Top Down Anxiety
Top Down Anxiety is illogical, obsessive thinking that causes anxiety
"I’m worried about stuff that other people aren’t very worried about"
This approach focuses on higher cognitive processes, such as thoughts, beliefs, and perceptions and how they initiate the anxiety experience.
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Question: What is OCD?
Answer: OCD is a mental false alarm or worry trick that causes intense preoccupation (obsession) and anxiety.
Question: How does OCD work?
Answer: OCD obsessions are about unanswerable and unresolvable questions, doubts, and feelings. The questions, doubts, and feelings attack what you care about the most. Only after we truly understand these two aspects of OCD can we begin to unwind it and take back the steering wheel of our lives.
Question: I feel worried about all kinds of little things all the time. What do I do?
Answer:You might be struggling with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), which is when someone tends to worry about big and little issues and feels uncomfortable physical symptoms throughout most of the day.
Question: How do I explain OCD to my kid so they will come to therapy?
Answer: OCD means you are sensitive to certain kinds of thoughts, kind of like how some people with allergies are sensitive to certain kinds of foods. Your mind makes you think certain thoughts are REALLY dangerous and scary when they are only a little dangerous and scary in reality.
Question: How is OCD diagnosed in children?
Answer: Kids with OCD typically present with intense fears about thoughts that most other kids are not worried about. These fears often make them want to do things that make the fears go away or temporarily subside (avoidance and compulsions). I recommend getting an appointment with a clinical psychologist for diagnosis and seeking treatment with a therapist who specializes in treating OCD and has had training in OCD treatment.
Question: How do you support your child or family member with OCD?
Answer: Always remain supportive of the distressing experience, but learn how to slowly stop
accommodating and enabling the OCD..
Question: How do I work with my child’s school to handle their anxiety?
Answer: Implement a plan with a professional who treats OCD, and be consistent with that plan
both at home and at school.
Question: I’ve stopped my compulsions (hand washing, re checking, asking for reassurance, researching, etc.), but I still feel really bothered by the obsessions. Will I be this way forever?
Answer: You’re probably still ruminating, which is an often misunderstood mental compulsion. Some people call this “Pure O,” as if you don’t have any compulsions but are only obsessing. However, I believe that if you are still struggling with obsessions, it’s because you haven’t yet learned how to cut out the mental compulsion of rumination or you are avoiding situations that could trigger thoughts that make you anxious. The good news is that there is treatment for
rumination.
Question: Did trauma or my childhood cause my OCD?
Answer: Maybe. Maybe not. I think everyone with OCD probably has a natural neurological predisposition towards OCD, and some of those people then have traumatic childhoods or attachment injuries that make OCD more intense. I do think there is value in exploring your childhood and working on those wounds as you progress through OCD treatment. That being said, exploration of your story alone, without specific cognitive and behavioral treatment, will not help you make significant progress with OCD recovery.
Question: I’m struggling with anxiety related to my faith (Religious Scrupulosity). Do you recommend any resources?
Answer: Religious Scrupulosity is a very common OCD subcategory that people struggle with in more religious cultures like ours here in Mississippi. The answer to Religious Scrupulosity is not to leave your faith. If you do that, OCD will just attach to some other topic. My advice would be to work through this with someone who specializes in OCD, not just someone who is a
Christian counselor who doesn’t work much with clients with OCD.