How to Make OCD Your Bitch I’ve had my ups and downs with OCD, plenty of horrendous days that felt like death but I’ve also had many victories and seasons of joy, love and peace. You may lose a battle every once in a while but OCD is a war you can win. So below I am leaving a few tools, tricks and knowledge I have on how to live the best life possible while having OCD. 1. Accepting the thoughts does not mean you want them to happen: This is a hard concept for people with OCD to understand and it took me a long time to figure this out but let’s say for example you have the thought of “What if I molest this child” or “what if I poisoned that food” by accepting the thought and saying “maybe i do want to molest that child” or “i could’ve poisoned that food” doesn’t mean you actually did or reflect anything about you personally. Remember thoughts are simply just thoughts, they are not behaviors, and not a personal reflection of who you are as a person. 2. Don’t stop the thought, stop the compulsion: So many people with OCD focus on “stopping the thoughts/intrusions” but at the end of the day you are not in control of the thoughts your brain produces however you are in control of your reaction and your compulsions. Instead of resisting the thought focus on resisting the compulsion whether its checking, ruminating, list making, praying, etc... 3. Practice being alone: This one was huge for me, for the longest time possible I always wanted to be distracted, I needed to do something to keep my mind busy and hopefully off of my thoughts and compulsions. However in order to truly find peace you need to learn how to accept yourself, and your own thoughts. Sit still, try maybe five minutes and just let whatever thought you have arise. You may get anxious and you may try to answer the thought or judge it, try your best not to. Be in the mindset of “thoughts can’t cause me harm”, if you find yourself spiraling and your thoughts racing that’s okay, the goal isn’t to get rid of anxiety but rather for you to experience it and understand that you are stronger than it and can manage it. 4. Write out your intrusions: If you start to notice certain thoughts arising more and more, write them out on paper. For me I always struggled with suicide ocd and I used to get mental images of me drinking bleach or hanging myself, however I learned that if I wrote out the images in my head and expressed them on paper it allowed me some freedom from internalizing it and questioning it. Also when you write out these thoughts write out how anxious they made you and describe the sensations, then follow up and write how you felt 10-15mins later as the anxiety starts to unwind a bit. 5. We all have bad days: This is just a truth of life, your treatment will never be perfect, there will be ups and downs. Don’t get discouraged if one day you find yourself compulsing more or if something triggers you more than you would’ve liked. 6. Don’t trust your “feelings”: When I say this I mean if you feel “great” one day don’t get ahead of yourself and act like you are cured and the same goes when you have a day where you feel “down” don’t start obsessing about “how long am I going to feel like this” focus on your functioning, did you get out of bed? Did you go to work/school? Did you perform any hobbies or take any action on your goals? If you are able to perform daily tasks be proud of that even if a little obsessing gets in the way. 7. Believe that you are here for a reason: You are not floating around nilly willy, you have value, you have a purpose. There are things in life that you are supposed to achieve, feel and experience. You may feel like you are in a dark place and sometimes the pain may be irritating but that pain will be replaced have faith!!