Álex

Today’s post was written by a patient with OCD whom I’ve been seeing for some time now. Álex came to me because of mental contamination OCD that took over practically every moment of his day from the time he got up. The disorder had been part of Álex’s life for as long as he can remember, but he only decided to try therapy relatively recently: he’d made an attempt as a teenager that didn’t help, and that completely put him off looking any further.

I suggested he could share his story here, thinking it might help other people in a similar situation, since he has improved significantly and his quality of life has risen considerably as a result.

The sessions were held by video call, every two weeks. The fact that they weren’t weekly wasn’t a problem, as he made up for it with great motivation and steady work. We worked with Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT) together with exposure and response prevention. I should also mention that he hasn’t taken any medication at any point during therapy.

Although Álex has improved a great deal, there are no miracle cures. We need to keep working and fine-tuning things so that today’s results (he’s been very stable for quite a few months now) last into the future. He still has to keep an eye on certain issues and keep working on them.

No type of therapy works for 100% of patients with any disorder. There’s no therapy that works for everyone, but it’s true that with motivation, work and perseverance a great deal can be achieved in a large proportion of cases. Álex is one of those cases. So here is his story. I should tell you that I don’t give patients any specific guidelines when they write these posts: I let them express freely, and in their own way, how they’ve experienced the process, which is the whole point of this kind of piece.

Thank you, Álex, for sharing your experience with us; I’m sure it will help more than one person.

It’s been a little over a year since I started seeing Sara for OCD. I’m in my fifties and I’ve lived with the disorder since childhood… Why did I wait so long to see a psychologist? Because whenever I read about the well-known exposure and response prevention therapy, or watched a documentary or video on the subject, there was “something” missing… But one lucky day I stumbled across a talk on YouTube explaining “inference-based therapy”, and that’s when I said: “Here’s the missing piece, this is the key, this is what can dismantle the power of OCD”… I began to understand OCD and how it works.

Of course inference-based therapy includes exposures; the difference is in how it prepares you to defend yourself against OCD’s bombardments. In the past I found that exposure on its own became an insurmountable hell; now it’s different. When you learn in therapy “how OCD keeps itself alive”, how “your OCD story” works, “your faulty inductive inference”, “how you give up the information your five senses give you in the OCD area” and much more… you go into exposures effectively and full of energy. Some rituals I’d had for years have even just switched off! Although I’m not fully recovered, my life has changed radically since I started I-CBT: I’ve freed myself from most of the rituals that ate up my time and got in the way of everyday life, and life has become 80% easier. A real triumph.

My mind and my experience have changed completely. Now, when OCD throws a dart at me in daily life, I react in a completely different way and can disarm most of its effects. I say most, because I’m still in the process. It’s a training programme, and it takes a huge amount of perseverance and commitment, but it’s worth it. You have to be disciplined, do the homework, take time to read and reflect on the material you’re given in therapy, know that your mood will vary and not let that carry you away, but keep going with your eyes fixed on the goal… Personally, I’d add something that has helped me enormously: listening every day to Sara’s talks. They’re full of examples and tips that, in my case at least, have been like vitamins… I’ve turned them into mp3s and carry them on my phone; I listen to them on public transport, while walking, and so on. I’m absolutely convinced that this is the way to pull OCD out by the roots and get it out of our lives.

Best wishes, Álex.