Sunday, July 29, 2012

The Conference

I did not attend this weekend's OC Foundation Conference in Chicago. But it's still helping me in the fight against OCD.

I spent some time looking at the agenda yesterday, and even the titles and descriptions of the talks had really useful reminders for me.

Among them:

To get stronger, you must repeat actions in the face of doubt and distress. Participants will learn a strategy—based on five rules—to voluntarily seek out and embrace uncertainty and anxiety.

The child will build their own "germ bomb" and the child and family will go on a germ scavenger hunt around the conference hotel to find items to place in their "germ bomb."

Embracing Your Life as an Exposure Task

And of course there's Dr. Grayson's virtual OCD camping trip. I remember seeing a segment on Oprah where they climbed into a large dumpster and another scene where they touched the inside of a really really grimy garbage bin. Sometimes when I worry about the neighbor's garbage I think about climbing into a dumpster and I get some perspective. I try to use it as motivation, not reassurance!

And this morning when I was having some stress about a dentist appointment scheduled for September, the idea of the importance of embracing uncertainty got me on the right track again.

So thanks OCD Foundation. Hope the people who actually attended have been just as inspired.


7 comments:

  1. Oh, yes, I was really inspired. Totally worth going for me.

    I think it's a great idea you had to look at the agenda. You're right - sometimes just looking at the titles can remind you of really important concepts.

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  2. Good post, Ann. I'll have to look at the agenda, too, and get some inspiration!

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  3. Yes, the conference was great, but like you say, I think it can be helpful just going through the agenda as you did. What a great idea!

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  4. Where can you get the agenda for the conference? Looked at the website and was unable to locate. Do you have the link?

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  5. http://www.ocfoundation.org/conference-calendar/

    I think gets you there. Let me know if not and I'll try again. You can click on each title and get an abstract of the talk, too.

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  6. Yes it worked- looking for the stategies based on 5 rules to seek out and embrace uncertainty. Do you remember where you saw that? Thank you for your time.

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    1. It was Reid Wilson's talk on the 27th at 9:15: The Art of Persuasion. And believe me, I went off to Google to find out more. Apparently though he gives talks on this subject around the country and isn't just sharing this info for free on the internet! (I didn't look that hard, though, maybe it's out there somewhere) Wilson is the co-author with Edna Foa of the first book I ever read on OCD, Stop Obsessing. It's getting a bit dated now, but the info on ERP is still really good.

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