OCD Treatment Tips
Over the years I have gathered a number of tips/techniques that my clients have generally found helpful when seeking to better understand and manage their OCD. Listed below are some of what I believe to be the most useful ones:
1. Uncertainty is at the core of all types of OCD. To move forward you must accept the uncertainty and act anyway.
2. As hard as it is to believe, the contents of your obsessions are irrelevant. The issue is uncertainty.
3. Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is the best treatment for OCD. ERPs are not easy (in fact if the ERPs are easy you’re probably not doing them properly), but the more you do ERPs, the more you are taking back control of your life.
4. Deliberate planned exposures are generally easier to follow through with than unplanned spontaneous exposure that catch you off guard. You should seek to do deliberate planned exposure every day.
5. Don't overthink or over analyze your worries/thoughts and just do your homework (i.e. ERPs). Sometimes the exposure assignment may feel impossible or like the worst thing in the world, but do it anyway. If your exposure feels hard, you’re probably doing it correctly.
6. The goal of exposures is not to feel better in the moment but to challenge the OCD. Feeling better is a bonus and will come later.
7. When you first start treatment expect to feel worse because you’re confronting and challenging the OCD and this will likely result in an increase in your anxiety in the short run.
8. OCD tries to control your thoughts and everyday life activities. When you do ERPs and start moving forward with your treatment it will want to grasp you in many ways. It will want to confuse you and trick you. Don't let this happen. Do not question it - if it gives you intrusive thoughts, tell it "OK", if it tells you to do the compulsion say, "NO." If it tells you something bad will happen say, "OK." Don't ever question it, accept what it tells you, live with the uncertainty and keep moving forward.
9. Don't reassure yourself to make the compulsion/thought, etc. seem ok. Just accept the thought and move on with your life.
10. When you are having a difficult time with the treatment. Remember how much OCD has stopped you from having fun, how much it has impacted your relationships with family, friends and significant others and how it has prevented you from living a normal life. The years of listening and obeying your OCD have hurt you far more than the exposures will hurt you. Manage your OCD and "Drive the bus, don't be a passenger."
11. Allow the thoughts to happen and don't take them seriously. The thoughts are just noise. Don’t get caught trying to analyze or in any way figure out what a particular thought means – the more you think, the more you sink.
12. Make note of your successes. No matter if you think the success is small, it's a step towards improvement and you should reward yourself.
13. Be self-compassionate. You are human and make mistakes. No one is perfect. Just aim to do your best.
14. Write down your homework assignments in a notebook or utilize your phone to take notes. Have the homework and notes from class easily accessible, so you can reference and remember your homework assignments.
15. Do your homework. Remind yourself daily what your homework assignments are. Don’t wait until the night before (or the morning of) your next therapy session to do your homework.
16. Remember thoughts are meaningless. They don't matter.
17. Don't worry if you can't do an exposure. Some days will be harder than others. And if you can’t completely stop the ritual can you modify it in some way, can you do it with just one finger rather than your whole hand, can you do it slower, etc.? Any way you can change the ritual is a win. Everyone with OCD struggles at times to do exposures. Don’t put yourself down, relax and if you can’t do it today come back and try again tomorrow.
18. Don't give up. No matter how hard the OCD treatment may feel, you can do it!