Save Mark Acceptance with airSlate SignNow

Save mark acceptance

the idea of acceptance is something that I literally stumbled across one day while I was out walking on the street and so what had happened was so this was after I'd already done a six-month course of exposure and response prevention therapy to deal with my anxiety disorders so it's incredibly effective it was amazingly effective I had reduced the compulsions in my life so I was dealing with all sorts of obsessive-compulsive disorder compulsions and in addition to other anxiety disorders they all kind of pile in together and this course of exposure and response prevention therapy had been incredibly effective but still often I would get a lot of these what are called intrusive thoughts anxious thoughts would pop into my head and I would spend a lot of time ruminating on them and trying to reassure myself that everything was okay because what happens is exposure response prevention therapy is very very effective at cutting out overt compulsions so things like going to check the stove washing compulsively you know looking in mirrors checking door locks yeah all all sorts of compulsions you know eating compulsions things like that but a lot of the times other compulsions are in our heads there are different ways of thinking and we often don't think that those are actions but really they are thinking about something trying to remember something trying to remind yourself that everything's going to be okay telling yourself that everything is good everything is fine everything is safe that's a compulsion too and I hadn't really dealt with those so one night this is how I stumbled across the acceptance that was lying on the sidewalk one night I remember it was a Sunday and I was going to the drugstore I had to pick up something that I'd run out of before the week started this so this was after dinner and you know the drugstore was open late I was like okay I can make it so I left the house and I get about a block away from my house and the thought pops into my head what if you left the stove on after dinner did you really turn off the stove and I had to pause and think about it so what had been happening since I had finished exposure and response prevention therapy since I'd finished the RP is that when that thought would pop into my head I would try you remember if I turned off the stove so I knew not to go back I knew that going back to the house and checking that would only make my OCD worse that's one of the things that causes OCD so those compulsions lead to obsession so I knew I couldn't do that but what had happened was so I managed to cut out those overt compulsions the compulsions you see I knew I had to keep going to the drug store but what would happen is in the past is that as I was going then to the drug store I would just keep reminding myself no it's probably turned off you know you have to keep walking but it's I'm pretty sure I can remember turning it off and I would do what's called reassurance I would reassure myself it's okay everything's going to be fine everything is safe you turned it off you remember turning it off you turned off you know you turn off the stove you took the pot you threw it in the sink it's in cold water it can't light on fire and burn the house down everything's okay so I would try to be certain and then eventually you know I wouldn't go back and go to the store I'd come back I would see that it'd been turned off and then everything would be fine but that act of reassuring myself was exacerbating and making my OCD continue because I was still engaging in compulsions and then so this one night so I'd left the house the stop pops into my head what if he left the stove on and for whatever reason after years this was Hector I was like twenty nine thirty years of practicing OCD finally it occurred to me why do I keep answering these questions and that right there is is one of the things that's at the core of what I've since come to know is refer to as acceptance so at the time I didn't I didn't know there was a thing called acceptance at the time I was just like of course yeah why why do I keep answering these questions and at the time so I just I don't know if the stove is on it might be and it might not be and that not answering the question is an incredibly powerful to solution to a lot of the problems with OCD so when it comes to OCD or really any anxiety disorder a lot of them the problem doesn't arise from having too much anxiety the problem arises from reacting to the intrusive thought that pops into your head a lot of what all the problems that would deal with comes from an attempt to be certain so a question pops into your head or an uncertainty and then you try to answer it so in the past people try to answer you know did I leave the stove on and I keep trying to answer it and answer it and answer it and of course I can never be certain because even even when I was reassuring myself even if I Kember oh I remember turning it off I'm not standing in front of the stove I can't be sure I didn't turn it off my brain being the anxious brain that is going to say well are you really sure are you sure that memory is from today and not from yesterday and so what's helped tremendously and so this I really really encourage you to try this is to just not answer the question when a question pops into your head just treat it as a question it's just like whether just sort of passing through your brain it's like a cloud so there's a cloud you don't have to react to the cloud you don't have to believe it means something you don't have to label the cloud you don't have to try and decide what color the cloud is or be certain about what shape the cloud is it's just a cloud you get one of these questions in your head it's just a question you don't have to answer it so that's one of the core ideas when it comes to acceptance is just accepting what's happening in your head so your brain you know it's anxious you know it's gonna ask questions and you've seen by this point if you've been struggling with an anxiety disorder for a long time you can never be certain you're never going to be able to answer those questions so just stop trying to answer them and you'll find that once you stop Trump answering those questions your brain isn't going to throw them at you anymore because your brain loves to save energy so your brain loves to do things that you're going to react to if you don't react to what your brain throws at you it's not going to throw it at you so try that this week when your brain throws questions at you no matter what the question is don't answer it