OCD Coping Strategies – Page 2

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 OCD1 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 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

OCD – 4 things that are helping right now

March 22, 2023March 3, 2025Posted in Eating Well, Keeping Active, Mental Health, Mental Wellbeing, OCD, OCD Coping Strategies, OCD GeneralTagged Beating OCD, Mental Health, mental wellness, OCD, OCD and Anxiety, OCD Help, OCD Recovery, Overcoming OCDLeave a comment

I’m sad to see that It’s been just over a year to the day that I’ve written a full post. I have been updating social media a bit and in all honestly I was considering letting this blog go, but I’ve just read some of the comments and I’ve realised that that’s not an option so I’m back!

I started conquering OCD in 2017 when my mental health was in a pretty good state. I felt strong and as though my OCD had pretty much gone – if only I had known what was coming my way! I have been on a rough ride the last two years after a series of events ‘took me down’, so to speak. I jest and I can start to laugh about it now but I really have been to hell and back.

The upside of my ‘journey’, man I hate that word, is that I have learnt LOADS and so now I am able to share all this knowledge with you guys.

To get us started again here are four things that are helping me right now:

Exercise – I practice yoga daily as I teach – I realise this sounds a bit ‘perfect’ and I want to make it clear that I am very far from that. Sometimes a daily practice is just 5 minutes on the mat but showing up every day no matter what, tells my brain that I can do hard things. I also love box fit classes, this gives me the cardio I need but can also be quite triggering for my OCD. I quite often have to deal with intrusive thoughts of ‘what if I hit the person in front of me by mistake’ or if the face of someone I love pops into my head during a boxing sequence, OCD really is the gift that keeps giving.

I know for a lot of people it’s hard to fit the exercise in but it doesn’t have to be big workouts at the gym. It can be walking the dog or just taking the stairs instead of the lift. I’ve heard it said that exercise can be as effective as SSRI’s for mental health so it’s got to be worth a try right?

Reducing caffeine – This ones so super tough! The brain likes patterns and routine and so most of us nowadays are addicted to tea or coffee, or whatever hot beverage you enjoy. This is why I’ve put reducing rather than eliminating. If we tell the brain, you can’t have something, it’s going to get mad at you but if we just try and substitute that third cup of coffee for a hot water you might be surprised how easy it is. Most of the time I find that the brain just likes the habit of making the drink and the feeling of sipping something warm and comforting rather than the coffee itself. Hot water will tick all of those boxes, so why not give it a try? Also try not to drink caffeine too late in the day, it’ll mess with your sleep, which if you have OCD I’m guessing isn’t great already.

No TV at bedtime – You didn’t think it was going to be easy did you? This has been so hard to implement for me. I used the TV as a massive crutch for literally years to get myself to sleep but ultimately all it was doing was disturbing it. The result of stopping the TV has been that I’ve slept deeper and better. I then have more energy in the mornings and I’m more resilient when the OCD thoughts come. I find focusing on my breathing helps get me to sleep and is enough of a focus for my mind, it’s as simple as breathing in for 3 breaths and out for 6 breaths. Another option is to think of something kind you can do for someone else the next day. This takes your mind away from you and your OCD intrusive thoughts and puts it on someone else and in a positive way, hello happy hormones – which by the way help to get rid of the stress hormones, yay.

Learning to sit with uncertainty – Again stupidly hard I know. When things feel real you just want to work out the truth but ultimately your memories are made up of your memories so you’re not going to find the answers when you ruminate. To add to this when we feel worried about a situation we will only focus on the negative or ‘evidence’ in the memory and so it becomes distorted. ‘Overthinking only leads to unhappiness’, do your best to let the thoughts be.

So those are some little nuggets I’ve been working with recently. Unfortunately, there are no quick fixes when it comes to OCD. We have to be proactive in our recovery.

I hope you’re all doing well out there, remember you’re not alone!

Stay strong xxx

Everyday It’s You vs You

January 27, 2022January 27, 2022Posted in Mental Health, OCD Coping Strategies, OCD GeneralTagged Beating OCD, OCD, OCD Help, OCD Recovery, Overcoming OCD1 Comment

Happy New Year all! Is it still OK to say that on the 27th Jan? How is 2022 treating you so far? I always find January a tough month, it’s dark, cold and long! But at least we’re nearly into February now and it’s getting a bit lighter each day as we edge closer to spring, yay!

Today I thought I’d pop on here and share my latest mantra which seems to be helping me, as you know I’m always keen to share the good stuff. Each morning when I wake up and I start to get bombarded with the OCD torrent of crap – because it is crap you know – I tell myself, ‘it’s you verses you everyday, so who are you going to pick? The OCD you or the; happy, funny, relaxed, best version of yourself you?’. Ummmm, well it’s an easy answer isn’t it, so why so often do we pick the other one? and don’t start thinking you don’t have a choice, because you do.

You can choose not to engage with the thoughts
You can choose to look after yourself with good self care
You can choose to accept the uncertainty – I know this ones tough
You can choose to be that best version of yourself, for your family, friends and yourself
You can choose to put a smile on your face, even when you don’t feel it – because this sends positive messages to the brain by the way.
You can choose to live and be that best version of yourself

I get so mad when I think about how much of my life I’ve wasted worrying about my OCD intrusive thoughts. It’s also important to remember it’s not a straight line though, we all have days when we feel more resilient then others or we self sabotage for who knows what reason and you know what that’s OK too, that’s part of life and being human. Always be kind and compassionate to yourself, remember the thoughts affect you because you find them hard/repulsive/horrible and it is completely normal to have the thought in the first place.

So put the mantra,

‘Everyday it’s, you vs you’

up somewhere and read it everyday, I have it as my screensaver on my phone so I see it all the time and this works for me, I really hope it will work for you too.

As always,
Stay Strong xxx

What a year!

December 16, 2021December 16, 2021Posted in Anxiety, Eating Well, Mental Health, Mental Wellbeing, OCD Coping Strategies, OCD GeneralTagged Anxiety, Beating OCD, Mental Health, mental wellness, OCD, OCD Recovery, Overcoming OCDLeave a comment

Well, what a year 2021 has been, I feel like I’ve been to hell and back and I really didn’t see it coming. As a result, I have been super quiet on here and I am sorry for that but know I have been working on myself and building back my resilience which was shattered to pieces a few months ago.

This blog was never a place to fill with OCD triggers and so I’m not going to go through in detail what has happened but just that it was some health issues which resulted in panic attacks followed by a particularly awful run of jury duty which triggered my OCD, the result of which was a mental break.

There is no way I could have predicted either of these two events and it has given me a new perspective on my recovery. I really thought I had my OCD under control but what I’ve come to realise this year is that I had actually just become very good at avoiding my triggers. I wouldn’t watch the news or go to places I found uncomfortable but by avoiding these things when I found myself in a situation where I couldn’t anymore, I just shut down and was unable to cope.

My coping mechanisms had become so natural that I hadn’t even realised I was doing them, scary! So, the second half of this year has been a battle with myself to get back on track and I am still going through this and will be for some time I believe. It makes me sad that this has happened but I am learning and growing all the time and having self-compassion is incredibly important. I will not be sad to see the back of 2021 but here are some thing it has taught me which maybe useful for you as well.

You can’t hide/avoid your triggers, they will find you. You have to face them and ERP the shit out of them!
Self-care is essential!
Exercise is really important but don’t rely solely on it! I’ve done this in the past as I love yoga but then if you get ill what do you do, have a backup!
Sleep well
Eat really well, avoid sugar and processed foods
Avoid alcohol, drugs and caffeine where possible
Help others, this takes the focus off yourself and gets you out of your own head, I teach yoga and it is fantastic for this!
Be in nature as often as you can, when I was really low just watching the birds fly in the garden seemed to lift me a bit, knowing the world is bigger than you and your thoughts is important.
Learn to live with uncertainty, yuck, I hate this one but it is essential for getting through OCD and health anxiety, none of us know what the future holds and the sooner you get on board with that the happier you’ll be.
Learn some breathing techniques, you don’t have to meditate everyday (unless you can of course, in which case do) but know how to regulate your breath for those situations when it’s tough and you feel your anxiety rising, I will try and do a blog on this next year.
Socialise, I find it brings me back to the present very quickly and out of my own head
Don’t avoid anything, push into the avoidance – another yucky one I know.

Those are just a few of the things I have learnt, I could probably go on and on to be honest, I’ve done so much in therapy this year! I will do my best in 2022 to blog more with helpful information and I might add in some yoga and breathing exercises too. If you don’t already follow me on Instagram please do as I’m going to be throwing more info up there in the coming months, all things that have helped me.

I hope your 2021 has been better than mine and that your recovery is going well, no matter where you are on that road remember it is not a straight line and there will be set backs, even massive ones like I’ve had this year! Always remember that you are a good person and that these thoughts – which everyone gets – affect you more because of that. Sending lots of love to everyone suffering with OCD over the Christmas period, I know it can be really tough, wishing you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year,

As always,
Stay Strong xxx

Beating OCD Top Tips

December 15, 2020December 15, 2020Posted in Mental Health, OCD Coping Strategies, OCD GeneralTagged Beating OCD, Fighting OCD, Mental Health, OCD, OCD Coping Strategies, OCD False Memories, OCD Intrusive Thoughts, OCD Recovery, Overcoming OCD, Strategies for dealing with OCDLeave a comment

So this year I haven’t managed to post as often as I’d like, Covid-19 and my yoga course have taken most of attention and I do find the OCD isn’t affecting me as much. Is this because I am so busy? Partly I think yes but I am definitely not naïve enough to think it has gone away completely. Some days I can feel it there at the back of my mind, ready to come back with a vengeance when things calm down and this is quite a scary thought.

So I wanted you all to know that I haven’t forgotten about you and hopefully the yoga will come together with this blog to give me more tools to help us all in conquering OCD completely.

I’ve looked back over the stats for the year and still right out in front is the post I wrote on Pure O and False memory OCD. It has double the views of any other post and to be honest having had OCD it’s pretty obvious why it’s up there in front.

I think Pure O and false memory OCD are arguably the worst parts of having OCD, they’re completely hidden from view so people don’t know they’re happening and the thoughts are so terrifying at times that just the idea of uttering them to another living sole can be completely debilitating. In fact OCD works in a way that it will find your deepest, darkest fears and go to town, making you feel like the worst person alive – you’re not by the way.

Here are a few things to remember;

The first thing is that OCD likes you alone and isolated, it wants to be your only ‘friend’. Laughable isn’t it, OCD is probably the worst friend you could possibly have, the one who just takes from you and only gives you shit in return, if we had a friend like that in real life we would get rid of them pronto! It might not feel like it at times but you are separate from your OCD and you can be in control of it.
However hard it is you must try and speak to someone, even if initially it’s just yourself. This might sound odd but I’ve found even by verbalising the thoughts out loud their power is reduced. I think most of the time we know the thoughts aren’t real and so by saying them out loud it can reinforce this.
Always remember everyone has these thoughts! You should take comfort not fear in the fact that the thoughts repel you and make you uncomfortable, this is the natural reaction and 100% means you would never act on them.
Believe in yourself, you are not a bad person – self love is essential for recovery.
Be mindful and live in the now, it is all we have, your version of the past only exists in your mind.
Avoid alcohol and other mind numbing substances, they are only short term fix’s and will actually make the thoughts worse overall.
Write it down – when I started this blog it was for the purpose of passing on helpful tips to others struggling but surprisingly it has also become a form of therapy for me as well. Putting things on here detaches them from myself, allowing me to look at them more objectively.
Remember there is light at the end of the tunnel, I still have very dark days but I am far enough into my journey now to know that that feeling doesn’t last forever and the darkness does lift – even though at times it feels like it won’t.
You are not alone – though at times you will feel like you are – around 750 thousand people suffer from OCD in the UK and that stat is closer to 2.2 million in the US.

Wishing you all the best Christmas and New Year, I’ll see you in 2021!

Lets hope it’s a good one!
As always,
Stay Strong xxx

OCD – It’s all a way of thinking

February 6, 2020Posted in Mental Health, OCD Coping Strategies, OCD GeneralTagged Beating OCD, catastrophizing, Fighting OCD, Mental Health, OCD, OCD Compulsions, OCD Coping Strategies, OCD Intrusive Thoughts, OCD Recovery, Overcoming OCD, Talking about OCDLeave a comment

OCD feeds off self doubt, loathing and negative thinking spirals. It will make you think you are the worst person in the world, that you are capable of horrible things and that you don’t deserve love and happiness. It will isolate you and drag you down if it can, so if you’re fighting this bastard every day like me then you have to get very good at telling it to go f*uck itself.

One of the best things you can do is simply like yourself (I’ve spoken about this a lot before), know who you are and don’t waver. You are a good person who deserves good things to come to you and you are stronger then the thoughts in your head, yep that’s all they are, thoughts, not even something tangible or real.

I’ve recently tried to take the next step in my recovery. For quite a while now I’ve been using my husband for reassurance when something happens that triggers an OCD spiral. It’s worked so well for me, whatever it is I’m stressing about whether it’s something that’s happened on the drive home or in the supermarket or wherever I just run it past him, he just shrugs and that’s reassurance enough for me to know that I’m worrying over nothing.

Now initially I didn’t even realise that this was a coping mechanism, it happened so organically over time. Then a while ago I read something that basically confirmed if you do this to relieve a thought then it is a ‘coping strategy’. Of course they’re right and ultimately I need to be able to process these thoughts on my own without my husbands help. So I’ve been doing my best to do this, I’m going to be honest it’s super tough, it takes me longer to remove the doubt feeling but it does go eventually which is reassuring.

Last night something happened when I was picking my kids up from pre school and I immediately started to catastrophise it in my head. I could feel the doubt pulling me down, all the ‘what if’s’ starting to flood into my head. My mood started to drop and I could hear myself becoming irritable and snappy.

I made a decision that I wasn’t going to talk to my husband about it and that I was just going to sit with it and not think on it. This was incredibly hard, I busied myself
with making tea when I got home and distracted myself as much as I could, the doubt feeling stayed with me all night, though it did start to loose it’s grip as time ticked on. This morning the thought has popped into my head a couple of times but I have been able to dismiss it relatively easily.

Something that has really helped me to remove the thought is choosing to put a positive slant on the situation rather then a negative one. I’m sure I’ve said this before but if you must catastrophise then do it positively! Realistically if you are going to live your life fully then you are going to come across situations that are going to trigger OCD thoughts, FACT it’s impossible not to. You cannot avoid them and you know what, even if you try to you will still hit them occasionally, avoiding OCD DOES NOT WORK (take my word for it, I’ve tried).

The best thing you can do is look at a situation and think on it positively. So don’t think ‘what if this could of happened‘ but think ‘that didn’t happen’ or ‘I reacted in the best way I could, now I know I can deal with the situation if it happens again in the future’.

Know you can’t control or predict everything and that that’s OK, you probably wouldn’t want to even if you had the choice. Know you are a good person and you will always do the best you can in any situation, that’s really all anyone can hope for. It takes so much strength to overcome these thoughts but you can do it I promise. Do not let OCD win, do not let it pull you down!

I really hope this helps, even getting it down is helping me process it. Writing the experience down even though hard can help detach it from your mind, you can then go and burn it if you wish! By writing it down it’s like an alternative to telling someone, it gets it out and then it’s gone, yes!

As always, Stay Strong xxx