CBT Sucks...but It Works!

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) focuses on stopping the negative automatic thoughts that are associated with the feared object or situation, replacing them with more rational thoughts instead. OCD is all about irrational and intrusive thoughts so CBT along with certain medications can help someone suffering with OCD to overcome some of their irrational thinking and hopefully cut down on compulsions and anxiety. With CBT comes exposure therapy. Exposure therapy is a way of replacing those automatic negative thoughts with rational ideas instead. When the patient is faced with the very thing that causes them anxiety and they see that they can be in that situation and still be ok, the anxiety will lower and the rationalizing begins.
When simply reading about CBT and Exposure Therapy it doesn't seem like a big deal at all. It looks like it would be a fairly simple process where the person would just realize they're being irrational and move past it...If only it were that simple. OCD is a very real thing to the person suffering from it because their brain is telling them it's the way things are around  them. OCD lies and until the person is diagnosed and starts to learn CBT and how to disassociate real thoughts from OCD thoughts, it's a miserable existance. A favorite saying in the OCD community is "it's not me it's the OCD".
Think of the one thing that scares you the most. It could be spiders, heights, anything and imagine that you have to face that fear. For instance, if you were scared of spiders, you would start out sitting in a room with a spider and gradually work your way to having a spider on your body! It sounds almost impossible to the person with the fear, but people who like spiders can't imagine why being around a spider would be such a big deal.
The average person doesn't have to come in contact with spiders on a daily basis so this fear wouldn't interfer much with their life. OCD fears, thoughts, compulsions, and rituals consume a person's life. I found a video clip from the A&E  tv show Obsessed. It was a documentary on people going through CBT and living with OCD. In this clip the woman is scared to ride in the back seat of cars, so she ends up taking a ride with her therapist and boyfriend. Most people can ride in the back seat of a car without any hesitation, because of her OCD she couldn't. Check it out!

CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO CLIP!