The OCD Workbook: Your Guide to Breaking Free from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

by Bruce M. Hyman, Cherlene Pedrick

If you have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), chances are that your persistent obsessive thoughts and time-consuming compulsions keep you from enjoying life to the fullest. But when you are in the habit of avoiding the things you fear, the idea of facing them head-on can feel frightening and overwhelming. This book can help.

The OCD Workbook has helped thousands of people with OCD break the bonds of troubling OCD symptoms and regain the hope of a productive life. Endorsed and used in hospitals and clinics the world over, this valuable resource is now fully revised and updated with the latest evidence-based approaches to understanding and managing OCD. It offers day-to-day coping strategies you can start using right away, along with proven-effective self-help techniques that can help you maintain your progress. The book also includes information for family members seeking to understand and support loved ones who suffer from this often baffling and frustrating disorder. Whether you suffer with OCD or a related disorder, such as body dysmorphic disorder or trichotillomania, let this new edition of The OCD Workbook be your guide on the path to recovery.

This new edition will help you: Use self-assessment tools to identify your symptoms and their severity Create and implement a recovery strategy using cognitive behavioral self-help tools and techniques Learn about the most effective medications and medical treatments Find the right professional help and access needed support for your recovery Maintain your progress and prevent future relapse

Genres: Psychology, Self Help, Mental Health, Nonfiction, Health, Counselling, Reference

352 pages, Paperback

First published August 9, 1999

Reviews

[Frederick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compulsively readable.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall this book is really informative, but unfortunately the newest version is still outdated (2010). Being as I have lived with OCD since about the age of 13, I have some thoughts. My biggest gripes are:

1. It's written in a way that, while accessible to everyday people, can come across as incredibly preachy.
2. The way that it keeps coming back to using HIV/AIDS as an example for contamination OCD seemed stigmatizing by the end of the book. I'm not in any way minimizing the fact that there are people that do have this fear as their OCD subtype, or saying that they are intentionally stigmatizing the HIV/AIDS community. I just think the writers could have varied their examples a bit more so as not to come across as targeting that community, which has been scapegoated enough throughout history.
3. This may be the most important for anyone who uses this book to try to lessen their OCD symptoms - please, for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT TRY TO THOUGHT BLOCK. There is more updated information out there that shows that this is NOT helpful, and if anything is likely to turn into a compulsion/ritual in itself.

It's a good base of background knowledge across the board, it just needs an update. I recommend trying to read up-to-date resources as well if you are looking to do the self-directed program.

[Sophie Crocker · Rating 4 out of 5]

a few aspects (e.x. some parts of the discussion on weight & homosexuality) could be slightly more inclusive, but otherwise, I think that this is a really strong resource, including example stories and many reassuring passages. it makes OCD recovery more accessible and details a lot of concrete steps that (in conjunction with therapy/psychology/psychiatry/meds etc.) are extremely actionable. OCD can feel insurmountable, debilitating, and lonely, and this book helps to illuminate that there is hope<3

[Bridgett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had a lot of useful explanations of OCD and activities to try and measure your OCD problems and self-treat it. However, the book is divided into many sections of different types of OCD problems, so not every section will likely be applicable.

[emre · Rating 3 out of 5]

sadece semptom gidermeye odaklanan, kişinin ne hissettiğini veya neden öyle hissediyor olabileceğini anlamaya yönelik en ufak çabanın görülmediği tipik bir bdt kitabı. kullanışlı ama yüzeysel.

[Jennifer DuBose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book is great for those who would like a better understanding of how OCD works or those who don’t have access to professional help. I have a psychiatrist and I have access to a therapist if I feel the need to return to regular visits, so this book was good for helping me to understand how my OCD works. Now that I have a better understanding of how it works, I was able to explain the disease to my family, who of course were still adamant that “it’s all in my head”. Meh, we’re getting there.

This book also have many passages that I’ve dog-eared with the intentions of going back to read to myself for reassurance during my low points.

Overall, a good book that will walk you through cognitive behavioral therapy and lead you to better knowledge of OCD.

[Jeremy Blum · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really helpful guide for everyone with OCD, or for anxiety sufferers like myself who often find themselves exhibiting OCD symptoms. There are a number of exercises in this book that, when done consistently, will lessen the noises raging in your brain. I haven't done all of them myself, but the exercises that I did complete helped me bounce back from a particularly nasty bout of health anxiety last Christmas, so I remain eternally grateful to this book.

My only complaint is that the book seems to have bene written in the '90s (1999, apparently) and occasionally feels dated - namely in its sections on health anxiety, which consistently refer to HIV and AIDS as the end-all-be-all of illnesses. Which they really aren't any longer.

[Anita · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book to fulfil the goal read a book you own but have never read. I bought this book on the recomandation of my psychologist who saw some ocd like tendinces in me. after reading this book, he and i agree that i do not have ocd. instead i may have something called borderline personality disorder. i'll be reading about that next. this book would be extremely good and helpful to someone that actually did have ocd. i did learn quite a few things about how to overcome compultions and obsessions. i would recommend it to any one suffering with ocd. it just wasn't for me at this point in my life. still a good book though if you need it.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think if you had moderate OCD, this could work as a guidebook but honestly I do not know if it would work well on its own. The book is very repetitive. It does work as a good primer as to the different types of OCD. Overall, after determining myself as very moderately OCD, I really don’t think the methods in the book would work all that well for me.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great self-help book and has a lot of assessments and tools for therapists to use for psychoeducation.

[Mia Shapiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️ I found this book super helpful for people with OCD. Definitely gives you more insight on different kinds of OCD and ways to help with treatment. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone with OCD or for people who have loved ones with OCD or therapists who are working with children/adults/adolescents with OCD.

[Meredith Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

My therapist recommended this book to me when I was first diagnosed with OCD and it has been very helpful. It helps identify the ways this condition can manifest and has many helpful strategies outlined for overcoming it

[Cadiem Charlebois · Rating 3 out of 5]

a bit out of date, but it's a great way to brace you for the reality of seeking treatment of OCD. I listened to the audiobook and used the supplementary PDF, which I found really helpful for gauging where I am in terms of severity

[Aynur Aslanova · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives a good understanding of OCD. Highly recommend. The checklists provided are the best ever and mostly useful that I could ever find. Good job Bruce!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful to me as a parent of a teenager with OCD. I will have to go through it again but this gives me some good starting points in addition to professional therapy.

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too long

[Sophia Burbano · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can't complain.

[Fahim Sherzai · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book

It has all the information you need for treatment of OCD. However , it is workbook that requires a lot of work and understanding to follow in order to get its benefits.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really solid clinical approach to OCD and I really learned a lot from this book. My therapist recommended this to me and I'm glad I gave it a shot.

[TAMUSA Student Counseling]

Available at the TAMU-SA Library:
https://tamusa.on.worldcat.org/oclc/7...

[Bonni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource for clinicians, patients, or supportive family members.

[Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I spend way too much time with this book to not list it in my Goodreads

[Ypatios Varelas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can be helpful for people suffering from OCD who are not under proper treatment or have not been diagnosed. But many times it becomes too complicated as a workbook.

[Alex The Ninja Squirrel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first mental health advice/self-help book I’ve seen that is evidence-based and useful to the average patient. My only criticism is the bit on homosexual obsessions.

[pk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, a really valuable position on the OCD treatment. However, the chapter on scrupulosity (Chapter 11) offers a mixture of good advice (e.g. involving spiritual advisors, symptom monitoring, targeting certain obsessions - but actually the list presents appraisals of obsessions - which is more appropriate, but the heading is misleading), but also poor understanding of Christian religion (a character 'Mark' 'appears repeatedly at pastor's door requesting a confessional' - it would be helpful to not mix a Catholic sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation with a Protestant figure of a pastor. One would expect the authors would know the difference?). There is also, unfortunately, bad advice i.e. ERP involving DELIBERATE repetition of blasphemous thoughts (obscenities), repeating them whilst in the church etc. This is hugely mistaken (as I do not assume the author's had bad will in this regard). If the authors did their research they would've discovered that in Christianity (but probably also in Islam or Judaism) bad spirits (demons) can be one of the sources behind certain thoughts and if the person is not willingly thinking them but merely experiences them, then it is acceptable within such religious framework. However, a deliberate act of blasphemy is a sin and the treatment designed like that would surely encounter a huge opposition from the spiritual advisor (priest, imam, pastor, rabbi) and the religious person going through the therapy process. Moreover, the proposed exposure does not address the INTERPRETATION/APPRAISAL of the thought - and this is exactly what maintains the problem for this person. The OCD feeds off such appraisals of the thought that belittle the person (Rachman's famous triad of the 'bad, mad & dangerous'). Thus, instead of deliberately offending God, the person could repeatedly expose oneself to thoughts such as 'I am mad' 'I am going to hell' etc (depending on what bothers them the most about the initial intrusive though). Also, the ACT approach (described in the book) could be quite helpful in stripping the intrusion of its original significance. In essence, the authors should have done their due diligence and tailor their recommendations. Hopefully, future editions of this very valuable book will offer a more considerate perspective.

[Julie Sale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah it was alright. I don't agree with the writers completely about who can and can't treat OCD. I think trained therapists can and it does not need to be a psychiatrist. Either can do this job if they have been trained specifically to deal with OCD

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the hands on work of this book and the break down of facts about OCD. syndromes, actions, and cures.

[Lexie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really robust book covering more than I needed. Overall good.