Dr. Hanscom's Blog Dr Hanscom on Repetitive Unpleasant Thoughts

In today's newsletter from Dr. Hanscom, the latest in a series of articles about what he terms RUTS - Repetitive Unpleasant Thoughts (aka rumination) - and of course his recommendations for getting out of the rumination rut:

The Popcorn Machine – Healing RUTS - Back in Control

You can also sign up for his newsletter online at this page.

 

I’ve found that Dr. David Burns’ book Feeling Good (mentioned in the article) to be one of the most important books I’ve ever read on mental health.

 

I love how calming the nervous system is a big part of this - that's the mind-body connection.

So important!

 

"OCD is a diagnosis that has limited value. It does imply an intensity of bothersome thoughts that disrupts your ability to function in daily life. But at what tipping point would you call RUTs OCD?"

From perusing that article I would say that 100% of people with OCD have his new 'disease'.I don't know what 'normal' people consider acceptable intrusive thoughts, But The doctor who helped me banish intrusive thoughts forever, and taught me STOP therapy which was 100% effective did say that there were two divisions of people with OCD... the "Born that way" who can never remember NOT having it, and people who get driven to madness by anxiety and externals... Like how a lot of 'sane' people got during COVID. I was a 'born that way'

Gotta be honest.. this sounds like a strategy for prolonging and empowering it... You cannot fight the ego with the Ego... to quote Eckhart Tolle... the Chief of Police is looking for an arsonist who is the chief of police.

Much like recovering from TMS took an intense focused re-training that now needs very little effort to be called back into service because of the thoroughness of the 'change', Stop therapy eradicated my OCD thoughts. No relaxation. No judgement. Thought pattern? Nuke it!

Remember, in OCD the intrusive thoughts are what trigger the compulsive actions. If you delete them or render them ineffective you don't ever get to the rituals and compulsions. So his strategy list might just trigger more thoughts "What is a positive thought?" "Am I relaxed? How can I relax when this thought is driving me crazy?"

The intrusive thoughts ARE the hellish part. We try to 'bind the anxiety' of the thoughts with handwashing, counting, replaying scenes in our head, etc.

I liked Stop therapy because I didn't have to change myself. I actually am just as hyper as I ever was, but I can redirect that into an effective destructive therapy that absolutely BORES me to death with my own thoughts until they just run out of energy. I literally exhausted myself.
Much like with TMS when one starts to get traction I can say "Oh.... it's YOU again. Nope.. don't have time right now" and it just goes away.

I am glad people are finally addressing this ...they used to call OCD the disease of doubt because people with it think they are crazy , not sick.

But it might be something like Alcoholism where only a person with it can explain it to another. And you have to get waaaay sick of it before you might invest the energy to do something about it.

my .2 cents

 

I tend to agree it's a behavioral issue... at a certain point one has to stop feeding the beast and refrain from indulging in rumination or body checking. It comes down to choice and viewing tms as a habit. All the rest can be helpful but it does boil down to that imo.