10: Tricks & Cheats of OCD Client Copy

Module 11

The Tricks & Cheats of OCD

Adapted by Brittany Goff from: O'Connor, K., & Aardema, F. (2012). Clinician's handbook for obsessive compulsive disorder: Inference-based therapy. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Module 11

The Tricks & Cheats of OCD

Adapted by Brittany Goff from: O'Connor, K., & Aardema, F. (2012). Clinician's handbook for obsessive compulsive disorder: Inference-based therapy. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

You take your car to a mechanic for new brakes. You are driving home after the repairs, and your brakes give out. You crash into a ditch. You call the mechanic, and he insists that you bring it in again. You bring it in, and they repair the brakes for the second time. As you are on your way home, the brakes give out, and you crash into the car in front of you. When you call the mechanic, he insists that you bring it in a third time to repair the brakes. Are you going to go back to that same mechanic?

No, you wouldn't. It wouldn’t make sense, right? This is like listening to OCD. So far, OCD has been wrong and unreliable most of the time. So why do we keep going back? Let’s take a closer look at the rhetorical devices that keep you returning to your OCD time and time again.

Adapted by Brittany Goff from: O'Connor, K., & Aardema, F. (2012). Clinician's handbook for obsessive compulsive disorder: Inference-based therapy. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Review..

The Obsessional Story

Theory & Inferential Confusion

OCD is Imaginary & Irrelevant

Bridging

Neurodivergent Stories

The Feared Self

The Logic of OCD

Review..

The Tricks & Cheats of OCD

The Monotropic Bubble

Reality Sensing

The Alternative Story

The Tricks & Cheats of OCD

Mismatching

Reverse reasoning

FACT OUT OF CONTEXT

Living The Fear

Double Jeopardy

Testing it out

Distrust of the senses

Living The Fear

Out of COntext Fact

Reverse Reasoning

Mismatching

Testing it out

Double Jeopardy

Distrust of the senses

Adapted by Brittany Goff from: O'Connor, K., & Aardema, F. (2012). Clinician's handbook for obsessive compulsive disorder: Inference-based therapy. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

But maybe this time...

But maybe later...

Let's discuss it..

Blending

Adapted by Brittany Goff from: O'Connor, K., & Aardema, F. (2012). Clinician's handbook for obsessive compulsive disorder: Inference-based therapy. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Next up,

The Real Self

Out of Context Facts

Out of COntext Fact

OCD can make you think about certain facts that are true, but these facts might not fit what's really happening around you right now. So, even though the facts themselves are correct, they aren't relevant to your current situation because they are being taken out of context.

People cheat, so my partner could be cheating.

Russia has nuclear weapons, so Russia will start a nuclear war with us.

Germs do exist; therefore, I might have germs on my hands.

People lose their minds, so I can, too.

Adapted by Brittany Goff from: O'Connor, K., & Aardema, F. (2012). Clinician's handbook for obsessive compulsive disorder: Inference-based therapy. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Adapted by Brittany Goff from: O'Connor, K., & Aardema, F. (2012). Clinician's handbook for obsessive compulsive disorder: Inference-based therapy. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Mismatching

Mismatching

It happened to somebody else, therefore it could happen to me!

I saw a woman get a brain-eating tapeworm, so I could too.

Somebody I went to high school with got canceled, so I can get canceled too.

I heard about someone getting poisoned once, so I could get poisoned.

Living the Fear

Mirror touch synesthesiaMirror NeuronsHyper-empathyMonotropism

Living The Fear

A trick that simulates reality as if there were actually sensory information in the here and now.

Sensations are not symptoms

This is because the story of OCD can be so convincing that you actually begin to experience the story “as if” it were real with all the physical feelings.

Adapted by Brittany Goff from: O'Connor, K., & Aardema, F. (2012). Clinician's handbook for obsessive compulsive disorder: Inference-based therapy. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Reverse Reasoning

Typical reasoning starts with an observation (in reality), then leads to a conclusion about that observation. Reverse reasoning begins with an idea or “fact” and then creates a conclusion.

Reverse Reasoning

Reverse reasoning begins with an idea or “fact” (IT’S FLU SEASON) and then creates a conclusion (THEREFORE I’M GOING TO GET SICK).

Typical reasoning starts with an observation in reality (HAVING A COUGH), then leads to a conclusion about that observation. (I MIGHT BE SICK).

Adapted by Brittany Goff from: O'Connor, K., & Aardema, F. (2012). Clinician's handbook for obsessive compulsive disorder: Inference-based therapy. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Testing It Out

Testing it out

OCD may convince you to test out the behavior and then try to use this as evidence for your doubt.

"I'm going to watch same sex pornographic to test for arousal"

Also known as a “poorly done exposure”

"Since I sought it out, it must be true."

Adapted by Brittany Goff from: O'Connor, K., & Aardema, F. (2012). Clinician's handbook for obsessive compulsive disorder: Inference-based therapy. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

OCD convinces you to obey it, which then creates new doubt because something bad might happen due to obeying it.

I gave in and checked my oven to verify it was off. But what if I accidentally hit the “on” button again while checking it?

Adapted by Brittany Goff from: O'Connor, K., & Aardema, F. (2012). Clinician's handbook for obsessive compulsive disorder: Inference-based therapy. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Distrust of the Senses

Interoceptive

Just as the name suggests, OCD can make you distrust or second-guess your own senses and yourself.

Distrust of the senses

Proprioceptive

Without this, inferential confusion wouldn’t be possible

Vestibular

Sensory processing disorder

synesthesia

Adapted by Brittany Goff from: O'Connor, K., & Aardema, F. (2012). Clinician's handbook for obsessive compulsive disorder: Inference-based therapy. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Next Up,

The Real Self

I should check my body for signs of a disease to ensure I'm not sick.

I wonder if these spots could mean i'm sick