As well, mindfulness can nurture a sufferer’s ability to develop a nonjudgmental viewpoint, manage anxiety and live in the present. As with other subsets of OCD, harm OCD is most effectively treated by a type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) called Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy. Thus the treatment for people harm OCD cycle is the same for those with other forms of OCDĬognitive restructuring of thoughts and beliefs through CBT is an important part of OCD treatment. It serves us well to learn to live with uncertainty.Īlthough harm OCD may seem very different from OCD about contamination, for example, the driving engine behind nearly all OCD is the need for certainty. However, this complete elimination of risk is not possible, and we all live daily with countless low-probability fears. These low odds are irrelevant to an individual suffering OCD, because the disorder demands a complete and total elimination of risk. There is no guarantee that thoughts won’t be acted upon by anyone including those with postpartum OCD, but the chances are very low. This is because, somewhat paradoxically, whatever we resist most actively tends to persist and escalate proportionally to the degree of our resistance. These dismissals or avoidances create a significant increase in distress. They do everything they can to dismiss the thoughts or to avoid having them. Postpartum OCD sufferers are terrified by the thought of harming their child. During a delusional episode, hurting their baby may seem like a “good idea”-this stands in stark contrast to someone suffering from postpartum harm OCD. Conversely, violent thoughts are experienced very differently by parents experiencing postpartum psychosis. Anxiety is the driving force behind these thoughts, not delusion, and are rarely acted upon. Research has shown that 3-5% of new mothers have obsessive postpartum thoughts of harming their children. This is due in part to the way postpartum psychosis (a distinct condition) has been reported on and sometimes sensationalized in the media. It can be particularly difficult for new mothers experiencing postpartum OCD, including harm thoughts, to seek proper diagnosis and treatment. For example, a parent may avoid using a knife to prepare dinner if a child is present out of fear of hurting the child with the knife. To try to reduce the discomfort and achieve certainty that they will not act on their thoughts, people with harm OCD become reliant on mental compulsions and avoidance. For OCD suffers, the thoughts “stick” and coagulate into obsessions which produce a tremendous amount of anxiety. It is important to keep in mind that having repetitive unwanted thoughts is not due to a flaw in moral character, but rather to cognitive misfires in the brain. The difference is that for OCD sufferers, these thoughts and graphic images cause an undue amount of discomfort and distress. In fact, harm OCD thoughtsare so common that 85% of people without OCD admit to having uninvited violent thoughts about harming themselves or their loved ones. Although not frequently discussed, violent and sexually violent thoughts are not unusual in the general population, and harm OCD is a common subset of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
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