This week I’m going to switch it up and review The OCD Workbook. This is a book that has really helped me in my OCD journey, Not only has it helped me understand OCD more and recognize my symptoms, it has helped me gain control of my compulsions.
*Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post may contain affiliate links that, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission. Read full disclaimer here“
Even if you don’t buy the book through my link and just want to grab it from Amazon or your local bookstore, I highly recommend it.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, therapist, social worker, etc. Nothing in this article is to be perceived as medical or treatment advice. This is for educational and entertainment purposes only.
Contents
The book is broken up into four parts. The first part is learning about OCD. This includes a description of OCD, it’s symptoms, and treatment options for OCD. The second part is titled “The Self-Directed Program”. I personally love this part of the book and even if you don’t think it would help you, try the program. Worst case, nothing changes, best case you feel some relief from your OCD symptoms. Part three describes using the self-directed program for specific types of OCD. If you have any of these types, this will hopefully help you. It helped me. The last part is about co-occurring disorders, family issues, and finding help.
Part One
The authors start off by defining the different forms of OCD. These are:
- Checking
- Washing and Cleaning
- Ordering and Repeating
- Scrupulosity
- Hoarding
- Primarily Obsessional
Checking was probably my biggest symptom for years and I never even knew it was OCD. I just thought it was my anxiety, but I will be covering my experiences with checking in another blog post.
Next, the authors use some real life examples. They describe the stories of ten different OCD sufferers. Seeing that someone else has suffered like you have may be a good thing to see.
After this section is the first part of why I love this book. It is an actual workbook. There are blanks for you to write your own story, your symptoms, the progression of these symptoms, how these symptoms have impacted your life, and what your life would look like without any OCD symptoms. I don’t know if the kindle version of the book lets you print, but I’m sure you could write on a notepad or something. I just believe you should fill in the blanks and do the exercises, however you can.
The next part of part one is the symptoms of OCD. Here, the authors list out obsessions and compulsions with nice little check boxes next to each obsession or compulsion. I have quite a few check marks in this section. The authors follow this section up with describing how OCD is diagnosed and they include the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale in the appendix of this book. Something that is talked about, that I never really thought about, is that OCD seems to run in families.
The last section of part one describes treatment options for OCD. They talk about all of the different types of medication and questions you may have about the medications and side effect. Next, they talk about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), including ERP. I found it interesting that there is a neurosurgery for OCD, but this is seen as a last resort and only for very sever cases.
Part Two
This is the meat and potatoes of this book. The program in this book uses CBT to treat your OCD. I love how this book goes into the psychology of why CBT works. I’m a nerd, but I find it fascinating. I will describer the process of habituation more in another post, but this book describes it wonderfully and it is something you should become familiar with while treating your OCD.
There are multiple pages of a self-assessment for identifying your obsession and compulsions and you assign a disruption rating to each. One being lowest disruption, three being highest. Then you target any obsession or compulsions that were a three and you list them in order of severity. The book then goes into creating a hierarchy for ERP. You start with the lowest rating on the Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS) and list them to the highest rating. You will start working on the lowest and go up from there.
I love that this book gives you a step-by-step plan for ERP. Not only that, but it also gives you common issues with ERP, such as avoiding the discomfort. Again, theres a good amount of tables and things to fill out and I recommend making copies if you have more than one obsession/compulsion. The authors also give ERP examples for specific types of OCD, such as washing compulsions and checking.
My favorite of this section is the imaginal exposure section. It has helped me immensely. I’ve never used the recording method, but I write narratives and try to make myself as anxious as possible from those. The sky is the limit with imaginal exposure. It’s only limited by your imagination.
Chapter 8, is all about Cognitive Restructuring. DO. NOT. SKIP. THIS. CHAPTER.
Part Three
Moving on to Part Three. All you really need to know are what types of OCD have specific self-directed programs. They are:
- Pure O OCD
- Scrupulosity OCD
- Hit-and-Run OCD
- Health Anxiety
- Hoarding – many people don’t know this is a form of OCD
If you have any of these types of OCD, I recommend reading their chapter. Definitely don’t skip Chapter 15 which is all about maintaining your gains. You will stumble with OCD, you will fall, but never give up. Always get right back up and keep working on your exposures.
Part Four
Part four starts off with co-occurring disorders such as body dysmorphic disorder and trichotillomania(hair pulling). The next chapter is all about children with OCD. If you’re a parent, please read up because there is evidence that if you treat OCD in childhood, the OCD issues for that child could be eradicated.
Chapter 18 is a favorite of mine because you don’t see many chapters like this in OCD books. This is all about working with your family to manage your symptoms of OCD. If you’ve read my other posts you know that I used to need reassurance. It was so difficult telling my family to stop reassuring me. It had to be hard for them. What wife or parent wants to see their loved one in distress? I think any family would benefit from reading this chapter.
Lastly, the book gives you a checklist for what to ask a therapist so you can pick a therapist who knows what they’re doing.
Conclusion
I can’t recommend this book enough! Again, ignoring the affiliate link, I think anyone with OCD would benefit from the knowledge in this book. I will only review books that I have read and I will only recommend them if I found a benefit from them. I don’t guarantee this will help you, I can’t guarantee that. But it definitely helped me.