Frederick Penzel, Ph.D. makes a good point when he writes about the mental health field being too caught up with the idea of change.
Acceptance of what cannot be changed, and working within that reality, is part of recovery and necessary for significant change to occur.
For people seeking help with OCD, Penzel reveals a list of things that cannot change during therapy, no matter how brilliant the therapist or how hard working the client. The therapy clients who get the most benefit from counseling are those who can accept these unpleasant truths.
Acceptance As The Basis of Change
Barring new treatments or an out-of-the-ordinary spontaneous healing, recovery from OCD involves accepting - though not liking - the following.
- That you have OCD which is a chronic disorder and will not go away on its own.
- Having OCD, you will experience distressing obsessive thoughts and may respond to them using ineffective compulsive behaviors.
- The people around you have a right to live free from your symptoms; they need not cooperate or participate in them.
- You, with guidance, are the only person who can help you; no other person can “make” you better.
- Getting your compulsions “just right” is never going to happen.
- Because of OCD, you might have difficulty discerning how risky certain actions are or how responsible you are for others.
- Having OCD is not a personal choice, and is neither fair nor unfair—it happens to some people.
- Recovering from OCD is hard work and requires time and patience.
- To recover from OCD means confronting the symptoms, and this will provoke discomfort and anxiety; progress can be a bumpy ride.
- Recovery from OCD typically does not mean being symptom free; you will continue to work on managing the symptoms every day, although the intensity will lessen as time goes on.
- You might have lost some earlier part of your life to OCD (e.g., opportunity, relationship) and may never get it back.
Maybe later, when we understand more about the brain and OCD, no one will have to accept some or all these unchangeable aspects of the diagnosis.
Source: WSPS
Photo credit: Leland Francisco
