Helpful for me: When an intrusive thought arises, I try to not mentally 'turn and talk🗣️' to the thought. Because once I engage with this distressing thought, the snowball effect starts and I become more distressed. Instead, I will have to sit with an amount of discomfort, because naturally all I want to in that moment is 'turn and talk' back to the thought!! 😂. But I can learn to allow it to sit there and bring my attention back to what is going on in that moment around me. Believe me, it's a battle EVERY time, but I'm finally at least coming to terms with what I need to try differently than my usual unhelpful compulsions 😊👍

I know what you mean. There’s times when I don’t perform a compulsion and that anxiety feels like it takes a lifetime to subside. But eventually it does subside. My brain will be screaming at me to perform a compulsion, but it’s just our brain trying to protect us. That’s all it knows because we taught it to perform a compulsion whenever we get anxious. We’re literally rewiring our brains so it’s going to take time!

Hey hlrose! I totally understand. And I am right there at the minute in my recovery. It can take hours to half a day for a little bit of the anxiety to subside. I agree with the post above me. It's going to take time, and if it takes several hours for the anxiety to subside - THAT'S OKAY 😊👌! Because that's where we are at this moment in time. ☑️ But with practise and more time, our brain will learn a different way. One of my incorrect thinking patterns is that I have to be 'doing it right' and why aren't I getting better with OCD faster. I'm very hard on myself and don't give myself much self compassion (s'thing I'm working on as well in therapy) so when I feel like I'm still highly bothered by a particular thought my reaction is: 'See I'm so stupid and weak and pathetic, I can't even do ERP, Im not good at sitting with discomfort at all, that's my whole day ruined by my inadequacy.' Woooshhh here comes more hopelessness! 😕. But all we can do is try the steps our therapists have given us, be patient in this affliction, and try show more self compassion. Because we're trying our very best, aren't we? ☺️❤️❤️

Another method you can use is to reduce your compulsions slowly over time rather than cutting them out completely if the anxiety is too high. If resisting the compulsion feels impossible, what if you did it 1/4-1/3 less than you do now? If you do internet research for an hour typically, how about 45 min? If you say a neutralizing statement to yourself 3 times, what if you only said it twice? If you physically check yourself 20 times throughout the day, how about reducing that to 15? Doing these small reductions over time can be much easier than fully cutting out compulsions at once and help you build confidence with small wins along the way. Tracking these changes on a pad of paper can also hell you remember how far you’ve come as these changes add up over time.

@pureolife Brilliant advice!

You're welcome 👐