The Imp of the Mind: Exploring the Silent Epidemic of Obsessive Bad Thoughts

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Sadly, many of my patients, when they first experience violent, sexual, or blasphemous bad thoughts, believe that there is deep down in them—like the ruthless Mr. Hyde living deep within Dr. Jekyll and waiting to be unbound—an evil murderer or molester, their "true" self, whose appearance is heralded by the appearance of the bad thoughts. For my patients who come to this conclusion, thought suppression seems to them the only logical If you have or suspect you have OCD, especially if it is primarily obsessional, this book may give you a lot of comfort and is a must read. The first part of the book is devoted to The Problem of Bad Thoughts. Recognizing the subjective isolation that almost everyone with disturbing thoughts feels, the author makes liberal use of case examples to convey the essential message that the reader who may be having disturbing thoughts and impulses is not unique. He parallels this with the admonition that individuals should not fear to seek help or even to attempt self-help because a great deal is understood about their condition and it is eminently treatable. This simple exposition in itself should go a long way toward motivating the concerned reader to stop trying (futilely) to suppress such thoughts, thereby exacerbating his or her subjective distress. Next, make a note of which figure triggered the strongest emotional response. Now, still picturing that image and face and name as vividly as possible, incorporate some of the following content: This section will be updated with lots of information, advice and features to help families understand and cope better with their loved one’s OCD.

The Imp of the Mind: Exploring the Silent Epidemic of

Although I'm not as "special" as the patients listed in the case studies, this book made me accept that bad thoughts happen to everyone from time to time. Why do I have such thoughts? I know all the psychological and physiological theories—which I will discuss in detail later—yet for me, a literary description often captures most vividly what is happening: Here is none other than my own personal Imp of the Perverse, perched perhaps upon my right shoulder, whispering thoughts about running the dog over into my mind's ear. Just who is my imp? For me, Edgar Allen Poe depicted him perfectly in his 1845 short story "The Imp of the Perverse": The description of the control and need for certainty by those who feel disempowered may certainly resonate with the imagery of the Imp disturbance. Sufferers may also find comfort with Lee’s efforts to help individuals learn to tolerate each thought and challenge themselves to face their fears- in this case the creature that torments them. Of course, those practicing acceptance and commitment therapy may not appreciate Lee’s imagery of the Imp and in fact challenge the Imp as simply an entity that could be simply protecting oneself from their ultimate fear (in other words, how could you hate something trying to protect you).Mel, I think that is a very interesting and thought-provoking question. Thank you for bringing this up. I am not sure what sort of studies have been done on the personality traits of individuals with different forms of OCD. Maybe a treatment provider has a helpful perspective. For me personally, I have the personality trait of sensitivity but not shyness, so perhaps the answer varies among individuals even if there is a common pattern among different forms. I was introduced to Dr. Baer’s book by my behavioral therapist, while in treatment for OCD. At the time, I was in the depths of my struggle with intrusive thoughts, drowning in shame and disconnected from what I labeled the “normal” human experience. This book was the first step in reconnecting me to humanity, by offering this simple truth: we all have thoughts, some thoughts perceived as “good” and some perceived as “bad.” This was the first time experiencing in written form that others had gone through what I was going through – and what a normalizing and impactful experience that was. I endorse this engaging book because reading it provided me with the needed foundation to begin treatment and participate in the hard and worthwhile work on my journey to recovery. My family and I are grateful for the entire OCD community and for authors like Dr. Lee Baer. There is a cruel paradox that any thought you attempt to suppress will instead recur with greater frequency and power. The old joke is to ask someone not to think about a white bear, and then watch them twitch in frustration as they find they can’t stop themselves doing so. As a research psychiatrist I found reviewing this book to be both enjoyable and challenging. The author makes effective use of what I presume to be literary techniques to demystify his subject. His anthropomorphic title, The Imp of the Mind, drawing on Poe’s “The Imp of the Perverse” (1850), conjures a dynamic homunculus residing in the brain (the orbital frontal cortex?), biding its time until a moment of frontal lobe vulnerability and then mercilessly disrupting executive function. Literary license notwithstanding, to many people it certainly feels like this is happening. Its occurrence in epidemic proportions (the subtitle of the book is Exploring the Silent Epidemic of Obsessive Bad Thoughts) is perhaps hyperbole, but undoubtedly attractive to the potential reader. It also shows that most people are to afraid to speak up about this. No mother wants to admit to having thoughts of killing her child, no boyfriend wants to admit to having thoughts of stabbing his girlfriend so unfortunately they live a life of trying to repress these thoughts, thinking they are evil people that will one day snap and commit these atrocious acts.

The Obsessive Struggle with Intrusive Thoughts in OCD

An early reference to something resembling the Imp of the Perverse (i.e., the human curiosity and inability to stop thinking about the very thing we are told not to do) is the Greek myth of Pandora: In bestowing their gifts on Pandora, the gods of Olympus gave her a box, warning her never to open it. But, inevitably, Pandora's curiosity finally overcame her, and she opened the mysterious box, from which flew innumerable plagues and sorrows for humankind. In terror, she tried to shut the box, but only Hope remained inside to comfort humanity against its new misfortunes. Some of this book was very interesting to me as I have suffered from obsessive thoughts. I don't know if I'll ever read it cover to cover as it is a bit too detailed and scientific for me. I don't mind a little science but a little goes a long way for me. But I love to learn new things, and I learned something I never knew before about obsessive thoughts. When a person is having obsessive thoughts, the frontal lobe of his/her brain is extremely active. On the contrary, the brain activity of a person about to commit a criminal act slows down. I've read quite a bit about the obsession component of OCD but never remember reading this before.Very few depict the true face of OCD: unwanted intrusive thoughts that can get fixated on virtually any topic at all. These thoughts are often of a “taboo” nature (sex, violence, morality), and the compulsions are anything that is done (or avoided) to try to make the thoughts go away.

The Imp of the Mind by Lee Baer | Goodreads

All of Part 1 of his text, The Problem of Bad Thoughts – This is an excellent resource to initially introduce patients to OCD treatment. I would recommend all of Part 1. This is also a great supplemental resource. A useful resource, though I think the author should have made an effort to distinguish more between OCD and "pure O", where the former is accompanied by a compulsive action often unrelated to the nature of the obsession, i.e. the seemingly nonsensical repetition of flipping a light switch on-and-off to prevent someone's family member from getting into a car accident, and where "pure O" is limited to intrusive thoughts without the accompanying compulsion to perform a specific action to rid oneself of such thoughts. Honestly, I wish I found this book in my teens. I have lived with obsessive bad thoughts, as well as compulsions, for as long as I can remember - definitely in my mid-teens, but perhaps even earlier. Reading this book gave me so much support and made me realize that I am not alone. This has helped me on my personal OCD journey.

At that point in my illness I was devouring every bit of vaguely “OCD” media I could find: documentaries, news reports, reality TV, celebrity interviews, standup comedy, even specials about psych wards in general – anything that gave me some insight into the humanity of a person with mental illness. OCD has been shown by modern psychologists to be on the same continuum as Tourette's syndrome. In fact, many of the one illness also have the other, about 75% of those with Tourette's have clinical OCD, and ~25% the other way. I have not read the book, but almost any reason that brings someone to admit to having suicidal thoughts is going to yield the response, "get help immediately". Even if suicidal intrusive OCD thoughts are like most other OCD thoughts (irrational), most responses are still going to be "get help immediately".

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Overall, the text does a very well job normalizing intrusive thoughts. I appreciated the historical references made of past historical notes made referencing OCD thoughts and stories of modern day cultural icons that may have also experienced difficulties with obsessive symptoms. boy sitting next to her that he was really attracted to. Soon, whenever he saw an attractive boy in school or on the street or in the gym, he would find himself scanning his body to try to feel certain that he wasn't sexually aroused. "Was that the first tingling of an erection?" he'd ask himself. Of course, simply thinking about the area would sensitize it, which might be enough to convince him that he really was homosexual. He might then go home and lie My own first experience of OCD involved near-constant intrusive images of hanging and shooting myself, and it was extremely confusing both to myself and everyone around me why I was experiencing this while 1) unequivocally not wanting to die and 2) being constantly terrified of myself as if I really, really did and would do it if ever left alone with a weapon. Hearing that these thoughts were diagnostic of anxiety and not suicidality (and in fact, that these thoughts meant I was /unlikely/ to kill myself) could have saved me three years of tremendous emotional pain, and many more of profound self-distrust and self-contempt.I was so incredibly sad to hear that Lee Baer passed away in 2017, right when I found his amazing books. At this time, I was struggling from Pure O OCD and my old therapist didn't know what Pure O OCD is, so I was getting the wrong treatment. I left that therapist and found a new one. It was then that I realized what I had through his diagnosis.