Quick Tips

Here some excellent tips taken from 25 tips from Fred Penzel, PhD taken from the International OCD Foundation about getting over OCD.

Always expect the unexpected. You can have an obsessive thought at any time or any place.  Don’t be surprised when old or even new ones occur.  Don‘t let it throw you.  

Be willing to accept risk. Risk is an integral part of life, and as such it cannot be completely gotten rid of.  

Never seek reassurance from yourself or others.  Instead, tell yourself the worst will happen, is happening, or has already happened.  Reassurance will cancel out the effects of any therapy homework you use it on and prevent you from improving.  Reassurance-seeking is a compulsion, no matter how you may try to justify it.

Always try hard to agree with all obsessive thoughts — never analyze, question, or argue with them.  The questions they raise are not real questions, and there are no real answers to them.  Try not to get too detailed when agreeing — simply say the thoughts are true and real.

Don’t waste time trying to prevent or not think your thoughts.  This will only have the opposite effect and lead to thinking more thoughts. Studies have shown that you cannot effectively stop or push down particular thoughts.  Your motto should be, “If you want to think about them less, think about them more.”

Try to not be a black-and-white, all-or-nothing thinker — don’t tell yourself that one slip up means you are now a total failure.  If you slip and do a compulsion, you can always turn it around and do something to cancel it. The good news is that you are in this for the long haul, and you always get another chance.  It is normal to make mistakes when learning new skills, especially in therapy.  It happens to everyone now and then.  Accept it.  Even if you have a big setback, don’t let it throw you.  Remember the saying, “A lapse is not a relapse.”  This means that you never really go back to square one.  To do that, you would have to forget everything you have learned up to that point, and that really isn’t possible.  Also remember the sayings, “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat,” (F. Scott Fitzgerald) and as they say in AA, “You can always start your day over.”  

Remember that dealing with your symptoms is your responsibility alone.  Don’t involve others in your therapy homework (unless your therapist tells you to) or expect them to push you or motivate you.  They won’t always be there when you need them, but YOU are always there for YOU.

Don’t get too impatient with your progress, or compare yourself to someone else.  Everyone goes at their own pace.  Instead, try to simply focus on carrying out each day’s therapy homework, one day at a time.

When you have a choice, always go toward the anxiety, never away from it.  The only way to overcome a fear is to face it.  You can’t run away from your own thoughts, so you really have no choice but to face them.  If you want to recover, you will have to do this.

When faced with two possible choices of what to confront, choose the more difficult of the two whenever possible

Never forget that you have OCD.  This means that you will not always be able to trust your own reactions or the things you think and feel, especially if they seem to be telling you very negative and extreme things.  If you are unsure if something is really a symptom, treat it as a symptom.  Better to do a bit more exposure than not enough.

Remember that in OCD, the problem is not the anxiety — the problem is the compulsions. If you think the anxiety is the problem, you will only do more compulsions to get rid of it (which will only create more anxiety).  If you recognise that the compulsions are the problem, stop doing them, and stay with the fearful situation, then the anxiety will eventually go away as you build up tolerance.

Always take a moment to be proud of your own efforts and recognise your successes.  It’s a good way to help keep up your motivation.  Look back at earlier assignments that are no longer challenging if you believe you aren’t making progress.

Overall, never forget that OCD is very paradoxical and rarely makes much sense.  The things that you thought would make you better only make you worse, and the things you thought would make you worse are the very things that will make you better.