Did my Therapist’s approach not went far enough?
I was in Therapy for some months for my OCD. I used to struggle with violent and disturbing intrusive thoughts that would make me feel like a psycho and hinder my function in social situations and daily life because of it. My compulsion to deal with these thoughts was to imagine my head explode or other things along the line to make the thought able to escape and relieve anxiety.
My therapist told me how these thoughts are not my own, I can’t control them, arguing with them makes em stronger and validates them. These thoughts say nothing about me.
She would help me sort of replace my violent compulsion with a more constructive one. For the last year, everytime an ocd thought pops up I remember that these thoughts have nothing to say about me as a person to get the relief that I am not a total nutjob.
I did some research on my own a few days ago and was wondering if this wasn’t going far enough. Since I am basically arguing with my thought about it’s validity.
Additionally we had a few exercises where I was supposed to feel the anxiety and actively confront the most cruel and vivid thoughts, thinking myself into them, but she never really taught me that the end goal should be to accept the uncertainty, to teach the brain to not feel anxious anymore, if I understand correctly what I read.