One experience that a significant number of people with OCD have is getting over one set of obsessions and compulsions just to get stuck on a different set. - Imagine yourself as a fish, and OCD as the person fishing. The hook is the compulsions- it's how OCD really traps you and drags you places that you don't want to go. To tempt you into biting the hook, OCD loads it with bait, scary or gross thoughts, sensations, or urges that capture your attention. - When you nibble the bait, or try to solve the obsession, OUCH! The compulsion hook gets your lip and it's hard, painful work to get yourself off the hook. - Sometimes what happens in therapy is that little fishy us learns not to bite the bait that ice usually sends down. And that is awesome, until OCD baits the compulsion hook with a different obsession. If we haven't learned to look to see whether there is a hook in the bait, and then to not bite all bait with hooks, OCD will catch us and reel us right in again. .. - so, moral of the story, identify any bait on hooks (uncomfortable thoughts that make you want to do repetitive behaviors) and don't bite them! Even if the bait is different than what you expect. - What was something OCD baited you with that caught you by surprise?

Powerful pic

Thank you for sharing Kate. This is awesome and very helpful. ?

This is a great comparison! Makes a lot of sense!

So true! So hard to do though.

What about urges that urge you to do something you know you don't wanna do. I've been going though a struggle in my life right now and my ocd has been spiking bc of it. Basically my OCD is giving me this acute anxiety telling me I should groom myself a certain way that I do NOT want to do. The urge to groom and change myself to reduce the anxiety is so strong and I've never really felt it this strong before. Idk why my ocd choose grooming myself but I'm so scared right now that a. If I dont groom my anxiety is going to stay until I do the compulsive grooming and B. If I do this compulsion that will mean ocd has more control Over me and makes me do stuff, that scares me. I cant tell you how helpless I feel right now. Any help or insight would be gladly appreciated.

I'm surprised that a Canadian psychologist could trigger my obsessive loop.

The obsession bait I would say is the thought of constant anxiety never leaving until I groom and the hook is the compulsive grooming.

Comment deleted by user

A familiar thing for me too. I've been doing daily erp-exercises with this app for a fair month now. I've already noticed a positive difference! But yes, ocd seems to come in very many different forms. Sometimes just feeling starts like something is generally wrong and you have to figure it out. And there's a fine line between worrying about something and ocd'ing about it. : ) Luckily you can always do exposures if you notice that you are really just ocd'ing about something!

That’s true!! I always wash my clothes,laptop,iphone....,I can’t control myself ,so tried of terrible intrusive thoughts.

Comment deleted by user

Saying “it’s not me, it’s my OCD” while good for separating you from the thoughts, quickly becomes a compulsion to lower anxiety and you’re giving the thoughts inherent value by labeling certain thoughts as “OCD” and other thoughts as “real”. It quickly becomes compulsive analysis of which thoughts to believe or not believe and you won’t get anywhere. The truth is you have a variety of thoughts. By disowning thoughts as “oh no that’s not me. That’s my ocd”, you’re already labeling the thought as a threat, trying to remove uncertainty and ironically reinforcing its occurrence. More on this here: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.intrusivethoughts.org/blog/oh-controversy-thats-not-thats-ocd//amp

I love this. I feel like I probably get a new obsession every year or so. Right now it’s the primaries...