Patricia Zurita Ona - The ACT Workbook for Teens with OCD: Unhook Yourself and Live Life to the Full

THE ACT
WORKBOOK
FOR TEENS
WITH OCD

UNHOOK YOURSELF AND
LIVE LIFE TO THE FULL

PATRICIA ZURITA ONA, PSY.D.

FOREWORD BY STUART RALPH

ILLUSTRATIONS BY LOUISE GARDNER

Contents

Foreword

When I think back to my teen years, there was definitely a lot I wasnt sure about and I felt confused and lost in this thing called OCD. It felt like I had a secret identity that I had to protect because of OCD, like a superhero. But unlike Superman, I wasnt born on the planet Krypton and I cant fly or run quicker than the eyes can see. Whereas Superman was protecting his superpowers, I was hiding my OCD for fear of being mad, crazy, or *insert any negative adjective here*. Some years later with therapy, time, and living by my values, I no longer hide. This new confidence has led me to create The OCD Stories podcast. Its a podcast in which I interview people with OCD, and some of the best OCD therapists around the world, all with the focus of providing teens, parents, and adults with resources to help them on their recovery journeytowards living the life they want. Through my podcast, I met the author of this book, Dr. Z.

From the moment we connected I could sense Dr. Z.s passion, and knowledge for working with people with OCD. Dr. Z. owns and runs the East Bay Behavior Therapy Center in San Francisco where she works with teens affected by OCD, and helps them live life on their terms. She has an in-depth understanding of Exposure Response Prevention which is the gold standard of OCD treatment, and supercharges it with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Where these two worlds meet is the foundation of this book. Dr. Z. outlines what OCD is and the different treatments for it, and provides lots of exercises you can do within this book to unhook from your obsessions and start to see thoughts as just thoughts.

Dr. Z. uses a concept called the Choice Point to help you navigate situations when OCD is flaring up. Put simply, we always have a choice. A choice to move towards the things we value or away from them. It is at this Choice Point that our life is shaped. Thats easy to say, but in the grips of OCD it can definitely feel a million times harder than that. As a teen I never realized I had a choice, I always thought I had to do what OCD was telling me. Dr. Z.s book aims to help you realize you always have a choice and that OCD can be worked through. Dr. Z. focuses in the latter part of this book on the life you want to create and live. This again connects with choice, the understanding that you can start to build the life you want to live based on the things you care about, and the meaningful goals you have.

Dr. Z. will talk about turning down your fightonometer, about not fighting OCD, but instead making space for it. It is in the fight that we stir up OCD by trying to push it away, this process of pushing the thoughts away tells our brains these thoughts are important, so our brain gives them back to us. Whereas making space for those tricky thoughts and getting curious can help us work through them. Dr. Z. will give you some tools to turn down that fightonometer and see thoughts as thoughts. So, the fight is over. Put down the boxing gloves, and pick up your binocularsits time to get curious.

Recovery can be hard and messy at times, I dont know you personally, but I know you are a human and humans are pretty wonderfulespecially teensso I have faith you can work through this and create a life on your terms.

Stuart Ralph, The OCD Stories
London, UK

Letter to Teens

Dear Reader,

All the OCD workbooks Ive read have very looooooooooong introductions, so I decided to keep it short and real. Youre welcome!

Every day you wake up, so does your mind. And with it, the annoying, uninvited, and unsolicited obsessions wake up too. Youre not alone! Many teenagers wrestle with those obsessions; they vary from being kind of bothersome to really disturbing, and they can boss you around, up and down, left to right, and back and forth.

These pesky obsessions come along with an automatic rush of fear and discomfort, and an unpleasant feeling that can push you to do all sorts of things that take you far away from the stuff that really matters to you.

I dont know how this book landed in your hands. Maybe your parents handed you this book or your therapist recommended that you read it, but I can tell you right away that no matter how these pages landed in your hands, this workbook is for you . These chapters have not been written by a researcher, manager of a program, or academic who studied OCD behind a desk and has never met an actual teenager, but by a therapist who has spent hours and hours working full time, with children, teens, and adults.

I know it would be nice to have a switch that you can just flick and make the obsessions go away so that you can relax, be stress-free, and have nothing to worry about, but sadly it doesnt work like that. Wherever you are, your mind is there with you, and the obsessions come along with it. Butand its a big butthose pesky obsessions dont have to rule what you do with your life! In fact, the obsessions are not the problem; its only when you put on your running shoes and avoid an obsession that you end up in Avoidance City, or when you do compulsions that land in Compulsion City, or stop doing whats important and meaningful in your life, that things get rocky.

This workbook is a guide to help you to choose how to live your life day-by-day and to learn skills that will help you to hang in there with those dark obsessions so you can do what truly matters to you.

In the first section, you will learn the basics about OCD and research-based treatments, such as Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Next, you will be introduced to the Choice Point, a useful tool that will show you step-by-step how you get hooked on those obsessions and the costs of continuing to do the same thing over and over in your life. After learning about the price of living in safety country, as I call it, you will be invited to step back and check in with yourself about what you actually care about. In the rest of the book you will learn powerful skills to unhook from your obsessions, including values-guided exposure exercises, so that you can move forward with the stuff that is important to you.

As a bonus, I have created a website where you can access additional activities and exercises: www.actbeyondocd.com. Check it out!

When youre done with this workbook, you will be ready to find your Choice Point every time an obsession pops up and you will have the skills to choose how to respond to it. Will you move towards or away from what matters to you? There is no one better than you to choose.

So lets get you going with your life!

Warmly,
Dr. Z.

Letter for Parents

Dear Parent or Caregiver,

How many times have you thought, Its exhausting dealing with OCD and wondered, How did this happen? How many times have you felt like screaming because your teen is asking you to do something for him over and over? How many times have you struggled because of an OCD episode at home? How many times has your mind told you, Its my fault?

If your teen is dealing with OCD, or you suspect thats the case, I know that its not easy for you and its not easy for your teen. Its not your fault and its not your teens fault either. This workbook will help your teen to learn how to handle those pesky obsessions and move forward in life!

As your teen will learn in this workbook, at some point, everyone has uncomfortable and unwanted thoughts. However, what feeds an OCD episode is when your teen takes those intrusive thoughts very seriously and manages their fear with compulsions and avoidant behaviors, which may involve asking you and others to make all types of accommodations to calm down their anxiety.