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Using Mindfulness to Treat OCD

I'm not a doctor or a psychologist, however my life experiences have helped me become quite an expert on treatment options for OCD. 

I've been regularly seeing a therapist, albeit several different therapists over the years, since I was diagnosed with OCD 20 years ago. The treatment of OCD has come a long way since then but there's still tremendous room for improvement and the integration of mindfulness.  

Let's get a better picture of what I'm talking about when I say treatment methods. Here's a list of what I've used over the last 20 years with various therapists: ERP (exposure response prevention), CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy), talk therapy (this is not a viable method of treating OCD so stay as far away from it as you can because it will only make your OCD worse), ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy), medication, and last but certainly not least, mindfulness.

Exercise is not typically viewed as a treatment method but I swear by it. The two most effective things for me are mindfulness and exercise.

I'd really like to see the discussion about how OCD is treated focus more of the use of mindfulness but I have yet to see that in the U.S. 

There are therapists and doctors that have been advocating the use of mindfulness in treating OCD for some time. Jeffrey Schwartz was and is a pioneer in this field and Jon Hershfield and Tom Corboy recently wrote an excellent book called 'The Mindfulness Workbook for OCD: A Guide to Overcoming Obsessions and Compulsions Using Mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy'. This is by far the best book I've ever read in describing how OCD works and what you can do to effectively treat it. The book is available on Amazon.  

OCD manifests itself in different ways depending upon what you value most, however obsessions trigger the same flood of unpleasant emotions that can all be viewed the same way using mindfulness. 

More to come...

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