All about OCD and uncertainty

The entire purpose of treatment is to increase your tolerance for uncertainty. You have to choose yes to living with uncertainty every single time OCD creeps in. For the rest of your life. You have OCD bc you have such a low tolerance for uncertainty. Deliberately exposing yourself and never ritualizing increases this tolerance. This can not be overstated!!

[azocdphd]

Thank you so much for keeping it honest here. I have found over the years, I have needed to stop coddling my clients as much as I once did. Learning how to accept uncertainty is a tough pill to swallow but any attempt to hold on to being able to answer the question ultimately keeps the sufferer stuck. Your content is really top notch.

[jonwhitney]

I am so grateful for this video- everything you said- made ultimate sense- and I am in Therapy for treatment for my OCD- we are working on creating tolerance of the uncertain- it has been a difficult path and continues to include some backsliding on my part- but I am not going to give up!

[robynbarrow]

Thank you, I am just starting erp therapy and l am struggling. I need to hear that it is achievable. I understand what you are saying. I need to stop the compulsions. I have to have a plan to help me when the anxiety feels intolerable. That's what l am working on. Thanks again.

[yvonnerobinson]

Best I have heard on OCD Thank you, I have been trying to do what you are saying, without having heard this before, sometimes I write things down, I find that helps me as well.

[gabetto_solis]

Living with uncertainty, knowing it is 20%, really feeling it is the other 80%, there are times when I have felt it and I have felt calm and fascination with everything that was happening at that moment and freedom knowing that anything can happen, whether good, bad or irrelevant and I will know how to deal with it, but I really haven't been like this for a whole day for now it's just moments, but it's definitely the way out of the labyrinth

[thejustinavictoria]

This was extremely helpful. Thank you.

[rahulbhagwat]

Hey man this video really helped me
I have come to a point in my life where the things that literally weren’t bothering me at all suddenly started bothering me
My life has become hell where literally everything is turning in to a compulsion …Its all about checking that I didnt do something wrong anywhere
Everyday literally my themes keep changing and my OCD picks up a new topic….I get so helpless that sleep is the only way to get out of it and I just have my medication and sleep and I dont feel like getting up at all ….My OCD is related to false memories and past events where everyday after solving one theme that yes I didnt do anything like that in the past an another one comes up …..My OCD adds in details in to those blurred memories and makes it more terrible ….Even when I decide that Yes I will not do any compulsions I have to say that in a sentence without stopping 10 times ….
If I miss any word in the sentence I have to again restart saying that ….My ocd is also related to saying and reading things multiple times and still not getting satisfied ……I am so double standard that when I try to do Exposures I cheat myself …..Its like “I will never do compulsions again but after this one last one “
Fighting with my OCD millions of times finally I have to give up and start accepting I will never know anything and nothing in life is certain …..Today at 12:18 a.m I am still awake watching OCD videos on youtube which again is a compulsion that I am doing BUT your videos are awesome and all of your advice is “no bullshit” straight to the point

[johnlawler]

Right on the money again. The moment that I understood this concept and realized that I was half assing treatment, I noticed an immediate improvement. Guessing the thumbs down are from people who aren't ready to do the proper treatment yet!

[AndrewwSimon]

Hi i am suffering a lot and when my mind is clear i can see that my fear is uncertainity not knowing if a possible bad thing happens or not

[yuyingren]

Dear Brian, thank you so, so, so much for this wonderful Your videos have helped me immensely. I used to do ERP in a way where I image my feared situation has already come true, and it didn't work for me. I was surrounded by a lot of distress and confusion. I was even casting doubt on whether ERP may ever work for me. After watching your video, I realized that I might have done ERP the wrong way (please correct me if this realization is wrong)-- Instead of imagining that my feared situation has already come true, maybe I should think about not knowing for sure whether it will come true in my exposure session. Maybe my fear will come true, maybe not, it is uncertain and that uncertainty is my exposure. I am not sure whether I comprehended it right, and please correct me if I am wrong. Thank you so much for making all these wonderful videos!

[jgilbertson]

I can't accept that I might never sleep again and did from sleep deprivation. This is a tough one. I hope one day I can accept this!

[dekgtech]

Another point to add when you compared people without OCD to those who have OCD - I find that in a lot of cases it's a % that people with OCD strive for which is obviously 100% and impossible to achieve about whatever topic the OCD sufferer is dealing with. I have Just Right so my OCD is always constantly wanting me to make sure every piece of detail about something is "right" while somebody without OCD wouldn't even go to all these lengths in the first place and unconsciously accept whatever the results are.

[arshad]

Hi, I’m interested in sessions, how can I contact you?

[ahmedsudaisbatuaan]

What keeps ocd alive and why i think i overcame it but it comes back.

[souravsharma]

As you said sufferers have intolerance of Uncertainty unlike non-OCD people, so it's our fault or a weak trait on our part that we have low tolerance of Uncertainty? Or it's just a brain makes us that way?

[Acujeremy]

Can you clear something up for me? If I am afraid of touching things because I think they are contaminated so I avoid them, and then if I touch something that I think is contaminated and it freaks me out, how does that relate to uncertainty?

[dafnik]

How did you truly accept uncertainty ?