How To Inform Your Family And Friends Of HOCD
Manplay.com could give you a gay test, but instead we will give you all the tips you need in order to get your family to help and understand your HOCD. It seems like an alarming thing to do, but Manplay.com can help you through anything. We aren’t just about hooking you up with hot guys online, we also want to help you understand what you might be going through your head. We want to give you advice about what to do with your emotions and your heart. There are a million ways to live and we can give you a few. When it comes to helping you help your family understand your HOCD, there might be a few things that you’re either unsure about, or you may need clarification on. We have a checklist for you that doesn’t involve any sort of gay test, instead it involves some pointers about the treatment you’ll be getting and how you can get friends and family to support you with your treatment. You can also read up more about questions for being gay when you take a look at some of our Gay Tests.
HOCD And Cognitive Behaviorial Therapy
Some of you might be a little weirded out by the diagnosis of HOCD, but it is a well documented problem that affects plenty of people around the country. It is one of the leading causes of stress and anxiety for many men. More often than not, many men with HOCD are already suffering from depression or anxiety and they’re not sure how to go about getting help when thoughts of gay sex come into the mix. Once you’ve been diagnosed with HOCD you will be placed into a program that will help you counter those thoughts with more positive ones related to everyday life and thoughts you enjoy. This is usually applied through cognitive behavioural therapy or what is often referred to as CBT. This type of therapy works through trying to change the way you think and how you behave in every day life. Let’s say you have certain things that make you think about gay sex or there are certain situations that fill up your head with naked men. These external stimuli are either avoided and acknowledged. Therapists believe that there is an element of conditioning that comes with HOCD and cognitive behavioural therapy is the only way to deal with it because it involves an action oriented approach. As a patient of cognitive behavioural therapy, you will find yourself facing challenges. Perhaps there is something at work that always gets in the way of you thinking straight - both literally and figuratively. One way in which you might be able to deal with this problem is by acknowledging what exactly stimulated your anxiety and then attempt to control how you go about thinking of whatever comes to mind. One problem that many people with HOCD face is the fact that when they attempt to suppress the gay thoughts that come across their mind, they may find themselves thinking about gay sex even more. It’s similar to someone asking you not to think about something and of course the first thing you think about is the thing that they told you not to think about. Cognitive behavioural therapy assesses what triggers your gay thoughts and fears, then aims to ensure you don’t feel any negativity from these thoughts. Many HOCD sufferers who have undergone such therapy have claimed that they have accepted the thoughts and more often than not are able to feel no fear relative to any image that may come to their mind.
The HOCD Treatment Checklist
HOCD isn’t something that is a gay test and some of your friends and family might be confused about what you’re going through. They may not understand why you have the thoughts in the first place, especially when you have a girlfriend or you are straight. What they will understand is only what you communicate to them. Take a look at our checklist that will help you in getting your friends and family to understand your therapy:
1. Communicate
Tell your friends and tell your family everything about what you are feeling. Getting better requires support and if your family is not willing help to you, than they are not your family or they simply don’t understand what you are going through.
2. Walk Them Through How It Works
Tell them how your HOCD works and tell them how your therapy works. Give them pamphlets and give them literature on what works and what doesn’t work. Let them know what sets you off. Let them know that you can get through this if they help remind you not think negatively. Like we already said, communication is key.
3.Explain HOCD
They must realize that thoughts cannot always be controlled. One way to get them to understand what you’re feeling is to ask them not to think about something. Then ask them what came to mind - as always it will that something you told them not to think about. This little trick will help them understand what you’re going through. People don’t often understand mental disorders because not a lot of people think about what they’re thinking about - but you do and you’re going to help yourself. Don’t keep your friends in the dark and don’t keep your family out of the picture either. You require support to get better.
4. Get Someone To Go With You To HOCD Treatment
Sometimes having someone by your side can work wonders for your self esteem and you therapy. Get one of your friends to go with you to therapy. Then talk about your progress (only if you want to). Explain to them what your goals are for the week. Then go out for a coffee or a drink and talk about other things. Try and find relaxing places to hang out, that you know won’t set you off.
5. Take Action Together
One way in which you could get some great help from your family and friends is by getting them to take action with your therapy. Maybe one of your goals involves trying to face every one of your fears or triggers relative to HOCD. For example, let’s say you have a fear of taking a gay test online. You have this fear because you think it might suddenly make you have epiphany that you are gay. Face your fear, accept your thoughts and try and get you friends and family to help you through the process. Whether or not they actually cared whether you were actually gay isn’t the point, it all has to do with whether they can get you through it.
6. Keep It Up
Being in therapy is like exercise. Whether you do it once a week or twice a week, when you don’t do it it sucks and you feel awful. Get your family to help you stay on target. Maybe one week you have a particularly trying time dealing with some of the thoughts that have flashed before your eyes and you don’t how to deal with it because it’s a new trigger. If you get your family involved, you will find yourself staying on track and not getting bumped by just one thought. This is one of the features of cognitive behaviorial therapy, where you maintain a certain thought process in the face of negative thinking or repetitive thoughts that trigger anxiety. If your family can see you going into some sort of spiral, then all you have to do is get them to pick you back up again.
In Conclusion
Overall, you will find ways to get your family to help you out with this whole treatment. The key to everything is how you communicate with them and what you tell them. You have to be able to let them be open about what they think you’re doing wrong, but they also have to follow the formula to ensure that they can help you get everything sorted properly. HOCD might seem like an odd diagnosis for them at first, but remember what we told you about that thinking trick. Support, care and consistencies always bring about change and this is possible with help from your family and friends.
Some External Links About HCOD Treatment
Check out some of these external links that will take you in the right direction. HOCD affects a lot of people in the country and there are plenty of resources for you to check out to help you get on your way:
1. Some Great Personal Stories On HOCD
2. The HOCD Treatment Centre Of Los Angeles
3. Psychology Today’s Assessment of HOCD
4. A Good And Solid Outline Of HOCD And What People Should Expect
5. An Academic Paper Outlining Some Of The Issues With HOCD
Check Out Our Other Articles
To find out more about HOCD take a look at What Are The Leading Causes Of HOCD?
Comments