Strategies to manage OCD

Hey, glad you're here, there is a ton of great info here as well as on NOCD's YouTube channel. What helped me initially, and still today, is I pay attention to my behavior. Am I in my head trying to figure something out, solve a problem, make my self feel better or certain? If I am, I label it OCD rumination which is a compulsion. Then I redirect my attention to something I value (maybe something small like playing with my dog or spending time with family). Every time the thought pops back up, I label it OCD rumination and then redirect my attention again. I just keep redirecting my attention and not engaging. If the behavior I notice is not in my head but something I'm physically doing like asking for reassurance, I also label that "OCD reassurance seeking" and again I keep redirecting my attention to something I value. I know it's a lot, but keep reaching out, it gets easier with time and practice. Have you reached out to NOCD for therapy? Therapy with a specialist trained to deal with OCD is what gave me the tools to recover. Take care!

Hey, no worries, I’ll try to explain it 🤞for me it feels different. For example tonight I had to change medicines for something unrelated to OCD. I have health anxiety OCD and medicine is a trigger for me. I used to do a ton of compulsions around these kind of things-googling, reassurance seeking, checking directions (literally reading them many times) etc. So this morning when I woke up it popped in my mind about the new medication. I wanted to check and ruminate, but here is where I said to myself “nope, not going there, this urge is probably OCD” then I moved on with my day. It kept popping in my head but it kept labeling and moving on. The labeling didn’t make me feel better or more certain, it really was just a reminder for me to not get caught up on compulsing. Kind of a cue to move on. For me things that become compulsions are things I do that offer relief from the distress. Labeling a thought offers no relief, in fact, moving on often feels worse because I’m allowing the uncertainty to be there. In my case, with the medication fears, when I labeled them as OCD and moved on My anxiety increased, what if thoughts started. However I didn’t engage with the thoughts. Engagement would be a compulsion because it would be an attempt to figure it out or relieve distress.My therapist explained it to me like this: what is the function of the behavior? If the function is to relieve uncertainty and distress it’s a compulsion. For me labeling functions as a cue to move on. Labeling isn’t thought stopping in that I’m not trying to not have a thought, I’m just trying to not engage with it. Hope this makes sense.