My older brother suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. He does not have the external compulsions. He is what the doctors call a "pure obsessionist." He has explained it to me a few times and basically he gets a mental track, such as a sentence someone said, that just repeats itself over and over in his head. It can be very draining on him and I see how it negative effects a lot of aspects of his life.

From wikipedia:
Purely Obsessional Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (also called Pure Obsessional OCD, Pure-O, OCD without overt compulsions or Primarily Obsessional OCD)[1] is a lesser-known form or manifestation of OCD. For people with Purely Obsessional OCD, there are usually no observable compulsions, such as those commonly seen in those with the typical form of OCD (checking, counting, hand-washing, etc.). While ritualizing and neutralizing behaviors do take place, they are almost entirely in the form of excessive mental rumination.[2]

I was wondering how you all think this fits into the big picture? Could someone like my brother benefit from meditation or could it make his condition worse? Some people describe the "ego" as the voice in the head, or rather our awareness false identification with it. I feel like my brother needs to get more in touch with his body - what Eckart Tolle calls the "feeling of the body."

Was just curious if anyone had any insights on this stuff.

I have written about my experiences here on the board. I cannot find an appropriate reference at this moment. I did search back and find this post that you might consider. viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6238&p=43878#p43878

Briefly my experience has been with someone with OCD and my own, what I now consider to be, perseveration of thought related possibly to high functioning Asperger's syndrome for which I have never been diagnosed. I now see that my own perseveration of thought was not the same as OCD and has been helpful in keeping me on the track of my purpose for being in this particular life. I do not know the answer to the question I posed in the post linked to above. I am inclining towards thinking that it is natural within our digital consciousness for a track of repeating obsession cycling at a very high rate. I can see this being picked out of our total thought stream as the focus item to be placed into our much slower moving PMR consciousness. I suspect that meditation could help, including asking for help to block the OCD stream to permit the meditation. I achieved earlier control of perseveration by repeatedly trying to do this myself and eventually succeeding. I was a child and knew nothing of meditation.

It is perhaps what your brother needs to work on in this lifetime as a reduction of entropy measure or it is perhaps a glitch of the VRRE aspect of TBC. Either way, persistent meditation might be helpful in my opinion.

Ted

I've always done the repeating a sentence or phrase in my head thing. If it is something humorous I end up causing myself to giggle all day. :)
Love
Bette

_________________
All That Is
what is?
Consciousness.

Earlier in my life I would find myself thinking in a loop of repeating thoughts if something upset me. The same thoughts would just go around and around keeping me upset over what ever had happened. It took continual conscious thought for me to break this cycle. I still sometimes find myself going back to that a little but it is easy for me to stop now.

Your brother might try some hemi-sync with his meditation with a strong intent to stop the repetition.

I, too, can be described as obsessive-compulsive to some degree, and I do experience looping thoughts, though usually they're not so much linguistic thoughts as they are musical phrases or clips of videos and movies I've seen. Though it's usually not enough to cause me any distress.

Imagining for a moment that it does, what I would do first is try to redirect my attention onto something else, anything else. Your brother could try focusing on something to occupy his mind, such as reading a book, watching a movie, listing to music, or something. If it is linguistic phrases that get looped, use language of some kind to occupy the mind (reading, listening, etc.).

If occupying that part of the mind doesn't help and only adds to the collection of looping thoughts, then I suggest meditation of some kind that doesn't involve linguistic thought (listening to lyric-less music, silence, white/pink/brown noise, binaural beats, etc.) or focusing intently on a picture (with no words on it). Instead of occupying that part of the brain with more noise (if that doesn't work), this should help quiet that part of the brain, breaking the loop of repeated thoughts.

I know you didn't specifically ask for advice or anything, but it was what just sort of came to me, so perhaps it has some sort of significance. Hope it helps in some way :D

_________________
"The world hangs on a thin thread, and that is the psyche of man."
-- Carl Jung

I personally have not had much experience with mental disorders. However, one thing does strike me as being common place in a lot of mental disorders, and that is over thinking, racing/looping thoughts etc. Often, even people with no diagnosed disorders can seem to drive themselves into a temporary 'insane' state by losing control of their thoughts. Because of this, I would think that meditation probably would help. Learning to not only control, but also stop the minds endless rambling could be of great help to living with certain mental conditions.

Jacob

Coz,

Does your brother have any control over the thought about which he obsesses...? Can he switch thoughts to obsess over that opposed to this one? If so, that might be the beginning of getting some leverage over the matter.

I myself have music playing in my mind in the background generally. It is nearly ALWAYS there. But I did discover that I can switch it out to whatever I want.

-Montana

Thank you for all of the replies. It gives me a lot to think about. I do meditate from time to time repeating a personal mantra with the intent to help my bro out. I'm still messed up myself though XD - I deal with anxiety related to certain speaking situations because I developed a stutter as a child. I feel like I can't truly help him until I get my own shit together, yea know. It's been difficult for me to shed such deeply ingrained beliefs that I have held my entire life - beliefs that have reinforced themselves time and time again.

Montana: I'm not sure, I never asked him that. The next time the opportunity arises I will ask him that.

Interesting idea Ted. I've read somewhere, I can't remember where, that our thoughts aren't entirely "ours." Thoughts can be seen as animals roaming around the forest of your mind. They come from all types of places and it is an illusion to claim ownership of them.

I was diagnosed as a OCD case long time ago.It begin when I was 12 years old,(now 34),so it is 22 years now.It is no joke,your brother must fight it and win,or OCD will became all his life(I don't count some mild cases,even that can take down route if say,some bad period in life happens).I was able to reduce symptoms 90% of original strength,so now is not so strong as early on,I am sure that soon I will get rid of this thing totally.I recommend this book to your brother-"Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior",Dr Jeffrey Schwartz and Beverly Beyette (authors).With similar method I helped myself,(in essence the same),book is great.In book you have four steps method to get rid of this thing.Concerning meditation,OCD and getting rid of it is very similar to meditation process,in essence you recognize intruding emotions,thoughts as unwanted and focus to something else,with practice you become better and better until you become "normal" again,I however don't recommend meditation practice per se for this problem,reason is that people with OCD have difficulty to make distinction between their own thoughts and thoughts produced by imbalance in brain functioning,person with OCD should avoid anything "supernatural" because it can lead into confusion,first must fight and take OCD under control then can do whatever pleases.Also there is link to check out:http://www.ocduk.org/2/foursteps.htm

Hi Kestrel and welcome to Tom's MBT discussion forums. Thank you for the focused information as well. Even the people that named this a disorder probably do it to but keep it secret, just saying.
Love to you and yours,
Bette

_________________
All That Is
what is?
Consciousness.

He is addicted to thinking these thoughts as they temporarily reduce his anxiety.
Unfortunately the best thing to do is the most difficult, which is to not dwell on these thoughts.
His anxiety will rise for a few days and then drop. The thoughts will over time become less and less intrusive as he takes control over them.
Anxiety will also trigger new thoughts, so low GI diet is good to reduce anxiety.
I also do not recommend meditation (unless he is an expert) as his thoughts may wander. Keep busy during the day and sleep well at night.
Regarding the ego, he shouldn't try too hard, put too much pressure on himself or take life too seriously.
He will get over it, and be a stronger person after it. best of luck.

This is my opinion. I am not a professional so he should listen to his doctor opinion regarding medication / support groups etc.

CD...

I would suggest two approaches. The first is "stop running". When I smoked, 1-2 packs per day over several years, I frequently stopped for several months and found it easy to do. Rather than running from the symptoms and labeling them "bad" or something I couldn't stand, I purposely spoke to myself as if the symptoms were an interesting and unique opportunity to experience physical withdrawal from smoking. Then I would sit calmly and watch them. Funny how when you stop running they stop chasing.

The other suggestion would be to find a very good NLP therapist. You might want to read the books "Frogs into Princes" and "Using your Brain for a Change.

Good luck.

Thanks Bette for warm welcome.Clivedelaney,I agree that repeating those thoughts gives relief ,temporary,thing is that in long run makes problem worse,so yes basically person must avoid to go into that pattern,loop,it is not addiction really,it appears that way off course,in essence anxiety coupled with biochemical condition of brain triggers thoughts that is something wrong,for instance that somebody will die or something and persons respond performing some action externally(compulsions) or inwardly(pure O,obsessions)to "neutralize" threatening situation,off course it is not real threat.Anyway good advice from you.Dedogrande,yes stop running is cool approach because anxiety have big part in worsening symptoms,off course it is easier to said than done,but person must try.