Week 5

As I am currently waiting for my workbooks to be completed, this is a good time to collect all of the secondary research that I have done so far. The areas that I am most interested in are as followed:

- Natural remedies

- Diet

- CBT

I have decided I would like to focus my project on to alternative methods of recovery. Prescribed medication has it's uses but I have gauged that it is only a temporary fix rather than a long term solution.

A person's diet has a lot to do with their overall health not just physically in weight but also their mental well being. Just like a car each person needs fuel to run, people normally refer the the 'fuel' as protein, carbohydrates and fats. This is great but a car also needs its headlights working, oil and wind screen wipers to be able to function. These small components are vital in a healthy car, just as humans need the small added features such as vitamins, minerals and nutrients to maintain stable mental health. These nutrients are vital for brain stimulation.

The key nutrients for a healthy brain are :

• long-chain omega 3 fatty acids.

• magnesium.

• calcium.

• fiber.

• vitamins B1, B9, B12, D and E

The issue is people are unaware how important it is for the body to have these components especially for people with insufficient mental health it is vital for their recovery process to consume these nutrients.

People can easily get these nutrients from the food they eat, but knowing where to source them from is the problem. The new term for a 'balanced' diet may have to be changed.

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This week I also took the opportunity to familiarise myself with the common themes that are associated with pure O.

Themes:

- Relationship obsessive thoughts, nicknamed ROCD or ‘relationship OCD’

- Obsessive thoughts about sexuality, nicknamed HOCD or ‘homosexual OCD’

- Obsessive thoughts about harm, nicknamed ‘harm OCD’

- Obsessive thoughts about being a paedophile, nicknamed POCD or ‘paedophile OCD’

- Obsessive thoughts about losing touch with reality

It is important for me to understand each theme but I do not want to go into too much detail about these individually, because I want to focus my project on the recovery process. I want to create a platform the help people get over their OCD or even a barrier to stop people struggling to begin with.

This week I conducted some brief research into Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), this method of recovery can be used to treat various mental health problems including Pure OCD. It targets 3 key components – how a person thinks, how they feel and how they act when they experience an intrusive thought. It is primarily a talking therapy, but therapists provide the participant with work to do from home such as diaries to document their thoughts. Unlike regular talking therapies it is short lived, it takes on average 30-60 minutes per week for a 7-8-week period. The aim for CBT is to help the participant to develop an alternative way of thinking. They must try to distinguish the difference between thoughts and reality.

Meditation is evidently beneficial to the body and mind of human beings. Its aim is to train the mind to focus and redirect your thoughts. Much like CBT it is targeting an individual’s thought process.

Meditation is known to:

- Reduce stress – Many styles of mediation can help reduce stress. Mediation can likewise reduce symptoms in people with stress – triggered medical conditions.

- Control anxiety – Habitual meditation can help reduce anxiety and improve stress reactivity and coping skills.

- Promote emotional health – Some forms of meditation can improve depression and reduce negative thoughts. It may also decrease levels of inflammatory cytokines, which could contribute to depression.

- Enhance self-awareness – Self-inquiry and related styles of meditation can help you to understand yourself. This can be a starting point for making other positive changes.

- Lengthens attention span – Several meditations may build your ability to redirect and maintain attention.

- May help fight addictions – Meditation develops mental awareness and can help you manage triggers for unwanted impulses. This can help you recover from addiction, manage unhealthy eating and redirect other unwanted habits.

- Improves sleep – A variety of meditation techniques can help you relax and control runaway thoughts that could interfere with sleep. It can also shorten the time it takes to fall asleep and increase sleep quality.

As well as having multiple benefits to the body, meditation is extremely accessible, and it can cost nothing at all. There are various styles of meditation so with a bit of experimenting there should be a style to suit each person. I like this solution because it is medically proved to work, it is a prolonged method of recovery for multiple mental illnesses, but it can be used for general well being also.