I actually just had a stupid OCD thought pop up while I was thinking about something. Without thinking I turned my head and thought what I really felt on the subject at hand, and it gave me a great idea for a blog post!
Attention Diversion
A lot of books on OCD will suggest this method when trying to teach you CBT(cognitive behavioural therapy) methods to beat the pants off of OCD.
For me at first it's hard to do this, and you will probably agree when you try it too. When you're at a point where OCD is creeping into pretty much every thought you're having, it's REALLY hard to shift your attention. It can be done though.
I just did it, and the feeling I got from realizing I did this made me feel really good.
How to do it
Let's say you're Thinking about someone you Love, when all of a sudden some dark, ugly OCD thought pops into your head overshadowing the nice thoughts you were having. Instead of entertaining this thought with your usual "Oh my goodness, no I can't really feel that way, can I?!" reaction, try this:
STOP
Turn your head away from where it was facing when you had the thought, to turn away from the thought and shift your vision to something else.
Did you do it? There, you just created a buffer between that awful thought and your true feelings. In that buffer now I want you to tell yourself how you really feel about whatever the OCD thought was questioning.
Even if you're in a really bad state and can hardly get any freedom from the Ocd Thoughts, I want you to try and dig down as deep as you can in the depths of your mind and heart, and pull up the panic response that you are experiencing right now, and examine it. Do you know why you're panicking?
It's because this OCD thought questioned something you feel deeply about. What is that deep feeling?
If you were thinking about someone you love, and OCD popped up and insulted them or told you you didn't love them, and you responded out of panic and anguish, does that sound like the OCD thought was true? Your response to the OCD thought sounds to me like you do love that person very much, and what OCD said triggered your real feelings causing these awful feelings of panic and anguish.
That cycle right there tells you how you really feel about that person. You love them.
OCD is a bully and you need to hush it by turning your head and ignoring what it said, and hushing it by affirming how you really feel about your loved one.
Doing this every time this happens (when it's possible for you to) will eventually re-wire your brain in a way that when these thoughts pop up in the future about your loved one, or anything else for that matter (if you respond to all OCD thoughts with this method), your mind will naturally go to the good thought, or simply dismiss the OCD thought because you recognize it for what it is.
Try this and tell me in the comments if it helped you too!
We can beat this bully OCD together. You're never alone!
