The president is having a press conference. Suddenly someone jumps up and shouts, “Is it true that you are having an affair with your personal secretary?” He has a few options now. He can protest loudly, “Do not be ridiculous!” and the papers will read, "President denies affair with secretary.” Or he can have the reporter thrown out: “President ejects reporter who asks about his affair with secretary.” Or he can look straight at the reporter, make it clear he heard the question, and then pivot to “Next question please.” He can refuse to dignify the question with a response (Papantonio 2013). From the book 'Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts' about how responding to the thoughts gives them weight. :)

Curious.... the news has been terribly distressing for me and has stirred up OCD. Compulsive rumination and checking (news stories) are my go-to when OCD is triggered. Today, I purposely did not listen to my news podcast as I do every morning. I feel better-ish. Is this avoidance, or is this self care? Would continuing to listen to a podcast be exposure with response prevention applied to the compulsions that go with it? Thanks in advance!

I’ve recently been having the spiraling intrusive thoughts coming up out of seemingly nowhere. Well not exactly nowhere, having some relationship issues but the thoughts will just randomly show up when I’m clam home reading a book.

You’re all ruminating!!! My therapist put it best when I told him, “rumination is my biggest compulsion.” He replied, “rumination is the overarching compulsion, every other one falls under it.” The real muscle you’re trying to train when it comes to uncertainty is the ability to stop ruminating. Rumination isn’t the same as regular thinking, it’s thinking with your will behind it. Your mind will naturally wander and generate thoughts, like clouds drifting across the sky, but ruminating is like grabbing a cloud and trying to squeeze rain out of it. That’s not natural thinking anymore, that’s you forcing the process. And here’s the part people struggle to believe: ruminating is a choice. You can choose not to chase every thought. The key is refusing to treat a thought as gospel truth. Instead, leave it where it is, neutral, just another car passing on the freeway. If you stop running into traffic and just let them drive by, the road gets clearer. The more you practice this, the stronger your “uncertainty muscle” becomes. At first it feels painful, like going to the gym after years of inactivity. But over time, the soreness turns into strength, and what used to weigh you down becomes easier to carry, or not carry at all.