Brain Lock Quotes

“almost automatic response: “That’s just a senseless obsession. It’s a false message. I’m going to focus my attention on something else.” At this point, the automatic transmission in your brain begins to start working properly again.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“It’s like one obsession propels another that propels another.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“OCD is insatiable.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“Avoidance itself is a compulsion.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“One who is slow to anger is better than a warrior, and one who rules his spirit is better than one who takes a city. —King Solomon, Proverbs 16:32 You yourself must do the strenuous work. Enlightened Ones can only show the way. —Gotama Buddha, Dhammapada 276 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: For whatever you may sow, that you will also reap. —St. Paul the Apostle, Galatians 6:7 God helps those who help themselves. —Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1736”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“Howard Hughes was dining with actress Jane Greer at Ciro’s on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles one evening in 1947. At one point in the meal, he excused himself to go to the rest room. To Greer’s amazement, he did not return for an hour and a half. When he finally reappeared, she was astonished to see that he was soaking wet from head to toe. “What on earth happened to you?” she asked. “Well,” Hughes said, “I spilled some catsup on my shirt and pants and had to wash them out in the sink.” He then let them dry for a while, hanging them over one of the toilet stalls. Once he put his clothes back on, he explained, “I couldn’t leave the bathroom because I couldn’t touch the door handle. I had to wait for someone to come in.” According to Peter H. Brown, coauthor with Pat Broeske of Howard Hughes: The Untold Story, Jane Greer never went out with Hughes again. Howard Hughes was eccentric, certainly, but he was not a freak. He was suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a classic and severe case. By the end of his life, in 1976, he was overwhelmed by the disease. He spent his last days in isolation in his top-floor suite at the Princess Hotel in Acapulco, where he had sealed himself in a hospital-like atmosphere, terrified of germs. Blackout curtains at every window kept all sunlight out; the sun, he thought, might transmit the germs he so dreaded. Aides with facial tissues covering their hands brought him food, which had to be precisely cut and measured. Rumors abounded that he was this reclusive because of drug abuse, a syphilitic condition, or terminal dementia. Actually, all his strange behaviors are readily understandable as symptoms of a severe case of OCD. Sadly, there was no treatment for OCD in Howard Hughes’s lifetime. It would be another decade before the disease would be identified as a brain-related disorder.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“You have to be stronger than OCD, physically and mentally. If you’re not, it will eat you alive. It will put you in bed, and you will rot like a vegetable.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“You yourself must do the strenuous work. Enlightened Ones can only show the way. —Gotama Buddha, Dhammapada 276”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“Do not make the mistake of waiting passively for the ideas and urges to go away.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“It’s not me—it’s my OCD.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“Family members can be most helpful by offering support, understanding, kindness, patience, and encouragement in doing the Four Steps—but not by pampering or indulging the person’s OCD. Reinforcement is essential; every improvement should be recognized. People with OCD need to feel good about themselves, since it’s been a long time since they’ve done so. What they don’t need is angry criticism; they are already critical enough of themselves. Nor should they be pushed too fast to get well; their goal will be reached by taking a lot of small steps, not giant leaps. Sure, there will be times when the partner is tired and out of patience with OCD and needs his or her own time out. That’s okay, too. There should be no guilt feelings about that—in fact, the person with OCD should encourage it.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“Having OCD has made me a more intense, sensitive, and compassionate human being. I have been humbled by my disorder. It has built character even while tearing at my soul, my heart, and my self-esteem. It has enabled me to fight harder, to strive for the good and the truth inside me. It has made me less critical and judgmental of others who suffer in their lives.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“among all psychiatric conditions, OCD is one of the few that does not respond very well to so-called placebo treatment—blank pills. Even with schizophrenia and depression, when people are given blank pills—pills that they think may be helping them—a fair number of them actually improve in the short term. But with persons with OCD, generally less than 10 percent get better when they are given placebos, so if something active isn’t being done to combat their symptoms, nothing really happens—or they get worse.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“With behavior therapy, there is also a change in the function of the cingulate gyrus, that part of the cortex that is responsible for the feeling that something catastrophic is going to happen if you don’t act on your compulsions. Before treatment, the cingulate gyrus is tightly locked to the orbital cortex, which is probably the reason why obsessive thoughts and urges are accompanied by such terrible feelings of dread. This is one of the major problems in Brain Lock. After the person follows the Four Steps, the orbital cortex and cingulate gyrus uncouple and start to work freely again, and the fear and dread markedly decrease.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“We now know beyond a reasonable doubt that it doesn’t go away because it’s due to a medical condition, a biochemical imbalance in the brain. By Reattributing the pain to this medical condition, you strengthen your certainty that it is not your will, not you, and that it won’t take over your spirit. You are still intact and able to make conscious, considered decisions in response to your pain.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“Damn it, I can’t believe I’m going to let a choice in my life that’s this major be dictated by OCD.” This is assertive Relabeling.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“CAUDATE NUCLEUS. That’s the part of the brain that’s not filtering out the OCD thoughts properly.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“This is very positive. Just thinking a good thought is a bad Refocus strategy. For example, someone with a fear of dying might Refocus on assuring herself that she’s healthy. Why is that bad? Because it’s so easy for that thought to become an avoidance, merely a way of pushing aside the thought about death that is causing the OCD symptoms. It is an attempt to neutralize an obsessive thought, and that is a compulsion. Your Wise Advocate will tell you that the thought is just an obsessive thought; you then accept the thought and focus on a good behavior.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“It is pointless to sit and ruminate about how dreadful your life is going to be if you act on a fearsome, violent, obsessive thought. You are not going to do it. Why not? Because the real you doesn’t want to do it.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“If it feels like it might be OCD, it is OCD! If it were reality, it wouldn’t feel like it even might be OCD.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“If you let your emotions cling to an OCD behavior, the behavior can easily get out of control.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“Chet found another way to best the OCD: Every time he had an OCD thought, he would do something nice for his fiancée—buy her roses, perhaps, or cook her dinner. Whenever the OCD wanted to make him miserable, he would make himself happy by making his fiancée happy.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

“This new preface serves to refine, and further clarify, the Four Steps to self-directed therapy: Relabel, Reattribute, Refocus and Revalue. When OCD patients Relabel, they are calling their disturbing thoughts and urges what they really are: obsessions and compulsions. When they Reattribute, they recognize that the bothersome thoughts won’t go away because they are symptoms of a disease, OCD. When they Refocus, they work around the intrusive thoughts by doing a constructive, enjoyable behavior. When they Revalue, they learn to ignore those thoughts and view them as worthless distractions.”
― Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior