Step 6: Belief is Your Engine

I remember a long time ago, I had gone on a day trip to Whitstable with friends to get a bit of sun and to have a few oysters. During the afternoon as we sprawled out on the shale beach, I thought I would have a quick swim as it's always been something that I have enjoyed since I was very little. The sea at whitstable doesn't look that inviting and there were long pipes leading out into the sea near where we were. Well I don't know what they were depositing and I had no wish to know but looking at the grey and brown swirling sludge I was slightly apprehensive about getting in for a splash around. I remember saying to my friends I wasn't sure and whether I would be OK or not. One of my friends said to me "Well you probably will if you think you are going to be but you probably won't be if you don't" and it has stuck with me ever since. There is a lot of clinical data suggesting the placebo effect is incredibly powerful in all sorts of ways for the body and mind and I am one of them that would go along with that notion. So if you think you can probably get to a stage where you are generally coping well with your ROCD then I think you will get there and if you don't, you won't. In fact, I can illustrate this further by another anecdote. I was once at a seminar held by a prestigious musician, teacher and motivational speaker who wowed us with his genius on the piano before inspiring us to go out and make wonderful new changes in our lives. He told us that back in New York, whenever students came in to see him at the start of term, he always gave them an 'A' before they had done any work. According to him, it was the strongest possible motivation and year after year, all of his students did what was required to get that 'A'. We have to be kind to ourselves especially when we are hampered by a mind devilled by OCD and although it takes a conscious effort, by choosing to believe that we can manage it, then by that act alone, the body and mind marshal their forces and start building towards that reality. Imagine it and it can become true, 'build it and they shall come' someone else once said! The mind has an incredible healing ability and undoubtedly you will be aware of the capricious changes of power unleashed by the mind. If you can get yourself into such a fix over something you even know isn't that big a deal then it is possible to believe in the fact that good things can happen to and especially if we ask for them and we start working towards them. Sometimes, that can be something as simple as making a conscious effort to try and change your belief patterns.

Recovery is possible and living a happy and successful life is also possible. Living with ROCD is my cross to bear but after accepting it and working with it, I am more congruent than when I resisted it and consequently happier and that started with the belief that I could get better, I just needed to find out how. As I have mentioned in previous blogs, that was down to accepting it, tackling the compulsions, doing ERP treatments and to understand that the 'thoughts' aren't who I am, they just keep popping up being generated from somewhere inside my mind, but I'm 'what I want' (and normally that means to choose being in a mutually loving relationship). I always believed it was possible and I spent a good 15-20 years looking for an answer. I got there and its these steps that I keep in my life that keeps me healthy and that's why I have been sharing them on this blog; I know the mental torment that ROCD wreaks. I have been in floods of tears, day after day after day. I have been almost too depressed to move a muscle, too worn down by the relentless thoughts and compulsions. I don't want anyone to suffer that and I wish that someone had given me the right guidance all those years ago.

Here is an interesting article to underling what I am saying about the power of belief alone. ie the placebo effect from Medical News Today: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/306437#what-is-the-placebo-effect

Believe you can get better. Be brave and believe in yourself. Believe you have the power and inner resources and you can do it. Belief is your engine and will carry you far.