This post is about Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. It might be the most helpful book I’ve ever read, for helping me manage my mental illness.
I believe there’s overlap between different mental health diagnoses and so what helps a person with one diagnosis might help people with other diagnoses too. That’s why I read Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, even though it’s a book specifically for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder rather than bipolar disorder. The subtitle “A Four Step Treatment Method to Change Your Brain Chemistry” was very appealing to me because it was so empowering! I wish someone would write a book that empowering for bipolar disorder.
Actually, to be honest, I was also interested in this book because I do feel I can be a bit obsessive at times. So I thought it could have direct relevance for me.
As soon as I started reading it I could see that what I regard as ‘a bit obsessive’ in me is orders of magnitude away from the ongoing daily struggle that people with OCD actually face. I felt very sorry for them and very appreciative that that, at least, was one struggle I didn’t have. My brain is broken but I can tell it to shut up. I am not constantly at the mercy of insistent voices telling me to do things over and over again.
As best I recall the book doesn’t claim to be able to make the intrusive OCD voice vanish altogether. What it does say is, here’s a method to help you get out from under it. You will still hear it but the book will teach you how to ignore it and give you the power not to do what it says. And over time that will get easier to do. The method is heavily dependent on you talking back to the OCD.
From the book:
Because OCD can be a fiendishly clever opponent and a demonically self-protective one, it will deny that it is simply a false message from your brain. You may say, “A plane is not going to crash because I didn’t wash my hands again. ” But OCD will say, “Oh, yes it will, and many people will die.” That’s the time to show some faith and strength because you know what the truth is.
You can’t afford to listen. If you sit and fret about whether OCD is going to invade your life on a given day, you’re only assuring yourself more dread and pain. You must say “Go ahead, make my day. Just try to make me wash my hands one more time.“
Then you must deal with the ever-present uncertainty, “How can I be sure that this is not me, just my OCD?” Well, perhaps there are no metaphysical guarantees that there is no possible relationship between hand washing and a plane crash, but I can guarantee that if you give in and wash you hands again, things will only get worse and the OCD will only get stronger. On the other hand, within a few minutes of refocusing on another behavior and not responding to the OCD, the fear of some dreadful consequence will begin to fade, and you will begin to see the OCD compulsion as the ridiculous nonsense it is.
Here’s the four step method:
1. Relabel: It’s not me: it’s my OCD. The book explains how it’s possible to be an ‘impartial spectator’ (I’ve also heard the term ‘detached observer’ used in the same way). From the book
“As the feeling sweeps over you, you must say to yourself “I don’t think or feel that my hands are dirty; rather I’m having an obsession that my hands are dirty. I don’t feel the need to check that lock; rather, I’m having a compulsive urge to check that lock.” This will not make the urge go away, but it will set the stage for actively resisting the OCD thoughts and urges.
2. Reattribute: it’s not me, it’s just my brain. This goes with step 1 but is more about understanding and accepting the biochemical reality of what’s going on. From the book:
There is now strong evidence that in OCD a part of your brain that works much like a gearshift in a car is not working properly. Therefore your brain “gets stuck in gear”. As a result, it’s hard for you to shift behaviors.[…] people with OCD have what amounts to “Brain Lock” in the right side of the brain. […] Behavior therapy is the key that unlocks [it][…] We can literally make a new ‘brain groove.
3. Refocus: do another behavior. Do anything other than what the thought tells you to do. Put off responding to the thought, even for a few minutes, by doing something else.
4. Revalue: learn from your successes. I think this step is about consolidating what the first three steps are showing you, that “your obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors are worthless distractions to be ignored. ” Consistently practicing the first 3 steps is hard work, especially at first, but taking time to do step 4 maybe will help provide the strength to keep going, until it gets easier.
Anyway so, this method was extremely helpful to me in learning better self-control. I don’t have OCD but I have ‘heat of the moment’ times when it’s definitely best for me to
1. use detached observer to see what’s happening and that wisdom involves not reacting right now, based on my current intense feelings
2. for me, realise that when ill I am impulsive and my emotions are strong and flare up with the minimum provocation
3. step away, distract myself, do whatever it takes not to be driven by my intense emotions to do what they are demanding, right here, right now
4. reflect on how what a good decision it was to step away and try to remember that next time, when it’s hard to step away, but I know it’s the best thing to do. For everyone concerned.
I could very much relate to the concept of ‘brain lock’ in step 2 and it helped me to remember that in times of intense emotion my brain probably was stuck in some ‘out of perspective’ place which was not a good place for it to be. I was rather astonished, to be honest, at how, if I stepped away for a day or even a few hours, some offense that seemed huge at the time, later had become resized into a small irritation in my life. A pebble in my shoe rather than a mountain blocking my path. Now I could see it was just a pebble and simply shake out my shoe, if necessary. Instead of being stuck in anger and despair that my life was being ruined by this big mountain. This sounds like it’s about my illness because why would I think a pebble was a mountain? But I think we do all lose perspective sometimes, especially in the heat of the moment.