Ever heard your OCD brain saying:

‘How do I know if it’s OCD, this time it feels so real!’

This is one of OCD’s biggest hooks and it will throw it at you every single time. 

Each time you get triggered, for whatever reason, it will feel urgent and like it must be looked at right now!  In fact, if it does feel urgent you should use this as your first clue that it is your OCD at play.

A question I like to ask myself at these times is:

‘Am I struggling?’

If the answer to this question is yes, then use this as your second clue that OCD is playing its nasty game with you.   

One of the reasons we generally fall down the ‘ruminations rabbit hole’ is that we’re not 100% sure whether it’s our OCD, or whether this time the trigger is something to be genuinely worried about. 

But I can guarantee that if you’re struggling with the thought then you’ll be starting to spiral and if you’re spiralling you’ll be heading into your sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous system. 

When in this part of the nervous system we don’t think rationally, as the prefrontal cortex – our thinking brain – starts to go offline and our more primal survival brain starts to take over. 

This is not where we want to be when dealing with OCD thoughts as we don’t think rationally, it’s all about extremes and as a result we end up thinking what OCD is telling us is ‘reasonable’ somehow! 

Honestly the things my brains convinced me are possible when in fight or flight is madness and yet somehow, when in that dysregulated state, it seems perfectly reasonable. 

Here are some examples which might sound familiar:

• That bump in the road was probably a human which I completely missed.
• Even though I’ve already washed my hands they’re not clean.
• What if I push that person into the road as I walk past them?
• Maybe that red spot is blood, what if I pick up an infection from it?

In fact right now, as I’m writing these down, my brain is saying: ‘What if by writing these things down it makes them more likely to happen? ‘

I mean you get the idea, all the above are situations where OCD has taken 1 + 1 and come up with 20.  It has made huge leaps, completely by-passing any sort of logic, reason or fact and because you are in your sympathetic nervous system, it makes them seem possible! 

In summary,

1. If it feels urgent
   or
2. You’re struggling

know that it’s your OCD at play and you need to take a step back, definitely don’t engage!!!

It seems too simple but if you can keep these two ideas in your head when you get triggered then it will empower you to sit with the uncertainty. They also go a long way to helping you identify the thought as OCD and this is a well-known defusion exercise (from ACT therapy) which helps switch the thinking brain back on.

I know it’s unbelievably hard to sit with the uncertainty but know that completing any type of compulsion does nothing apart from validate the OCD trigger, highlights it as important to the brain and sends you off into your sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) where all logic switches off.

Do your best to not engage with any OCD compulsions, OCD may appear to be your ‘helpful friend’ but it most defiantly isn’t.  Given the chance OCD will steel everything from you, it feels no empathy and will take you to hell if you let it!

I really hope these tips help you as much as they have me,
As always, Stay Strong xxx