Jeff Bell - When in Doubt, Make Belief: An OCD-Inspired Approach to Living with Uncertainty

If you know people who double back in their car to check if their garage door is closed, tell them about this book. Its a much-needed work.

This book is not just for those with OCD but for all of us who have suffered in this life and who wish to make some sense of it all. Well written and quite uplifting.

Jeff Bells writing is compassionate, direct, and articulate. His system of personal transformation is crafted out of the grit of personal OCD experience. The result is an inspiring and powerful program that shows us all how to lead a more meaningful and passionate life. This is a great book!

More than insightful, Jeff Bells When in Doubt, Make Belief is at once humble, human, practical, thoughtful, and masterful. Through vignettes, examples, and a rigorous but intuitive set of guidelines for encountering and countering doubt whether in the context of OCD or other life dilemmas Bell shows how focusing on the big picture, and the Greater Good, can lead us out of blind alleys and self-imposed traps. My strongest recommendation.

An extremely well-written book that provides an exquisite understanding of OCD while teaching valuable concepts and tools to overcome fear. Through his own inspirational personal story and extensive research, Bell offers the reader a way to tap into a sense of certainty and clarity to push through uncertainty and doubts.

Jeff Bell is an excellent and experienced radio newsman. But of all the many fascinating stories he has reported over the years, none is more bizarre or more compelling than the one he tells here. Furthermore, it is an exclusive. Only Bell could possibly tell it because it is an account of his own struggle with his own worst enemy, whose name is Doubt.

The best first-person account available on life from the point of view of the OCD sufferer.

A page-turner for anyone interested in obsessive compulsive disorder. Beautifully written and gripping in its intensity, it takes the reader on the perilous adventure of the fight against OCD. Jeff Bell enlists us on his journey: his sense of humor, irony, and reporting skills make this book a must-read.

Bells story provides plenty of lessons, perspective, and hope for those living with OCD either their own or someone elses in a funny, highly entertaining narrative.

Copyright 2009 by Jeff Bell

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

The material in this book is intended for education. It is not meant to take the place of diagnosis and treatment by a qualified medical practitioner or therapist. No expressed or implied guarantee as to the effects of the use of the recommendations can be given nor liability taken.

The authors experiences throughout this book are true, although in some cases identifying details, such as names, have been changed to protect the privacy of others.

The Structure of Belief Pyramid on page 65 originally appeared in a slightly different form in Rewind, Replay, Repeat: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder by Jeff Bell, copyright 2007 by Jeff Bell. Reprinted by permission of Hazelden Foundation, Center City, Minnesota.

Text design by Tona Pearce Myers
Author photo on back cover by John Barkey, www.ClimbAMountain.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bell, Jeff.
When in doubt, make belief: an OCD-inspired approach to living with uncertainty /
Jeff Bell ; foreword by Michael A. Jenike.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-57731-670-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Obsessive-compulsive disorder. 2. Belief and doubt. 3. Uncertainty. 4. Anxiety. I. Title.
RC533.B455 2009
616.8527dc22

First printing, October 2009
ISBN 978-1-57731-670-1
Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

1 With or Within Doubt?:
Intellect-Based vs. Fear-Based Doubt

3 Trapdoors:
False Exits When Stuck in Doubt

PART TWO: MAKING BELIEF
(TEN STEPS OUT WHEN STUCK IN DOUBT)

8 Better Than Good:
The Greater Good Perspective Shift

9 Believers:
Profiles of Belief in Action

I first ran across Jeff Bell when he gave the keynote talk at the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation annual meeting in Houston in 2007 and discussed his popular book Rewind, Replay, Repeat: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Jeff received a tremendous ovation, and the audience, largely consisting of patients with OCD, was delighted at his personal progress and by his recommendations for them. He talked about ways to manage OCD as well as the need for OCD sufferers to give back and help others in order to help themselves. He talked openly about his own OCD and how it had sucked the life out of him.

Working with OCD patients since the late 1970s, I have seen some remain very ill, thousands of patients get moderately better, and a few make dramatic strides and totally reclaim their lives. It has seemed to me that the ones who do best are those who feel obligated to give back and help other patients. Somehow this drive to help others energizes them to fight off their own OCD and stay well and productive. The fact that Jeff was saying this same thing resonated with me.

After his talk, the OC Foundation board of directors asked Jeff to meet with them; and when they came to appreciate his skills and his drive to help others, they asked him to join the board and become a national spokesperson for the foundation.