Sunday, April 3, 2011

Retraining the Brain

Recently while browsing in my local library's mental health section, I picked up a book on long term recovery from eating disorders. Cognitive therapy is an important piece for many people. I found a quote that's very relevant to OCD: "My disorder was a path I'd created early on and worn through use into a superhighway.... Recovery was all about clearing new paths to healthier destinations, using them and reusing them until these new roads were as wide open as the old disordered one. If I stayed off that old highway long enough, it would get so overgrown it wasn't accessible anymore. That's why recovery was so hard at first, but also why it got easier and easier as I kept at it." Seems just right. (Excerpt from Gaining, by Aimee Liu)
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5 comments:

  1. Pure O CanuckApril 3, 2011 at 1:46 PM

    Thats a great quote and thanks for sharing. It is helpful because there are many days when I feel like a failure for recovery taking so long. And - when I wonder why is this so hard for me? I have to remind myself that I have had my compulsions for....pretty much my whole life. They are engrained in me - my thinking and my behaviour. Not to mention my automatic thoughts and core beliefs. This post was very helpful for me.

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  2. Fellow OCD SuffererApril 3, 2011 at 4:16 PM

    Wonderful quote! I love it! There are so many things from the eating disorder treatment world that seem to also apply to treating OCD. In fact, sometimes I can even relate more to some of the ED treatment literature than I can the OCD treatment literature. While I know they are not completely the same, I sometimes feel as though the two worlds should collaborate a bit more. I actually went to a lecture at the OCD conference last year that discussed the two, their relationship, and how treatment for one can also be applied to treatment for the other. I know for me, at least, that my experience with an eating disorder seemed basically like another manifestation of my OCD, the obsession was just a fear of being perceived as fat or out of shape, the compulsion was to over-exercise and restrict what I ate. Same old OCD process packaged in a different outfit.

    Anyways, I think the ED community and the OCD community could learn a lot from each other. I hate it when treatment providers and clinicians label them as two completely separate things. Maybe for some, they are two very different things. But for others, like me, the two worlds really do intersect and inform one another.

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  3. ShanaApril 3, 2011 at 7:27 PM

    Thank you for sharing. That is a great analogy.

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  4. AnonymousApril 5, 2011 at 1:03 PM

    Excellent...I want to believe that I can clear a new path...I hope so...The old path is a wreck.

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  5. social anxietyApril 12, 2011 at 3:15 AM

    Great quote. Yes it takes time to overcome your problems and change the way you are. But the good news is that if you stick to your plan, and you do what you have to do even when you are experiencing a setback, you can achieve your goals.

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