Are distractions like listening to music and video games okay when you're feeling overwhelmed with thoughts of ocd in general?

Yes! Do whatever you want to do despite the thoughts being there - that's recovery.

Asdf is pretty much right. Sometimes whatever you have to do to get a break so you don't spiral down and down is good, so if it's unrelenting then it's probably a good thing to get a break from it no matter how you so so. But yeah there's no need to drag yourself away from the upsetting fear as it'll go away on its own. It's probably helpful here to distinguish between the intrusive thought (the "what if?") and rumination compulsions (the bit where you analyse or imagine scenarios or replay memories and try to work it out or soothe yourself with self reassurance). Not doing ruminating is always a good thing- by quitting compulsions we really reduce our feeling that we need them and if you quit them entirely then the obsession usually goes away with a bit of time. But trying to prevent the intrusive thought (the fear) from up, just makes it come back stronger. The goal is to teach your brain that the thought isn't as dangerous as it seems, so rather than avoiding it we want to treat it like it's really any other thought- fine to acknowledge but not worth dwelling on or trying to prevent. ERP is a kind of fast-track way to prove to yourself that you can face the scary open question and the urges to solve it, without doing anything about it, and that nothing bad happens when you refuse the urges to fix the thing that caused the anxiety, instead the anxiety/adrenaline eventually just goes away by itself. When the "what if" happens, we do want to be able to carry on with our normal life. So a good middle ground would be to allow that question to happen and be in your mind as an open, unsolved fear, and then if you want to do those things you enjoy to make it a bit easier to cope with not doing compulsions, I recommend periodically reminding yourself of the unsolved problem even while you do so. Acknowledging "my fear is ______, and I want to dwell on that issue and dive into it right now, but I'm going to listen to music/play a game instead". It will spike your anxiety up when you do it, but you'll survive that- deliberately bringing your attention to the thing you're enjoying rather than giving in and doing mental compulsions is good practice for daily life. After all, that's what people without OCD do: if an unpleasant fear or memory or emotion pops up, and they know it wouldn't be healthy or isn't convenient to dwell on it, they just put their attention back onto what they were doing/their daily life/something enjoyable, until the feeling or naggy thought/fear goes away on its own. That's how we aim to be able to function. If you wanted to be listening to music or playing video games, it's good to do them instead of doing compulsions. If you want to be working or studying or tidying up, it's good to do that instead of compulsions. The intrusive thoughts and the questions attached for it will pop up at random times, and it's good to each time acknowledge the open question, acknowledge your desire to start ruminating on it, and choose doing your interests and values over doing that. Personally I only very rarely do an actual ERP session where I deliberately trigger myself- I prefer to just actively choose to not do compulsions every time I want to. It works very well for me, there are plenty of opportunities every day to choose having a good day over a miserable one spent obsessing. The intrusive thought/fear/question isn't dangerous. You don't need to constantly attend to it, nor try to prevent it from appearing in your mind. If you choose to spend your time on your values instead of on compulsions, it's possible to learn pretty quickly that the instrusive thought isn't a threat and doesn't need your attention or for you to solve it.

Yes it should be fine. I find listening to music and watching Netflix can make my intrusive thoughts go away.

Yes:)

As long as its not to supress or distract you from them. Watch TV or listen to music but dont do it to avoid the thoughts. Let the thoughts be there and do whatever you wanted to do anyways.

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