Frequently Asked Questions

Honestly, that’s not my immediate goal.  I’m not peddling any miracle cures for this very distressing mental health condition.  My aim is to help you understand how REOCD works within you - and how to build a recovery toolkit which will gradually enable longer-term recovery, rather than hoping for quick fixes.  I will help you differentiate between useful and unhelpful forms of anxiety.

The reasons we may have developed obsessive-compulsiveness about past events are individual and complex.  But to explain OCD in the simplest terms, we create a vicious circle in which:

·       uncomfortable doubts, feelings or sensations come up.

·       we experience a strong urge to neutralise them as soon as possible.

·       we do something compulsive (like ruminate, check or confess) in the hope of short-term relief - which only reconditions our minds to bring up the obsessive doubts again and again.

Compulsive actions will never give us the certainty we’re craving, because they aren’t addressing the root issues:  that total certainty (about the past, present or future) isn’t achievable, and uncomfortable feelings are a natural part of life.  But we can learn to live with these truths without creating additional challenges for ourselves.

I am suggesting that, with Real Event OCD, the feelings of guilt and shame are excessive and unproductive.  The core issue is OCD - not the events themselves - which may feel hard to believe.  This book explores the difference between loving acknowledgement of difficult events and toxic shame.

This book is written for anyone who can identify with the symptoms or experiences of Real Event OCD.  One cruel aspect of OCD is that we can never feel 100% sure that we have it.  It’s known as the Doubting Disease for a reason!  But we may recognise that we have the symptoms, regardless of the diagnostic label.

This book is also for professionals and loved ones who are seeking more insight into this OCD theme.

My primary advice to those who may be struggling with OCD is to consult a qualified medical professional who can help you explore first-line treatments like therapy and medication.  My book is intended to complement these treatments, not replace them. 

I offer a combination of:

·       evidence-backed information about OCD, treatments, and supportive tools.

·       my own lived experiences of OCD, including Real Event OCD.

·       insights gained from over 10 years of personal psychotherapy.

·       theory and practice gained from UK-recognised counselling diploma training.

·       gentle guidance designed to support your holistic wellbeing and recovery.

That’s not necessarily the goal.  The goals will be to learn to tolerate and gently let go of that need for definitive forgiveness, and to shift your focus to treating yourself and others with love, regardless of intrusive doubts.   Over time, the need to ‘resolve’ past events may simply become less important to you.

You are not the only one who believes they are uniquely monstrous.  That’s a common distortion of OCD thinking.  There is a wide spectrum of perceived ‘seriousness’ of past events, and the distress is real in all cases.  Whatever your past events, you are not disqualified from accessing support and experiencing better mental health.

It was all written by a human: me! Some of the accompanying images are AI-generated.