Having had OCD for 30 years I’ve come to realise how important it is to have a few easily accessible resources and a plan of action in place for those times that, despite our best efforts, we end up spiralling.
It’s very easy in the good times to forget how hard and dark it can be but when we are feeling good we should take a bit of time to get organised with what helps, just in case.
Let me try to explain in a bit more detail what I mean.
In an ideal world we would learn how OCD works – a glitch in the good enough system – get really good at sitting with that uncomfortable feeling (doubt and uncertainty), let our nervous system do its thing and reset on its own back to base line and carry on with our day.
And while this is all good in theory and doable a fair amount of the time, it is my experience that recovery isn’t a straight line and there will still be times when we get caught by an OCD obsession.
Here are some examples of circumstances that can make OCD stickier; Nighttime can be tricky, as well as when I’m particularly tired, if I’m already sitting with a trigger and then another one piles on top, time of the month for ladies, a new theme appears and takes you by surprise, or a difficult life circumstance such as illness, coping with loss, or stress to name a few.
All of these will affect our resilience and ability to manage our OCD effectively; I’ve definitely noticed that the exact same thought can effect me differently depending on my resilience level.
At these times, when we’re spiralling despite our best efforts to let things be, I’ve found it can be helpful to have a few resources to hand, they help remind me of OCD’s wicked and insidious ways and switch on the prefrontal cortex enough to pull me back.
I personally have a notebook filled with all my favourite advice and information from a wealth of people and books I’ve read over the years. Some of which I’ve shared below.
As well as this I’ve finally started to populate my resources page, if you get a chance go and check it out and let me know what you think or if you know of any other useful resources I can add. I will continue to update this page as time goes on.
I really hope it helps!
Highlights from my notebook
A thought on Thought-Action-Fusion
Why would you torture yourself over anything less than 100% certainty? Fear lives in the vague after all and it’s my guess, it’s just a thought (obsession), attached to a feeling of uncertainty, that you’re basing your rumination on, not facts.
Your brain is probably desperately trying to work out whether there is something genuine to be concerned about, you should take this as your sign that there isn’t
A couple of quotes from Dr Stephen Phillipson
‘You can’t use feelings to make determinations based on whether a threat is real. Doing so is like asking the devil for directions to heaven’.
‘Why focus on something you have NO control over?’
‘It’s never going to not feel scary. ‘
An insight from Martha Beck
Ask yourself: ‘Am I struggling?’ If the answer is ‘yes!’ then you’re spiralling, step away.
Useful information from Prof. Steve Peters:
‘If you wake during the night, any thoughts or feelings you might have are from you chimp (emotional) brain and they are very often disturbing, catastrophic and lacking in perspective. In the morning you are likely to regret engaging with these thoughts and feelings because you will see things differently. ‘
Some ponderings from me:
- At night time the rule I try to stick to is – Don’t engage between 10.30pm-6am – acknowledge the thought and set aside some ‘worry time’ the following day if needed, when the rational brain is switched on and working.
- Know that giving into a compulsion will trigger your fight or flight response and once this happens all reason and logic will disappear. There is no good outcome to giving into a compulsion, it just confirms to the brain there is something to be concerned about and keeps the OCD cycle going.
- There’s always another ‘what if?’ or ‘maybe?’, remember logic is limited but imagination isn’t.
There’s so much more from where these came from, so don’t forget to like and subscribe to make sure you don’t miss out!
Let me know if any of these are useful to you too in the comments below.
As always, you’re not alone, your thoughts are not special and you’re stronger than you know!
Stay Strong xxx
Conquering OCD 