Rumination

What's helped me is to stay in the present. Rather than dwelling on the 'what if" scenarios I ask myself "am I doing it now," or "is it happening now?" Then, I follow with, depending on the obsession, "am I planning on doing it," along with "do I have a choice?" This tool has helped me a great deal, because we can't reason with OCD, but we can stay in the present.

Hey, I've been there! Sometimes it can be challenging to tell the difference. The way I started to respond was through off the cuff phrases, such as 'meh' and 'cool story'. This worked well for me, as it felt like I was trying to be disinterested in the thoughts, as opposed to stopping and remembering to say 'maybe', or something similar. Fake it till you make it is such a good piece of advice for this stuff also. I would also say that the response is never a magic password to stop the thoughts. I got into this headspace where I was like 'I've done the response I should do, why have the thoughts not gone?' - it's just a case of practice, practice, practice. You'll get there! You're smashing it

I fully understand your struggle. I still have things like that come up during the day. I don’t know if you’re getting counseling for OCD through NOCD or somewhere else. I have been with NOCD for 1 1/2 years and it has been a huge help. I was doing ERP for about 10 months and I didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere with it - until one day I realized OCD things weren’t bothering me nearly as much. I still have things come up during the day. I feel like I am a half a breath away from a compulsion - but as I’ve learned and “trained my brain” the OCD things are less sticky. A term I liked is “OCD will always bring up one more “what if” trying to answer all the “what ifs” will keep me on the path of uncertainty.” The only difference between me and you is what triggers us. I know you can say “No” to OCD 👍.

I like that, LowellT, thanks for sharing!