@KAW1007 Think of it like physical healing. If you sprain your ankle, you cannot just start strengthening it the next day because that is skipping steps. First, you need to rest it. The same goes for your mind. If you are deep in the OCD cycle, your first step is to give your brain a break.
That means doing things that occupy any part of your brain (decision-making, motor skills, emotions) without diving into your triggers. In practice, that might look like playing chess, going for a walk, going on a date, doing sudoku, playing kendama, reading a good novel, or taking long naps. The point is to distract your mind and give it breathing room. This is your “rest period” before you start the real healing. Depending on the person, it could last a few days, a few weeks, or longer. OCD is unpredictable.
Once you start to feel some relief, then comes the strengthening phase: exposures. In physical rehab, this is when you start using and strengthening the injured ankle. With OCD, exposures mean facing fears and resisting compulsions. For some, that is triggering a core fear. For others, simply living can be an exposure because life is full of triggers.
The heart of exposure is choosing to believe the truth even when it feels like you are lying to yourself, while refusing to engage with compulsions like ruminating, checking, seeking reassurance, or confessing. Think of compulsions as hidden holes in a lawn. If you want to heal, you stay on the lawn but step carefully, avoiding the holes even when they are hard to spot. Over time, the obsessions lose their power.
It is counterintuitive. You might think resolving what your mind is screaming about would help, but it does not. OCD is just a false alarm system. Imagine a fire alarm going off in your office, but instead of panicking, you calmly keep working at your desk, unbothered.
But remember, rest first. Do not jump into exposures until your mind has had time to reset. You will know when that time comes. For me, I needed medication, a benzo, to get the rest I needed. Sometimes, asking your doctor about short-term sleep or anxiety relief can be a game-changer.
