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But had it been the wine? Maybe it was something else. I was no math expert, but this was an intoxicating equation: Hot Guy with Mysterious Past + Way With Pretty Words x Chivalry at Beach / His Aloofness at Coffee Shop (Immunity to My Face & Flirty Efforts) + Innuendo at Hardware Store x Honest Confession about OCD Struggles —> Curiosity + Arousal (Belly Flutters + Pulse Quickening)=ATTACKISS.
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Melanie Harlow (Some Sort of Happy (Happy Crazy Love, #1))
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You can't fight mental health bias if you label people based on a lists of symptoms and you have no medical degree to diagnose people. We all have crazy running through our blood and so many things trigger that. We all struggle with our anxiety and twisted issues. Defamation of character is not kind, nor Christlike. Because when you label people with self righteous vindication you open the door to the very idea that self righteousness is itself a disorder that we should all be afraid of. This doorway when left open too long gets people to pull away from Christ, not run to him.
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Shannon L. Alder
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Since we choose our bodies and the lessons that come with living that life, those with crippling imperfections--a physical handicap, maybe, or a psychiatric struggle related to depression or OCD--have done so to grow their souls in some way. I wish my body were a lot of things it’s not--relaxed instead of anxious, five foot seven and a hundred twenty pounds instead of five foot one and…never mind.
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Theresa Caputo (There's More to Life Than This)
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I like to say the idea of Phantasma came to me all at once, hitting me like a ton of bricks one cloudy afternoon in November 2021, but truly, my experience with obsessive-compulsive disorder has been building to this story for a very long time. During the process of brainstorming the sort of adult romance I wanted to debut with, I was going through a period where my obsessive-compulsive tendencies were flaring up more than usual and the voices in my head were getting a little too bold. To my friends, these compulsions were alarming little anecdotes over lunch—‘that sounds like a horror movie’ one of them said (affectionately)—which is funny because, to me, someone who has lived with OCD my entire life, it was just another day of being unfazed by the increasingly creative scenarios my mind likes to conjure. OCD has such a wide range of symptoms that it makes every person’s experience with it different. Unfortunately, it has also become a commonly misused term conflated with the idea of being overly neat and clean, when in reality a lot of people with OCD have much darker symptoms. In my experience this has made explaining the real effects of OCD very hard as well as making it more difficult for people to regard the condition seriously. It’s so important to me to convey, with the utmost sincerity, that I know people are not doing this to be malicious! Because of the misuse of the term, however, some of the ways this disorder is shown in this book may come off as exaggerated or dramatic—but the details of Ophelia’s OCD are drawn directly from experiences that I, or someone I know who shares my condition, have had first-hand. And it’s still only a fraction of the symptoms we live with daily. Ophelia’s story is a love letter to my journey of getting comfortable being in my own head (as well as my adoration for Gothic aesthetics and hot ghosts). And while her experience with OCD, my experience with OCD, might look a lot different to someone else’s, I hope that the same message rings clear: struggling with your mental health does not make you unworthy of love. And I hope the people you surround yourself with are the sort of people who know that, too.
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Kaylie Smith (Phantasma (Wicked Games, #1))
James Manning (Joe Goes to OCD School: A CBT book for kids who are struggling with OCD: This will be a useful CBT book for children who are having Cognitive Behaviour ... compulsive disorder (CBT for OCD 2))
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sensations. Compulsive means that we feel compelled to act or behave in a certain way. It feels like we have no choice.” replied Dr Jones. Dr Jones got up from his seat to point at his white board. “For many people there can
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James Manning (Joe Goes to OCD School: A CBT book for kids who are struggling with OCD: This will be a useful CBT book for children who are having Cognitive Behaviour ... compulsive disorder (CBT for OCD 2))
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I propose, then, that “mental force” is a force of nature generated by volitional effort, such as the effort required to refocus attention away from the obsessions of OCD and onto an actively chosen healthy behavior. Directed mental force, I suggest, accounts for the observed changes in brain function that accompany clinical improvement among OCD patients who have been successfully treated with the Four Steps. The volitional effort required for Refocusing can, through the generation of mental force, amplify and strengthen alternative circuitry that is just beginning to develop in the patient’s brain. The results are a quieting of the OCD circuit and an activation of healthy circuits. Through directed mental force, what begin as fragile, undependable processes—shifting attention away from the OCD obsessions and onto less pathological behaviors—gradually become stronger. This is precisely the goal of the therapy: to make the once-frail circuits prevail in the struggle against the OCD intruder.
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Jeffrey M. Schwartz (The Mind & The Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force)
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First formula: Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been [time] since my last confession. I have scrupulosity and OCD. I am filled with fear and anxiety about sin, and I do not trust God. I love God, but I struggle to believe God loves me. Since my last confession, I have tried to do good, but I am aware that I have often failed. I am sorry for all of my sins, especially for the sin of [name], which I am confident I have committed. I ask for your absolution and for your penance. Second formula: Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. I am a sinner, and I have OCD and scrupulosity. I am filled with anxiety about sin, and I struggle to trust God. I love God, but I do not easily believe God loves me. Since my last confession, I have tried to do good, but I have often failed. I am sorry for all of my sins as God sees me guilty.
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Thomas M. Santa (Understanding Scrupulosity: 3rd Edition of Questions and Encouragement)
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Hot Guy with Mysterious Past + Way With Pretty Words x Chivalry at Beach / His Aloofness at Coffee Shop (Immunity to My Face & Flirty Efforts) + Innuendo at Hardware Store x Honest Confession about OCD Struggles —> Curiosity + Arousal (Belly Flutters + Pulse Quickening)=ATTACKISS.
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Melanie Harlow (Some Sort of Happy (Happy Crazy Love, #1))
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The golden rule for supporting a family member with OCD is to remain a family member. You’re not her therapist, and it’s unlikely to benefit her if you try to be. Your family member with OCD actually relies on family support more than you might think. Though her struggle with OCD is an inwardly lonely journey—even others with OCD can’t understand exactly what it’s like for her—it shouldn’t be an outwardly lonely one. Your family member with OCD should see family and home as a place to come back to after therapy and feel close to her loved ones. If you act as though you’re her therapist, it will create distance between you. Then she may feel alone both inside and out. So be a mom, be a dad, be a brother, be a sister, be a son or daughter to your loved one with OCD.
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Jon Hershfield (When a Family Member Has OCD: Mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioral Skills to Help Families Affected by Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder)
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I cannot stress how much I love the idea of kindness being lubrication for tough situations. Whenever you’re struggling, in or out of the bedroom, reach for some lube, baby!
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Allison Raskin (Overthinking About You: Navigating Romantic Relationships When You Have Anxiety, OCD, and/or Depression)
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At the Chinese restaurant, I stared out the window overlooking a tranquil garden with water features, ponds covered in lily pads, and koi fish. Amid the serenity and smell of dumplings, I struggled to breathe. It seemed the walls were closing in, and everyone was looking at me. Words danced around on the menu. I didn’t want the waiter near us. I wanted to shrink until I popped and disappeared.
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Dana Da Silva (The Shift: A Memoir)
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Be patient with your partner. This can be hard to do sometimes, because ROCD, like all forms of OCD, is persistent. But the more patient and understanding you can be with your partner, the easier it will be for them to treat their disorder. That said, be firm. By now, you should have a pretty good understanding of what your partner needs to do to treat their ROCD. If you see that they’re just giving in to their compulsions, remind them that it’s important to both of you for them to continue treating their OCD. Patience is all well and good, but there’s no sense in being patient with your partner when they’re actively worsening the disorder. Above all, be supportive. In any relationship, partners have to support each other. ROCD naturally can be extremely painful for you as the partner, but it is also a very personal struggle for the OCD sufferer. And as with any struggle, one of the best things you can do as their partner is provide love and support. Remind them not to be so hard on themselves when they do fall into the traps of their ROCD.
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Hugh and Sophia Evans (Is She the One? Living with ROCD When You’re Married: Relationship Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Why it Doesn’t Have to Wreak Havoc on Your Relationship)
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Fourth, along these same lines, some diagnoses remind us of a more central role of the body in a person’s struggle. Psychiatric diagnoses remind us that we are embodied souls. We know this clearly from Scripture! But functionally speaking, we sometimes over-spiritualize troubles with emotions and thoughts. When you consider the spectrum of psychiatric diagnoses, it is clear that years of research demonstrate that some diagnoses may have a stronger genetic (inherited) component of causation than others. These include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autistic spectrum disorder, and perhaps more severe and recalcitrant forms of depression (melancholia), anxiety, and OCD.2 Another way of saying this is that although psychiatric diagnoses are descriptions and not full-fledged explanations, it doesn’t mean that a given diagnosis or symptom holds no explanatory clues at all. Not all psychiatric diagnoses should be viewed equally. Some do indeed have long-standing recognition in medical and psychiatric history, occur transculturally, and therefore are not merely modern, Western “creations” that highlight patterns of deviant or sinful behavior, as critics would say. Observations that have held up among various
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Michael R. Emlet (Descriptions and Prescriptions: A Biblical Perspective on Psychiatric Diagnoses and Medications (Helping the Helpers))
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An obsession is simply a thought that you’re not willing to have. If you’re not resisting the thought, if you choose not to struggle with it, if you are willing to have it…it’s just a thought.
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Chad Lejeune ("Pure O" OCD: Letting Go of Obsessive Thoughts with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy)
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the greatest reality we can experience for mental health is the eternal love of God.
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Mark DeJesus (The OCD Healing Journey: Getting to the Heart of Our Obsessive and Compulsive Struggles)
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When we find ourselves feeling trapped, stuck and hopeless in how we interpret our thoughts, it reveals we are listening to a line of thinking that does not come from God.
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Mark DeJesus (The OCD Healing Journey: Getting to the Heart of Our Obsessive and Compulsive Struggles)
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The OCD mind doesn’t know there is a difference between a passing thought, a temptation, a thought that becomes a place of desired meditation and actually acting on the thought. In black-and-white perspectives, they believe that if the thought showed up, it means something about themselves. It drives something known in psychology as thought-action fusion. They believe that having a thought arrive is the same as acting on that thought.
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Mark DeJesus (The OCD Healing Journey: Getting to the Heart of Our Obsessive and Compulsive Struggles)
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the OCD mind has a problem: they take their thoughts way too seriously and give their thoughts way too much power. Their internal response to thoughts is like a hair trigger.
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Mark DeJesus (The OCD Healing Journey: Getting to the Heart of Our Obsessive and Compulsive Struggles)
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OCD strugglers chase down thoughts they do not even need to acknowledge because a distorted personal responsibility is driving them to do so.
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Mark DeJesus (The OCD Healing Journey: Getting to the Heart of Our Obsessive and Compulsive Struggles)
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Jesus did not die on the cross and resurrect so that you and I would live a burden-filled life of never-ending torment.
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Mark DeJesus (The OCD Healing Journey: Getting to the Heart of Our Obsessive and Compulsive Struggles)