Read Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Online
Authors: Polly Waite
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (32 page)
These are just a few examples of intrusive thoughts to give you an idea of what we’re looking at. People have lots of different thoughts.
Important
Please write down two thoughts like these that you have had in the last week: 173
174
Appendix C
1
2
The questions on the next two pages are about any intrusive thoughts like these you have had in the last week. On the next page are some ideas that might go through your mind when you have unpleasant intrusive thoughts.
Frequency
We’d like to know how often you had the ideas below, when you were bothered by these intrusive thoughts. Circle the number that shows how often you had these ideas
over the last week
: 0 I never had this idea.
1 I sometimes had this idea.
2 I had this idea half of the times when I had worrying intrusive thoughts.
3 I usually had the idea.
4 I always had the idea when I had worrying intrusive thoughts.
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
this idea
Always had
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
this idea
Usually had
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
time
Half the
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Sometimes
had this idea
0
0
0
01
0
0
0
0
01
0
01
0
0
0
01
Never had
this idea
esponsible.
ong it is up to me to
’t happen.
’m not being r
e these thoughts.
om my own mind, I must want to
, bad things will happen and it will be
eally bad to happen.
ol of my thoughts.
e these thoughts.
e something awful won
’t let them happen.
esponsible to ignor
’t think this type of thing.
’t be r
’ve thought of bad things happening, I must do
e I don
’t try to stop these thoughts, I
’t do something now
’ve thought of this I must want it to happen.
ong to ignor
’t risk this thought coming true.
’ve thought of things that could go wr
’s wr
If I don
I could cause something r
I can
If I don
my fault.
I need to be sur
I shouldn
It wouldn
I’ll feel awful unless I do something about this thought.
Because I
something to stop them.
Since I
Now I
make sur
Thinking this could make it happen.
I have to get contr
It
Because these thoughts come fr
have them.
176
Appendix C
Belief
Over the last week
, when these worrying intrusive thoughts bothered you, how much did you believe each of the ideas below was true? Mark the point on the line that shows how much you believed the idea at the time you had the intrusive thought.
I did not believe
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
I really believed
this
this idea at all
idea was true
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
100
100
100
1
100
100
100
100
1
100
1
100
100
100
1
0
0
0
0
90
90
90
90
90
90
90
90
90
90
90
09
09
09
09
80
80
80
80
80
80
80
80
80
80
80
08
08
08
08
70
70
70
70
70
70
70
70
70
70
70
07
07
07
07
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
06
06
06
06
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
05
05
05
05
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
04
04
04
04
30
30
30
3
30
30
30
30
3
30
3
30
30
30
3
0
0
0
0
20
20
20
2
20
20
20
20
2
20
2
20
20
20
2
0
0
0
0
10
10
10
1
10
10
10
10
1
10
1
10
10
10
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
esponsible.
ong it is up to me
’t happen.
’m not being r
e these thoughts.
om my own mind, I must
, bad things will happen and it will
eally bad to happen.
’t let them happen.
ol of my thoughts.
e these thoughts.
e something awful won
esponsible to ignor
e I don
’t think this type of thing.
’t be r
’ve thought of bad things happening, I must do
’t try to stop these thoughts, I
’t do something now
’ve thought of this I must want it to happen.
ong to ignor
’t risk this thought coming true.
’ve thought of things that could go wr
’s wr
If I don
I could cause something r
I can
If I don
be my fault.
I need to be sur
I shouldn
It wouldn
I’ll feel awful unless I do something about this thought.
Because I
something to stop them.
Since I
Now I
to make sur
Thinking this could make it happen.
I have to get contr
It
Because these thoughts come fr
want to have them.
Appendix D
Diaries
178
day:
day:
day:
uesday:
ednesday:
uesday:
ednesday:
uesday:
ednesday:
How many times did you get this
obsession during the day?
Monday:
T
W
Thursday:
Friday:
Satur
Sunday:
Monday:
T
W
Thursday:
Friday:
Satur
Sunday:
Monday:
T
W
Thursday:
Friday:
Satur
Sunday:
y
‘ver
’ and 10 is
‘not at all
e 0 is
essed did this make you?
’)
essed
10 wher–
How distr
(0
distr
What was the intrusive
thought or image that
came into your head?
riggering situationsT What was going on? Who was around?
What happened after
that? What did you do?
10%)?–
How did this make you
feel?
How bad did you feel
(0
e?
100%)?–
What went through your head when
you had the thought/pictur
What did it mean to you?
How much did you believe this at the
time (0
What was the intrusive
thought or image that
came into your head?
What was going on?
Who was around?
Appendix E
Experiments
181
’t
, the shelf
f, the
f, the therapist will
f the chair
ne and my motherfi
, the shelf will be
ne. All of this means that thoughts donfi
f the chair
PREDICTIONS
If OCD is right about thoughts causing things to
happen then: the light will go of
be sick, the therapist will fall of
will collapse and my mother will be harmed.
If OCD is a liar then the light will not go of
therapist will not be sick, the therapist will not fall of
will be
cause harm.
oved
ning
oom
f a chair while asking the
f by thinking or imagining it.
event harm.
ole models an attempt to make
’s mother goes for walk the child has a
. Simultaneously, the child does not
epeating the experiment.
f a light). The child copies the therapist.
DISCUSSION AND EXPERIMENTS
Build motivation for experiments by asking the child to make a list of (1) all the times when their thoughts made something bad happen and (2) all the times
when they had a bad thought and nothing bad
happened. Discussion focuses on the concept of
coincidence. If something bad has happened in the
past, the idea that this is just bad luck can be pr by r
The therapist r
something happen by thinking about it (e.g. tur
of
The therapist tries to make someone in the r
collapse by thinking about it. The child is then asked to make the therapist sick by thinking about it. The therapist jumps on and of
child to make them fall of
The child is ask to cause structural harm by thinking about it (e.g. thinking about a shelf collapsing).
While the child
bad thought on purpose or waits for a bad thought to naturally occur
carry out rituals to pr
BELIEF
Thinking about harm means
it will happen.
e
ong.
ous then the
ead the futur
e danger
ect lottery numbers and I
edictions will be wr
ges ar
edict the corr
edict all eight numbers written down by the
ges on their own do not cause harm.
If OCD is right about my ability to r
then I will pr
will pr
therapist.
If OCD is a liar my pr
If OCD is telling the truth then cake will appear or my thought will come true.
If OCD is a liar then cake will not appear and my
thought will not come true.
If OCD is right that ur
therapist will hurt her neck and the child will hurt someone.
If OCD is a liar nothing bad will happen because
ur
ds
e).
ovide
oviding lots
om one to
ence of the
e. Pr
esponsibility pie
edict every single
ges by pr
ous, they just feel a bit
t with who you arfi’t
ous (everyone should be
edicted the futur
edict the winning lottery numbers
ecall times when they accurately
e not danger
. Discussion focuses on the idea thatwo
e truly danger
.
’t matter how many times you think about it.
native explanations for the occurr
ges wer
Ask the child to r
and inaccurately pr
alter
event (e.g. bad luck, coincidence, r
charts).
Ask the child to pr
this week.
Therapist writes down eight numbers fr
100 and the child attempts to pr
number
Ask the child to think about a cake suddenly
appearing. Then ask the child to think about this 20
times in r
thoughts do not make things happen and that it
doesn
The therapist and the child practise saying a scary thought out loud 20 times. Discussion focuses on
why it is okay to play this kind of game with wor
(i.e. thoughts ar
horrible because they don
Normalise violent and sexual ur
of examples and carrying out surveys with at least
seven people. Ask the child what would happen in
the world right now if intrusive violent and sexual ur