Under Construction - MHWA Retreat

I was never into self-help books even though I've had a lot of therapists try to push them on me in the past. One of my first therapists when I was a kid wanted me to do "homework" between appointments, which was basically just exercises from a workbook on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Of course, I didn't do it because I was young and didn't want to be there in the first place, let alone do more homework.

I actually used my first self-help book last summer. When I was beyond confused with being diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, my therapist gave me The OCD Workbook   by Dr. Bruce Hyman.

At first I was definitely like, I'm not even gonna touch this, as per the usual. But then I was in one of my particularly bad episodes, just laying bed for 3 or 4 days and I looked over at the book on my bedside table and thought, what the hell. I don't know how much it helped me b r e a k f r e e from OCD, as it claims to do on the cover, but it did help me understand the diagnosis.

I went from, "I don't have OCD" to "Holy shit, I have OCD" after looking through the book. I agreed with my therapist that I would work through the exercises and keep her updated. It actually gave us a starting and ending point for our sessions, which was nice. Like, here's what I've worked through since our last session and here's what I plan to work through before our next session.

Now I'm not so against self-help books, although it's the only one I've fully utilized. I just think you really have to research the credentials of the author. Dr. Hyman, for example, was a doctor (obviously) who specialized in OCD recovery for over 25 years and opened an OCD resource center. He was one of the pioneers in OCD treatment. So, I'd say his credentials are pretty good for the topic. I would always look at that before reading a self-help book because some an underqualified person can be more detrimental to your mental health than anything.

Best,
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