Is there any non-medicated way to break an obsession?

Post Reply New Topic

I may be going back into the Army, and I can't be on any medication. Is there any ways that don't involve medication to break troublesome obsessions? (The ones that are non-OCD, but are Aspie ones instead.)

have you tried Paradoxical Intention?

BTW, read Viktor Frankl's "man's search for meaning", Rules.

cognitive behavior therapy pretty standard nowadays.

Start obsessing about the Army, instead of whatever you do now.

You could try associating it with something unpleasant. So whenever you start thinking about your obsession, do something you hate. Of course, that could backfire and lead you to start liking the thing you used to hate.

But why would you need to break your obsessions in the first place? What makes them troublesome? Is there a way you could find a way of obsessing that isn't troublesome? That might be easier.

It is because my Mom says that I can't have the Army and give into the obsession at the same time. My obsession/desire is to have a baby, it has been for two years, but she says that if I have a baby and then go into the Army no one will take care of the baby while I'm away. So I have to choose, and I hate it.

Check out this book:

Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

by Jeffrey M. Schwartz (Author), Beverly Beyette (Author)

Key Phrases: intrusive urges, refocusing your attention, orbital cortex, Four Steps, True False, Brain Lock (more...)

Sounds interesting, I will have to try and find it at the library.

I am curious though, has anyone been made to give up their obsession? I wonder if I am the only one who has had to do it.

replace it with another obsession--it's the only way.

OR spend a week in a daycare in the infant room (this might do the trick).

Listen to your mom--she is NOT going to raise your baby. Then, who will? You will have to forgo the army and raise your child. How old are you? I don't advise having a baby under the age of 25. (really)

equinn

babysitting a young child for a little while should break the obsession i would think.

What obsessions are you trying to break?

I tried doing that with another obsession once that I though was getting out of hand, it was a Star Wars obsession and I tried replacing it with a Transformers obsession. Unfortunately what I ended up with was two obsessions instead of just one..

I might have to try that with the infant room, but I don't know what places where they can be found. I don't know if they would let me in, if I said I wanted to be there to break a "baby obsession."

I know my mother will not want to raise another child, she has already told me so. What I find upsetting is that she won't let me live at home, even though I would be raising the kid. I think she thinks that I will end up abandoning it, and then she would be stuck raising it. One of my sisters did that, so I bet she is afraid of me doing it.

My age is 28.

It is an obsession about having a baby. I want to have one, but I have to choose between that or going into the Army.

Yes. Meds are a, er, quick fix approach. With work and finding the right therapy for you, it can be done. CBT is the mainstay for OCD types, but there are lots of self-help books available on the topic which are extremely helpful to many people.

If you have the time and the money, Cognitive Therapy is your best bet. And of course the benefits of going through cognitive therapy apply to far more then what you went to therapy for in the first place.