OCD Awareness Week – Conquering OCD

Expect and Accept: Overcoming OCD Thoughts

November 26, 2025November 25, 2025Posted in Mental Health, Mental Wellbeing, OCD, OCD Awareness Week, OCD Coping Strategies, OCD GeneralTagged Beating OCD, Mental Health, Mindfulness, OCD, OCD Help, OCD Recovery, Overcoming OCDLeave a comment

‘Expect and accept’, is a new mantra I’ve been trying out recently.

I’ve found It can be helpful when managing OCD thoughts day-to-day to have a mantra to act as a ‘switch’ for the brain, helping you to label the thoughts as OCD and move on.

Obviously in an ideal world you wouldn’t need it but it can be so easy at times to get dragged into OCD thoughts and before you know it, you’re freefalling down a rumination rabbit hole and all sense of reality has gone.

Don’t be fooled by the cute bunny, he may appear to be your friend but believe me he isn’t!

At times like this it can be so helpful to have a little reminder, like a therapist in your ear, saying to you:

So let’s be clear here, by saying ‘expect it’, I’m not saying, lets invite those thoughts along or will them to be there. It’s more about having an awareness that if you’re going into a triggering situation, a new environment or out of your comfort zone, then it’s highly likely that your OCD will want to come along for the ride.

I’ve found at times that I can get frustrated with my OCD when it turns up and what I’ve learnt over the years is if you don’t want it to be there, then it’s almost guaranteed to be.

When it does, if it does, we need to accept it. We can do this by saying, ‘Thank you, brain that’s exactly what I wanted to hear right now’.

After all OCD recovery is not about getting rid of the intrusive thoughts, this is a common mistake, remember everyone gets them. So it’s more about allowing them to be there and then carrying on with your day regardless, aligning with your values.

I realise how hard this is, but know that you are not alone and that every time you carry on with your day, despite the thoughts, you are making progress and the brain is learning it doesn’t need to freak out at every thought that comes into your mind.

Why not give the mantra a go this week and see if it helps you too. Let me know how you get on in the comments below.

Remember: ‘Expect it and Accept it’

As always,
Stay Strong xxx

The Role of Values in Overcoming OCD

November 20, 2025November 19, 2025Posted in Mental Wellbeing, OCD, OCD Awareness Week, OCD Coping Strategies, OCD GeneralTagged Anxiety, Beating OCD, Mental Health, mental wellness, Mindfulness, OCD, OCD and Anxiety, OCD Help, OCD Recovery, Overcoming OCDLeave a comment

I’ve mentioned values in several posts to date, and I feel it’s time to take a closer at them and why they are so important in OCD recovery.

What’s a value anyway?

Lets start at the beginning, a value is: ‘a principle or standard of behaviour; one’s judgement of what is important in life’.

They are the standards we set for ourselves to live by, they outline the things that are most important to us and help guide us with our daily choices.

If you’ve done any ACT (acceptance commitment thearpy), then you will know that values work is one of the 6 core principles

They describe values as something you, ‘do’ rather than ‘have’. They are verbs not nouns, general directions and guiders for life, a place you can never arrive at but are always striving towards.

From this description they can feel quite nebulous, but they are the invisible building blocks of our lives.

How do you work out your values?

There are lots of great exercises online that you can work through. Here are a couple of links to try but a quick google will find you lots of information on the topic.

Values worksheet 1

Values worksheet 2

If you’ve never done this work before then I advise spending a bit of time working through one of the above activities.

So why are values so important in OCD recovery?

They become especially useful when you are struggling because you can align to your values and know that that’s the person you want to be.

You can then take actions towards your values, regardless of the thoughts and how you feel, which is exactly what we need to do when OCD gets loud.

OCD has a nasty habit of making you think you’re the worst person in the world, capable of distressing and horrible things and when you’re spiralling it can be incredibly hard to pull yourself out.

Your values then become a superpower, acting as your anchor during these difficult times. They remind you of who you truly want to be and allow you to proactively take action to align with them.

Say for example that your values are to be an honest, trustworthy, reliable, kind and loving person, then when OCD is telling you otherwise you have the opportunity to say;

‘No OCD, I’m not who you’re telling me I am, I know my values and I’m going to carry on with my day aligning to them’.

The brain believes what it sees, so if you live your life aligning to your values then you will be banking undisputable evidence of who you are. The OCD thoughts then become much easier to dismiss and don’t take hold as easily.

In addition to this it’s worth remembering here that OCD thoughts are ego-dystonic, which refers to the fact that the obsessions and compulsions are inconsistent with a person’s values, beliefs, and self-image, understandably causing a lot of distress.

When going through OCD therapy and recovery it can feel so tough at times and your values can act as your guiding light through the darkness.

Every time it feels overwhelming and tough, you need to remind yourself of your values and ask yourself;

‘If I’m aligning with my values and the person I want to be then what would I do in this situation?’

Would I drive back and check if that bump in the road was a person or would I carry on with my day?
Would I wash my hands again because they still feel dirty or would I just carry on with my day?
Would I spend hours ruminating over the nightmare I had last night and not make it into work, or would I just carry on with my day?

There are endless scenarios you could use here but ultimately you have to ask yourself, is your OCD holding you back from the values-based life you want to live?

I’m guessing the answer is yes.

The amazing thing about doing values work, is that once they’re in place they allow your life to become more focused and meaningful in all ways. You become empowered to let anything that doesn’t align with them go, which quite often results in a lot less drama, mental health struggles and a lot more peace.

I’d love to know if you have also found ACT therapy and Values work helpful in your OCD recovery, please share your insights below.

As always,
Stay Strong xxx

Why Habituation is key to OCD Recovery

November 10, 2025Posted in Mental Health, OCD, OCD Awareness Week, OCD GeneralTagged Anxiety, Mental Health, mental wellness, mental-illness, OCD, OCD Help, OCD Recovery, OCD support, Overcoming OCDLeave a comment

Last week I posted about choice and why it’s so important in OCD recovery. Towards the end of that post, I mentioned habituation and I felt the topic so significant for me in my recovery that it deserved it’s own post, so here we are.

What is habituation?

According to google it is:

‘the process of making or becoming accustomed or used to something.’

In Psychology specifically it’s:

‘the diminishing of an innate response to a frequently repeated stimulus.’

When applying this to OCD specifically:

We can see ‘the innate response’ as the compulsion and ‘the repeated stimulus’ as the obsession.

Applying habituation to OCD recovery

We learn in therapy that everyone gets intrusive thoughts and so the aim in OCD recovery is not to get rid of the thoughts (obsessions) but to see them as completely irrelevant.

We do this by recognising the trigger (obsession) when it comes in and habituating (getting used) to it, so that we no longer feel the need to complete the compulsion – whether it be mental or physical.

This was a big turning point for me, realising that the obsession is something you can ‘get used to’. The result of this is that the brain eventually no longer brings your attention to it – as it starts to see it as insignificant.

For a long time I saw OCD recovery as not having the obsessions but now I see that it’s my reaction to the obsession that is the key. I have no control over whether the thought/image/whatever appears or not only my reaction to it.

The Reticular Activating system and habituation

You only have so much mental capacity each day and the brain has an unbelievably effective filtering system called the reticular activating system or RAS for short.

According to Jim Kwik’s book Limitless,

‘every second your senses gather up to 11 million bits of information from the world around you…
…the conscious mind typically processes only 50 bits per second. ’

‘(The RAS) also acts as the gatekeeper of information through a process called habituation, which allows the brain to ignore meaningless and repetitive stimuli’

So the brain takes in an unbelievable amount of information every second and then decides what it’s going to bring to your attention and what it’s going to discard, mostly down to what you’re telling it you feel is important!

When you are struggling with OCD and you see the obsessions as important the brain will prioritise these thoughts above all others. Once you start to habituate yourself to the OCD triggers the brain will no longer use its finite resources on information you’re telling it is irrelevant. It will file it as a ‘meaningless and repetitive stimuli’ and no longer bring it to your attention.

Yes, this is habituation and it’s where OCD recovery happens!

A note here to highlight that we shouldn’t expect our obsessions never to show up again. Every now and then the brain will throw one to the forefront of your mind and say, ‘Remember this? You were really obsessed with this at one point, is it still important?’ and your only job is to do absolutely nothing. This is how we break free from OCD.

In summary, we need to habituate to our obsessions, show the brain that they’re insignificant and carry on with our day aligning with our values. This is how we live our lives in recovery.

Not sure on your values? Then be sure to subscribe below as that’s what next weeks post is going to be all about.

As always,
Stay Strong xxx

Overcoming OCD: The Power of Choice

November 5, 2025Posted in Mental Health, Mental Wellbeing, OCD, OCD Awareness Week, OCD GeneralTagged Anxiety, Beating OCD, Mental Health, mental wellness, mental-illness, OCD, OCD and choice, OCD Recovery, Overcoming OCD, writingLeave a comment

I have recently had the pleasure of coming across the choice article written by Dr Steven Phillipson – a licensed clinical psychologist who specialises in Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy for OCD. It’s such an extraordinary piece of work and a must read for anyone suffering from OCD. It is quite lengthy but there is an audio version here.

The focus of the article is how we need to see OCD thoughts as irrelevant and that we DO have a choice when it comes to this decision.

I know only too well when you have OCD you can feel like you have no choice but to do the compulsion when the thoughts come in, the doubt & uncertainty that comes with not knowing 100% whether the thought is significant can feel too much to bear.

However, we need to start to see this part of the brain as an independent system from our conscious thoughts, one that works automatically – like the systems which control automatic functioning in the body such as breathing and heartrate. We do this by becoming aware of our automatic thoughts and autopilot, making the choice to carry on with our day, align with our values and see the thoughts as meaningless and irrelevant – because they are.

Below is a quote from the article which I thought was helpful:

‘what do our feelings say about our fundamental beliefs? I believe that the answer to this question is, “Not necessarily very much.” Our feelings are not a reliable measure of our self-perception. Why? Because automatic thoughts can create feelings that are just as convincing as thoughts that reflect our deeply held beliefs. So, it is vital that we do not reflexively take the thoughts and feelings that our brains send to us at face value.’

Here Dr Steven Phillipson is highlighting the fact that automatic thoughts can create feelings, these feelings can make things feel more real. Therefore, we shouldn’t put too much emphasis on how we feel as feeling are NOT within our control.

Why would we give up our autonomy (our right to make informed decisions about our lives) to something we have NO control over? (Remember, we cannot control our thoughts and feelings only our behaviours. )

Another great quote from the article:

‘Remember when you have OCD, you cannot use your feelings to determine if a threat is ”real”. Doing so is a little like asking the Devil for directions to heaven’.

I always remember this quote when I’m starting to spiral as it happily reminds me that I cannot trust those feelings.

The article highlights how when one has OCD the amygdala – whose primary function is to process emotions, especially fear and anxiety – is sending us a faulty signal that there is something which needs our attention right away and cannot wait. Our job – through ERP therapy – is to become habituated (the process of making or becoming accustomed or used to something.) to this alert.

This is no easy task and can feel very uncomfortable. Choosing to ignore your brains warning system and take the chance that it’s a false alert can truly feel like jumping out of an aeroplane not knowing whether your parachute is packed correctly. However this is the chance we have to take to show the brain that the signal was faulty, we literally do nothing about the thought and carry on with our day aligning with our values.

More on habituation coming in future posts but for now I’m going to leave you with this motivational mantra which I use all the time,

‘Every day is a new opportunity for me to show my brain that this continued prompt is meaning and irrelevant. ‘

I really hope it helps you too:
As always, stay strong xxx

Why it’s so important not to pay attention to OCD thoughts.

October 13, 2025Posted in Anxiety, Mental Health, OCD, OCD Awareness Week, OCD Coping Strategies, OCD GeneralTagged Anxiety, Beating OCD, Mental Health, mental wellness, mental-illness, OCD, OCD and Anxiety, OCD Help, OCD Recovery, Overcoming OCDLeave a comment

OCD is the king of doubt and uncertainty, he’ll play on any worries or fears you have, and he’ll pick the things you care about most to do it with!

He is not your friend in anyway and listening to him is like, ‘taking directions to heaven from the devil’ – thank you Dr Steven Phillipson for that wonderful analogy.

You must therefore be tenacious, relentless and non-negotiable in your recovery because OCD is!

You mustn’t even take a peep down that rabbit hole because before you know it, you’ll be tumbling down inside it.

Your job is to do nothing, just carry on with your day as if the thoughts are completely irrelevant because you know what, they are!

Now I realise all this is easily said and much harder in reality but any other approach is going to end up with you putting your life on hold in some way. Just take a moment to read that again and then realise that any other approach to OCD intrusive thoughts is going to end up with you, procrastinating, spiralling, getting caught up in your thoughts, impairing your judgements, distracting you from your life, taking you away from all the things you care about and keeping you STUCK!

Yes, that’s the brutal reality of OCD, it’s stopping you living your life by stealing your mental capacity, which by the way, you only have a limited amount of each day. When your preoccupied with OCD thoughts you are not living your life to the full.

It is such a mental and physical drag to carry OCD round with you, day in & day out and when you’ve had it for a long time you can start to get used to that weight! Ouch, that was hard to write. It’s very insidious and it creeps into all parts of your life; it can even go back and destroy happy memories which is devastating.

So how do we sit with these thoughts? Well, a couple of the phrases I’ve found which have been useful are:

‘Thank you, OCD, that’s exactly what I want to hear right now’

And

‘Thank you, but I’m not answering that question right now.’

Both phrases allow you to accept the thought without pushing it away. I’ve used them both successfully and they do work. They do require you to sit with the uncertainty, which can be very uncomfortable at times. If you find it’s too much, then go and have a look at last week’s post ‘2 simple questions to easily dismiss OCD thoughts’, to help you with the letting go process.

I really hope it helps
Stay Strong xxx

2 Simple Questions to Easily Dismiss OCD Thoughts

October 6, 2025Posted in Anxiety, Mental Health, Mental Wellbeing, OCD, OCD Awareness Week, OCD Coping Strategies, OCD General, worryTagged Anxiety, Beating OCD, Mental Health, mental-illness, OCD, OCD and Anxiety, OCD Help, OCD Recovery, OCD support, OCD tips, OCD tools, Overcoming OCD, writing1 Comment

No matter how many years I’ve had OCD and how many tools I have in my toolbox, there does still seem to be times when a thought will, pop up and for whatever reason it gets a bit stuck.

I find it particularly frustrating after all the work I’ve put into my recovery but somehow my brains default mode does seem to be to doubt & worry and so I must be proactive about using the tools I’ve learnt along the way to keep my mental health in check.

One tool which I find endlessly helpful to dismiss OCD thoughts is one I learnt from Byron Katie.

It’s worth noting here that in an ideal world we wouldn’t invest any time in the thoughts, we’d let them be but if they do stick – for whatever reason – then take 5 minutes and give this tool a whirl.

Byron Katie calls it ‘The Work’ and it takes the form of a set of questions:

As yourself

Is it true? (Yes or no. If no, move to question 3.)
Can you absolutely know that it’s true? (Yes or no.)
How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?
Who or what would you be without the thought?

The tool seems too simple right, but it is unbelievably good.

I love Byron Katies version, but I have found that I don’t need the whole version to be able to dismiss my OCD thoughts. All I generally need to do is ask myself,

Is it true?

Quite often when I ask myself this question it isn’t obvious what my brain is obsessing over at all! OCD can be so vague – after all fear lives in the vague – and when I dig down a little deeper the true fear is often nonsense. Sometimes this is enough on its own for me to dismiss the thought!

If not, I ask myself

Is it 100% true?

With OCD the answer is always NO, because OCD is about doubt and uncertainty and so I can guarantee you won’t know 100%.

Next, I tell myself

If it’s not 100% true, then,

‘YOU HAVE TO LET IT GO!’

Why would you torture yourself over something which isn’t 100% fact? The brain is looking for certainty which you cannot give it, so let it go.

And this is enough for me to sit with the thought and let it be.

Just two simple questions:

Is it true
Is it 100% true?

I cannot tell you how many times this method has helped me. I really hope it’s useful for you too. Let me know in the comments below

As always
Stay Strong xxx

5 Simple Words to Help Manage Intrusive Thoughts Effectively

September 29, 2025September 29, 2025Posted in Anxiety, Mental Health, OCD, OCD Awareness Week, OCD Coping Strategies, OCD General, worryTagged Anxiety, Beating OCD, Mental Health, mental wellness, mental-illness, OCD, OCD and Anxiety, OCD Help, OCD Recovery, Overcoming OCD, psychologyLeave a comment

‘I’m not answering that question’, 5 simple words and yet it can feel so hard in the moment.

When you’re spiralling – for whatever reason – you can feel quite desperate and like you must focus all your attention on answering OCD/anxieties questions, because ‘this time it might matter’, ‘I can’t take that risk’ or ‘I need to check, just in case’!

Does all this sound familiar?

I get this a lot, in fact most days. Sometimes something will happen or sometimes it can literally be an uncomfortable thought, feeling or emotion and that’s it my brain will hyper-focus on trying to work out the answer/solution as if it’s life or death!

Sitting with the doubt can feel like too much, when it’s the people you love, your own mortality or something that strongly conflicts with your values. You feel like the risk is too high and you must know the answer right now!

Well let me tell you something, this is OCD and anxieties favourite game. It wants to steal your focus, it wants your time and energy and nothing but your full attention is acceptable. It likes to throw things at you until something sticks and then, aha, it’s got you, say goodbye to the rest of your day!

So, how can we know if it’s OCD and anxiety or whether we genuinely need to pay attention to a thought, I hear you ask?

Ultimately the game is to learn to sit with the uncertainty but I’ve found a good guidepost is to ask yourself the following two questions:

Am I suffering?
Do I feel desperate and like I need the answer right now?

If you’ve answered yes to either of these questions, then in my experience you can pretty much guarantee that you are in an anxiety/OCD spiral and that you wont be thinking logically/rationally.

Your job is therefore to do NOTHING!

Step away from the thought and carry on with your day as if it’s completely irrelevant. You can expect to feel anxious but that’s OK.

Every time that thought comes back into your head just say the 5 words:

‘I’m not answering that question.’

and carry on with whatever you’re doing.

I do understand that in the moment when your brain is telling you that thought needs all your attention it can feel impossible, but you need to be brave and let it be.

Another time this is particularly helpful is at night, when our rational brain is having a rest and we’re never thinking at our best. Things ALWAYS seem worse in the middle of the night so just tell your brain, I’m not answering that question’.

I really hope it helps you as much as it has me,
Let me know how you get on and as always,
Stay Strong xxx

OCD – How to know if you should pay attention & why we don’t trust ourselves.

September 24, 2025September 24, 2025Posted in Mental Health, Mental Wellbeing, OCD, OCD Awareness Week, OCD Coping Strategies, OCD GeneralTagged Anxiety, Beating OCD, Mental Health, mental wellness, mental-illness, OCD, OCD and Anxiety, OCD Help, OCD Recovery, Overcoming OCD, psychologyLeave a comment

I wrote last week about trust being maybe the most important thing in OCD and Anxiety recovery. I’ve been using this concept over the last week in my OCD work and there really does seem to be something in it.

Ultimately OCD thrives on doubt, and that doubt is in yourself and your ability to cope with whatever situation life/your brain throws at you. It’s our inability to trust that when placed in a situation, we’ll take the right action/make the right decision/act in accordance with our values/be able to cope with the whatever’s thrown our way.

So why don’t we trust ourselves? Who or what has made us doubt our own mind & judgement?

We’re generally told not to go looking for reasons we have OCD in therapy and the current belief – or so I understand – is that it is potentially a mix of genetics & life experiences but as far as I know there are no certainties here.

Ultimately, we don’t need to know why we have it to recover from it, but it is my belief that OCD is often triggered when we’re in periods of heightened emotional stress. Potentially trauma but also new mums, big life changes, times when our parasympathetic nervous system – fight or flight – is more active for whatever reason.

When in this mindset (fight or flight) we think less rationally (trust ourselves less), our emotional brain is more active and so the thoughts that come up could potentially be stickier/more triggering to us.

I know when my OCD/anxiety has been triggered, for whatever reason, I am then more vulnerable to other OCD thoughts/triggers – a reason ERP can be so hard. When I’m back in my sympathetic nervous system – rest and digest – often I can dismiss THE SAME THOUGHTS easily (I trust myself).

Another example of this is at night when the rational side of the brain (prefrontal cortex) winds down for a rest and the emotional side of the brain takes control. Ever thought something in the middle of the night and freaked yourself out, not been able to get back to sleep and then in the morning thought, what the…….???? Yep, that’s what OCD feels like. The logical part of the brain seems to switch off and you’re in fight or flight, thinking in black and white, able to convince yourself that up is down and potentially you could secretly be a psychopath/murderer/paedophile/whatever your current theme may be.

This emotional part of the brain is powerful – imagine it like an elephant and the logical thinking part like the rider. The rider cannot control the elephant; it must work with it otherwise it will take control.

We regain our trust and switch the logical brain back on by sitting with the thoughts and doing, well, nothing. This, when you’re in fight or flight is terrifying, almost impossible at times. Your brain is desperate to work it out, it feels like it needs to know NOW! But that need and desperation is your sign that you are spiralling, and you actually need to do nothing.

I read Martha Becks new book, Beyond Anxiety, recently – some great bits in there for anyone who like to read – and she used the phrase,

‘If you’re struggling, then you’re spiralling’

which I really liked, because it’s not always easy to detect whether it’s your OCD/anxiety calling the shots or whether it’s actually something you should be paying attention to. In fact your brain will be telling you it’s the only thing you should be focusing right now. But if you’re suffering/struggling/distressed you can trust that you’re not being rational, and it IS your anxious OCD brain catastrophising.

Once the logical brain switches back on, you’ll easily be able to rationalise the thoughts – I promise.

I also know that when OCD is bad, the amount of time you spend out of fight or flight is low. I can remember when I had my nervous breakdown, I thought my brain was never going to go quiet – ever. And then one day I noticed I had a few seconds when it was and I thought, YES, it is possible, but it takes time, I’m not going to lie, it’s tough. So know that if your OCD is currently bad, you may not be thinking rationally much of the time!

You might not think this right now, so I’m going to tell you. You are a good person, you are worth it, and there is light at the end of that tunnel, so never give up.

Stay strong – you are not alone xxx