general population and what's kind of funny is people with responsibility OCD don't actually have any greater concerns for the welfare of others because their priority or their agenda is driven by their malfunctioning brain the machine and not their own sort of authentic interest and in other people's welfare they're acting because they're trying to escape or avoid guilt and anxiety it's not that they have a very basic or greater authentic interest in protecting those around them [Music] the pervasive illusion of OCD that these risks are authentic are very very confusing to friends and family because it seems so clear and logical that the sufferers concerns are illegitimate and a complete irrational basis it's very common that persons will engage in a tremendous amount of reassurance or even information giving as if the sufferer is at a loss of information about what is a legitimate risk and so there's a great temptation to provide reassurance or even education to seemingly help the sufferer and it's very important to understand that this is completely not beneficial that the sufferer either a already is aware of the irrational nature of their concerns or be that their brain is malfunctioning from a system that has no ability to process language and therefore to think that providing education or reassurance will have any benefit is a misnomer in the topic of treatment for responsibility OCD it's important that the patient like all forms of treatment for OCD that the patient take on the acceptance of the unknown and the acceptance of the theoretical risk that their brain is generating a case that comes to mind which exemplifies some of the unique aspects of treatment when dealing with responsibility OCD there's a woman that I worked with many years ago who had concerns that her children might become sick through animals including their own pet dog she had read an article in a newspaper about a child who was playing in a sandbox in a local park and unfortunately some larvae from raccoon feces had gotten into a child's brain and the child died so her OCD turned on to the idea that she needed to now protect her own children from such an occasion happening to them so she stopped letting her children pet any neighbor's animals she couldn't let her children go around cats or dogs and her own dog then became suspect and unfortunately she had to give away their family pet because their dog became part of her concern for protecting her child's welfare so in her treatment she gradually started to take on more and more risks in terms of associated with having her children touch pets and at one point I actually mailed her some cat hair from our family pet and the cat hair had some dander in it that looked like it could potentially be laura vine and this woman at a certain point in her treatment and she was very advanced in her treatment put our the cat hair in her children's pockets on their way to school so she was willing to in her OCD world sacrificed the lives of her children for her own recovery and that is one of the aspects of treatment that often comes up is the idea that you know in order for me to get better I have to put other innocent people at the good news is in all the subsets of OCD the actual risk is negligible and an illusion but for the sufferer the idea of putting strangers at risk for their own recovery is a very very difficult thing for them to balance in terms of their own ethics [Music]

Channel: MadeOfMillions

Views: 42,821

Keywords: mental health, ocd, ocd therapy, ocd treatment, anxiety, anxiety disorders, intrusive thoughts, responsibility ocd

Id: b8lkmntiRNk

Length: 9min 3sec (543 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 13 2017