You got this!

@Nino Sokrivo classic intrusive thought. Everyone has them. Let it go. It’s not the true you

How have you been?

@@isabellawillberg3872 I’m not too bad this week. Thinking more clearly

May i ask what’s your ocd theme ?

I am glad that the videos are helping even in a small way. Thank you for your comment.

Eloise, If negative thoughts affects physical health then visit a psychologist. Practicals are needed to reprogramme your min d. Your breath is directly related to your mind [brain] causing negative thoughts-anxiety-stress. For a relaxed life sit on a chair, back erect, hands on lap with palms upwards, eyes closed, be still and observe your natural incoming--outgoing breath at the entrance of the nostrils for around 5-10 minutes or more. Be as still as possible. Slowly negative thoughts will reduce and relax the mind. Patience is needed. During your daily activity keep observing your breath consciously. Do the above meditation daily to feel relaxed. Positive affirmations for 5-10 minutes before sleep also gives quick relief. Best wishes. Shyaaam Sir. -Counsellor.

@@PaigePradkoTherapy hi thanks for your videos. It helping me a lot. Should I also take medicines with the therapy for pure o ocd which I am suffering from past 15 years

How are you now?

You’re welcome. 🙏😊

I am so glad it helped you.

Hi Bobby. I am so happy you find it helpful.

Thank you Melissa 🙏❤️

Thank you, George.

That sounds so nice. Thank you.❤️

Thank you. I am glad you find them helpful.

Thank you, Jacob. If you ever need help, I have resources for Pure O OCD here: www.paigepradko.com/resources

Thank you 🙏

I love your explanation of “thought allowing”. That is so key. I hope you feel better and practice self compassion this week. ❤️

You’re welcome, Amanda. I am glad I can be helpful. Please feel free to send me a message on PaigePradko.com if I can be more helpful.

Thank you, John. That makes me feel great that my videos have that impact on you. 🙏❤️

I am so happy to hear that, Chelsea. 😊

Thank you. I appreciate it. ❤️

You’re welcome 🙏❤️

Intrusive thoughts can be so frustrating. I hope the video helps.

Same here 🙏🏽

Thank you, Larry. That is what motivates me. 🙏😊

Thank you so much 🙏😊

You are so welcome. 🙏😊

Good for you, Evan. It is a process and we improve as we practice. Thank you for sharing.

You’re welcome, Sophie. Thank you for watching and commenting.🙏❤️

🙏❤️ Thank you

Glad to hear that. 🙏❤️

Thank you E J. I hope the videos help you and your family member. 🙏🏼❤️

I am so glad. Thank you.

Glad you like it. 🙏❤️

Thank you. You too ❤️

That sounds horrible, I am so sorry you are going through that and I am sorry for the loss of your mom. I went through something similar with my brother. Unfortunately, we cannot save people from themselves. We can love them, be emotionally supportive, but, when they begin to affect your life and your marriage and your sleep, you have to backup and set some boundaries for yourself. Sometimes you have to let go altogether. Your life and your marriage is under your control. Your dad’s behaviors are not under your control. Let your dad know that you love him, you do not want him to destroy himself, but, you have to work on regaining your mental health and work on your marriage. I wish you the best. I know how painful it is to watch someone you love destroy themselves.

Thanks Ashley. Glad I am understandable. 🙏😊

Thank you.

Wonderful! I am a fan of keeping it simple!

No, it is not easy at all. It is in fact, very difficult. I am happy if my videos have been helpful.

Welcome to my channel! I hope you like it!

Glad you liked it, Jason. Thank you. 😊

You’re welcome

Thank you for sharing

That’s awesome! I love Claire Weeks! Welcome to my channel!

Claire Weeks saved my life many years ago.

Yes…I am so inspired by her. 🙏❤️

I am so glad you liked it and it gave you hope. ❤️

Iam suffering from pure O for more than 40 years thanks for your vidio.its helpful.

@@mohamedbounaaja4053 me suffering for the last 25 years

@@mohamedbounaaja4053 how u aage

Thank you for being an advocate for CBT, Carol. I appreciate it.🙏❤️

You’re welcome 😊

Thank you for leaving a comment, Jorge. Sometimes people use this technique over and over again. It gets easier. I wish you the best in therapy.

You’re welcome. 🙏❤️

Glad you watched this video. It is really a helpful technique and easy to remember. 😊

I am glad it was helpful, Patrick.

Thank you for watching and commenting 🙏❤️

Welcome to my channel. So glad that you found the I. A.M. technique helpful. 😊

@@PaigePradkoTherapyhi yes thank you for responding sorry to bother you I was getting ready to eat my lunch and I had trouble eating it like I would have a hard time sallowing it and i start to panic like my arms were shaking and I couldn’t feel my stomach I feel so frozen in fear like I had an orange and jello earlier but when I try to eat my sandwich it was hard I only ate half of it

You’re welcome 😊

I am so sorry that you have intrusive thoughts. I truly hope the video helps you. Thank you for commenting.

Thank you.🙏

Thank you. I am so happy they are helpful 🙏😊

That warms my heart, Polly ❤️

Thank you for sharing, Mimi. There will be many, many people that will relate to what you shared about your intrusive thought. I am so glad the I. A.M. technique is helping you. It can be helpful for intrusive thoughts, worries and anxiety in general. 🙏❤️

That’s wonderful ❤️

You are so welcome!

I am so happy you find them helpful!

You’re so welcome ❤️

I am so glad you liked it. 🙏❤️

You’re welcome. 😊

You’re welcome, Vinod. I like that you find it similar to Buddhism mindfulness practices.

Thank you 🙏

Unfortunately, the positive affirmations can become a reinforcing, compulsive behavior. It is best to not do anything. Thanks for the great question.

@@PaigePradkoTherapy thank you Paige!!

That’s great to hear!

You’re welcome. 😊

Thank you so much for your encouraging comment. I really appreciate it.🙏❤️

Thank you 🙏

Thank you for such a compliment. I am happy if my videos have helped you.

YES! Good for you. We all need to push through shame and express ourselves. Speaking up and sharing dissolves the shame. ❤️

Nice summary 🙏❤️

@@PaigePradkoTherapy Thanks so much! this comment was mainly for myself to take notes. I will be using this method from now on. Does this work for intrusive feelings as well?

Yes, absolutely. If you catch yourself mentally checking on your emotions (a compulsion itself), (I) Identify that mental activity as OCD. We do not engage when we identify something as OCD. Then, (A) allow the emotion to be there, whatever it is, and (M) focus on and moment, whatever you are doing and move on. It is a slow deliberate process at first, but, the more you repeat it, the faster and easier it becomes.

@@PaigePradkoTherapy Thank you! you’re so amazing for giving us free ocd tips.. therapy can be so so expensive and I never actually learned this through therapy either!

@@PaigePradkoTherapy what to do if the emotion comes right back after?

You're welcome!

Thank you for watching and commenting 🙏❤️

Thank you for sharing that, James. That is very motivating for me to know that. 🙏❤️

You’re welcome 🙏

Thank you for such an amazingly insightful and thoughtful comment. I truly hope others read and benefit from your insight. 🙏❤️

It sounds like you are doing amazing driving exposures. I work with clients with driving phobias and it is difficult and time consuming, but the hard work has a beautiful reward. You get your life back and your freedom. There are important reasons you are doing this hard work. Create an attitude of willingness....willingness to accept the anxiety that sometimes shows up and the exposures that are more uncomfortable. Keep up the daily exposures and you will see improvement. Every once in awhile there will be high anxiety....but, the more you drive, the less frequent this will happen.

Thank you so much Paige and on behalf of everyone, thank you for taking time to provide us with these valuable lessons in overcoming illness that most Therapists do not even know themselves. You are making a big difference in people's lives, including mine and I am very grateful! You will be added into my gratitude journal tonight! All the best, from Canada!

You’re welcome and I appreciate your comments. Love to Canada 🇨🇦

Yes, I love that.

Hi Mike. I have had many clients fear developing schizophrenia or severe mental illness. This is a quite common OCD theme. And having a brother with this diagnosis in a way makes sense that this fear would develop. I will explain factual information to my clients once, about the fact that schizophrenia is diagnosed early on in life usually late adolescence or very early adulthood. But, I only share facts once, as to not contribute to reassurance. In treatment for OCD, we have to learn to tolerate anxiety associated with uncertainty and not knowing the future. In the case of your health anxiety, a trauma like you went through certainly can cause trauma and fear. I am so sorry that happened to you. Once given the ok by your physicians, you have to also tolerate the anxiety of uncertainty. In reality, none of us have certainty or a guarantee about anything. I have made a few videos on health anxiety and will post the link incase you missed them. I am so glad you are sharing your story with the world. kzfaq.info/sun/PL1lUhuKpYUYonn-zlZxzTRR8V4myEHgCY

@@PaigePradkoTherapy Thank you so much Paige for this thoughtful and informative email. Yes, I am guilty of doing things like constantly researching other people's experiences to compare. My doctors will ask me why I do it. I genuinely want to feel normal and in my mind I want to do everything I can think of to figure out what's wrong with me. Having the world at your fingertips is very neat and obviously very dangerous. So I get fixated on looking things up. So on a daily/weekly basis I jump between thinking I have different things. But usually I'll unstick from a certain thing (not as glued to illness anxiety disorder) and have the generic feeling that "something" is wrong and doctors a) keep missing it because I'm perhaps not explaining my symptoms property, b) they don't know exactly what I'm feeling (again tying into maybe I'm not articulating things correctly) and c) I have an issue with the fact that as of 2021 there's no test ie: scan, bloodwork or anything that 100 percent tells a person what may be wrong mentally. I'm aware they have done PET scans and other imaging to see blood flow, activity etc in brain so they can see "some" things but it just seems we are still stuck on subjective symptom based diagnosis. And I question if people in weird situations fall through the cracks. Yes, it really bothers me knowing I do have a higher chance of getting schizophrenia because I have a brother with it and my psychologist keeps saying if I didn't have that knowledge, in his words "we wouldn't be having these continual discussion about it" as he doesn't think my anxiety would have ever gotten this bad. There's a video on YT of a guy named Blake I think, in his 20's, aspiring model, who had massivr health anxiety, ocd etc. Itd on Dr. Phil Which I rarely watch. And he's convinced he has or is developing schizophrenia.. watching that video made me realize we have very similar fears and just seeing it on screen opened my eyes a little. But the parts that made me leave feeling discouraged and perhaps our situations do differ is he doesn't mention once that he spends hours every day feeling actual, real, intense sensations in his mind that it really feels like his mind will lose it. Like there's a rubber band and it's literally going to snap. And he explains to Dr. Phil he has panic attacks that last 20 minutes. I feel the feeling on a panic attack in my mind for hours every day. Rarely do I only get physical panic attacks with the more common palpitations/racing heart, shortness of breath, feeling like you are physically having heart attack or choking etc. Mine are mind based - and last for hours and when I tell my wife I want to go to call ambulance she thinks its because I fear a physical catastrophe like a heart attack. If I suggest its because I feel I'm about to lose my mind she kind of snaps and gets so upset (I don't blame her - no idea how id feel about hearing that). Do your patients ever explain to you itd more of a constant feeling with actual sensations in their head and mind that it will snap, to only what I imagine would be full blown psychosis? And that's the key. I am almost certain I don't have schizophrenia, however I can't get over if its mild psychosis that I'm slipping in and out of, or a lesser version of schizophrenia (I know the DSM has a few). And then I get stuck on bipolar. Then physical symptoms come in and I fear physical issues as well. Just wish I could get rid of these mindstorm panic attacks so I get let the idea of bipolar, psychosis/schizophrenia finally leave. Thanks so much, and if you would have been in Ontario Canada and I could claim benefits I'd strongly consider using your services. Unfortunately after a tough year money is tighter. Thanks Paige!

@@PaigePradkoTherapy sorry a few more comments (this is definitely part of me feeling "compelled" to say earthing...).. I'm probably more stuck on concept of bipolar which I'd have to explain all the reasons I believe it. But I'm absolutely sensitive to health. The slightest tingle in my wrist, trembling left foot (been a thing for a while), sensation in shoulder, pressure in groin - everything bothers me. And I'm sensitive to even hearing about health problems. If I see something medical on tv, if somebody talks about a medical issue, I get lightheaded. I've basically been stuck on feeling like I'm going to faint for month's. Note I have fainted a few times but rare - but knowing its possible scares me. So I have classic anxiety symptoms ad well as MAJOR health anxiety (illness and somatic) which I'm not questioning. But I can't seem to let go of the notion we are missing "something" - not sure what but im latching to a few things mentioned above. This is hell because im 90% or more sure its the things above but the 10 percent is driving me crazy, along with actual feelings my mind is going crazy. Thanks for reading this- sincerely.

You’re welcome 😊

Hi. Welcome to my channel. None of us are “perfect” at practicing any technique when it comes to anxiety or ocd…we all do the best we can and begin again when we notice that we have engaged with an ocd thought. Sometimes it can even happen without our awareness. If you notice that you are engaging with a thought…simply start using the I. A.M. technique at that moment. At first…you may have to use it multiple times because you are training your brain that it is just an insignificant thought and what really needs your attention is what you are doing in the moment. And, if you are not doing something, then begin to do something so that your brain can refocus. Thank you for your question.

@@PaigePradkoTherapy Thank you so much, it's been torturous having these thoughts that I can't defuse from. I know I already have anxiety issues and acting on anxious thoughts and overapologizing and stuff, and normally I have been able to kinda look at those extreme thoughts and say hey those are just thoughts, but for some reason recently I just been so susceptible to them, and it scares me and makes my depression spiral in directions it never has before. I think it's due to shame wounds, i was reading, with Pure O. But I dont know yet. Either way, your videos have been very helpful and thanks again

Unfortunately, seeking reassurance is viewed as a compulsion and only reinforces intrusive thoughts. I suggest either tolerating the uncertainty and discomfort you are feeling without seeking reassurance, or using the I. A.M. technique on the whether or not you are your thoughts. I. A.M. is a method of exposure, and it takes a commitment of acceptance and practice. Thank you for your comment.

@@PaigePradkoTherapy Thank you very much for your response. I agree that it is part of the compulsion but v hard not to seek certainty! I suppose I want to hear someone tell me I'm not my thoughts and even though rationally I would say that to someone else, I struggle to believe it, but that comes, I suppose, from fatally engaging with the first thought- but then that's the illness.😏

Hi. That’s so wonderful to hear. Congratulations for all of your work and progress! ❤️

Here is an interview that I did on couple’s therapy. You might get some good ideas here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jpeShJReubKtf6c.html

You’re welcome 🙏☺️

You’re welcome 😊

You are more than welcome. Glad you liked it 🙏❤️

Thank you so much for your comment and I hope the video helps you. 🙏❤️

Thank you so much for commenting, Andrew. Knowing it makes you nervous makes it even more special to me. It might help to know that I get nervous making videos sometimes and yet I push through the discomfort because it might help someone. Just remember that there are other people with autism that may read your comments and feel a little braver and more confident that they are not alone. I often treat people with OCD that also have autism and they make tremendous progress. I am glad that you like the I. A.M. method. It’s one of my favorites too.

I hope that insight helps you to shift your attention to the present moment instead of feeling overwhelmed by your thoughts.

We can develop hyper awareness of breath, and it can be just as bothersome as other obsessive thoughts. This is a condition that affects me from time to time as well. I will at some point make a video about this. You can use the technique that I describe in this video. Identify the focused attention to the breath when it is happening, but, do not alarm yourself. Do not try to not do it, as this can make it worse. Allow it to be there with an attitude of not caring whether you are paying attention to your breath or not. You can gently move your focus to what you hear, or what your left, big toe feels like, or what your palm feels like on your right hand. You can slowly move the focus around using different sensations. It helps me to not be frustrated by it, allow it, and then gently move focus to other sensations. I hope this helps you.

I am currently reading Freedom from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder by Jonathan Grayson. I have attended talks by Dr. Grayson in the past and like his methods. The book has a large section devoted to Intrusive Thoughts. He is definitely up on his research. I have read so many books on OCD and seem to always like the book I am currently reading the best. LOL.

@@PaigePradkoTherapy Could ''Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts (A CBT-Based Guide to Getting Over Frightening, Obsessive, or Disturbing Thoughts) by Sally M Winston'' also be a good start?

Yes, that is an excellent book. They are accomplished therapists, writers and have done their research. They wrote a book called What Every Therapist Needs to Know About Anxiety Disorders that is really great too. I really wish every therapist would read it....but it is great for people that are not therapists too.

I am sorry that you are going through this struggle with your thoughts. Fearing that you may develop a mental illness is very common. This thought scares people. But, it is just a thought. I developed the I AM strategy to help people when they have thoughts that make them uncomfortable. The theme of the thought doesn’t matter, the treatment is always the same. Identify the thought as an intrusive, fearful thought, allow it to just be there without getting into a thought loop by arguing with it, connect to the moment you are living, and then move on to what you were doing before you had the thought.