In this series of blogs, we look at i-CBT, inference-based CBT, and its usage in therapy. These blogs will help you understand more about obsessive-compulsive disorder if you have been diagnosed and start understanding the disorder and the context of therapies available. Also, you can always get the best OCD treatment in Chennai with personalized care and advanced therapeutic approaches from us.
When one is suffering from OCD, it appears very real and very convincing. This is because of the stories we tell ourselves to convince ourselves that the obsessive thoughts are honest. This is the narrative unit of OCD. The narration and the conviction are based on the inferences drawn, as seen from blogs 1 and 2.
Blog 1 talks about Triggers, Obsessive (intrusive), Discomfort, and Compulsions to relieve the anxiety short-term. This can be overlapped on the intrusive thoughts’ FACT, RULE, HEARSAY, EXPERIENCE, and POSSIBILITY inferences of obsessive thoughts.
I encourage you to exercise based on the iCBT technique in this blog. Write a story about OCD.
Write the story (the narration) in as many words as you like. Jot down the reasoning for the doubts based on the factors given above in blog 1 and blog 2.
E.g., You might have the intrusive obsessive doubt that you might have hurt someone when driving, which urges you to get out of the car to keep checking if you have hurt someone.
Now, this can be an example story.
I am driving down a busy road (Trigger). I feel a little bump on my car. It could have been a little puppy or a kitten that I could have hurt (intrusive doubt). It must be bleeding terribly, and I feel very guilty for killing a tiny puppy or kitten. I feel a gripping pain in my tummy, and my heart goes very fast. My mind is filled with doubts about whether I have hurt the puppy/kitten (discomfort). I park my car despite people sounding their horns and check around my car. I had to check each wheel 5 times to be convinced that there was no dead animal under the wheel (compulsion). I know that puppies and kittens can get easily killed, even in a minor car accident (FACT). Puppies and kittens must be protected at any cost, and we must ensure that the car is driven safely (RULE). I heard in the news last night that a small puppy got killed even in a cycle accident (HEARSAY). I once remember playing cricket as a child, and the cricket ball hurt a puppy playing on the roadside (PERSONAL EXPERIENCE). It is always possible I could have hurt a puppy when driving (POSSIBILITY). This might be a story you tell yourself and will keep repeating as a narrative to convince yourself that your doubts are true.
Using the same structure, create a story for something that does not trouble you at all. For example, you may not be uncomfortable about getting germs from touching door handles. Now, write a story about this using the structures above. Now, notice the difference between the discomfort caused by the story that is significant to your obsessive discomforts and those that are not. Keep reflecting on why the story that does not cause discomfort is of little significance to you?
Do this task for 1-2 weeks and you will start to decipher on how illogical your fears can be.
