OCD Awareness Week – Page 2

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