Pure O Ocd: Letting Go of Obsessive Thoughts with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Let go of the struggle and obsess less. With this unique guide, you'll find the tools you need to get unstuck from obsessive thoughts, overcome fears, feel more grounded, and live a life that truly reflects your values.

Pure obsessional obsessive-compulsive disorder, or "Pure O" OCD, is a subtype of OCD that is characterized by intrusive thoughts, images, or urges without any visible compulsive symptoms. Instead, obsessive worry, regret, or uncertainty is accompanied by "hidden" compulsions like reassurance seeking, avoidance, or complex thought rituals. This can lead to decisions based on fears and compulsions rather than grounded in your values. The efforts to stop or change obsessive thoughts only leads to more anxiety and fear. So, how do you break this obsessive cycle?

Grounded in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and written by a renowned ACT and anxiety expert, "Pure O" OCD explains the process of "cognitive fusion" that leads to obsessive thinking, and how efforts to avoid or control our thoughts reinforce the fusion in an unhelpful, positive feedback loop. Using the five skills in the book--labeling, letting go, acceptance, mindfulness, and proceeding with purpose--you'll learn how to finally break free of the struggle, worrying, and avoidance that keeps you stuck.

With practice, you'll find that you can change your relationship to anxiety and obsessive thoughts, responding with your own values-based choices, proceeding purposefully toward a life that reflects what matters most to you.

ISBN-13: 9781648480409

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: New Harbinger Publications

Publication Date: 01-02-2023

Pages: 208

Product Dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

Chad LeJeune, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, and professor of psychology at the University of San Francisco. He is a founding fellow of the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies. He has been a practitioner of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) since its inception in the early 1990s. He is author of The Worry Trap.

Table of Contents

Introduction "Pure O" and Sticky Thoughts 1

Part 1 How Thoughts Get Sticky

Chapter 1 The Thing in the Bushes 16

Chapter 2 Stickiness and Suffering 28

Chapter 3 As Above, So Below 48

Chapter 4 The Arrow of Time 60

Chapter 5 Song of My Self 72

Part 2 Making Thoughts Less Sticky

Chapter 6 The Alarm Is Not the Fire 86

Chapter 7 The Opposite of Struggling 99

Chapter 8 Tilting Toward Acceptance 111

Chapter 9 Bringing in the World 128

Chapter 10 The Compass and the Barometer 147

Chapter 11 Unstuck 166

Acknowledgments 195

References 197