OCD’s 10 Biggest Tricks
OCD is a common disorder and affects 1 in 40 people, it is also the 3rd most common psychiatric condition. This disorder can be very tricky and tries to tell lies to keep people trapped in anxiety. Below are the 10 common tricks it tries to use to keep the anxiety lingering as well as how to combat them.
The most common trick is OCD trying to convince you that “this time it is not OCD.” It is important to educate patients how to spot the difference and it’s helpful to emphasize that OCD tends to feel like an emergency and needs to be attended to immediately. One way to treat this lie is to do the “public service announcement” test which is basically challenging the patient to call the radio and request to make a public service announcement to warn people about their fear (i.e., please inform everyone they should not wipe less than 20 times when going to the bathroom, it is not safe to do less than this). This strategy helps them test out their belief and helps them realize they need to accept uncertainty but increase willingness to bet that is OCD and not give in to the compulsion.
The second most common trick is that OCD convinces you that “only crazy, bad, dangerous people have these thoughts.” It is important to teach patients that the content of one’s thoughts is the maker of “crazy, bad, dangerous.” Also educating patients that everyone has intrusive thoughts and how we cannot control our thoughts helps normalize this.
The third most common trick is “if only I knew why I had these thoughts I could stop my OCD.” Many patients have found the why, but actually only have recovered once applying evidence-based CBT skills. Teaching patients that finding the why will not solve their OCD is important.
The fourth most common trick is thinking “you’ll never beat me (OCD), so don’t even bother trying.” Teaching patients that short-term comfort will only lead to worse OCD and more discomfort overall, but short-term discomfort will actually lead to a more free and comfortable life is important for this trick.
The fifth most common trick is to convince you that you must control your thoughts. Teaching patients it is impossible to control their thoughts will be helpful for beating this trick. The more you try to control them the worse they get. Having patients use meditation like leaves on a stream to allow them to practice observing their thoughts is helpful for this.
The sixth most common trick is trying to convince you that compulsions must be done perfectly. To combat this helping the patient complete the compulsions imperfectly is helpful, such as changing the language of compulsions, or changing the preferred hand to complete the compulsion.
The seventh most common trick is convincing you that rituals will help give you the comfort of certainty. This is a common trick and one that patients spend a lot of time trying to obtain. Teaching patients that there is never certainty in anything is key here. Helping the patient see all the ways they are able to tolerate uncertainty in other areas of their life is helpful: while driving, while eating, when going to bed, going to the grocery store, etc.
The eight most common trick is that you will feel better with reassurance. Helping them reduce reassurances is helpful here, which can be done by tracking reassurances and reducing them by 20% each day to week.
The ninth most common trick is thinking you have a great responsibility to keep everyone safe. One cool technique for this trick is to have patients actually try to make something happen to you by thinking “I hope you break leg tomorrow” or “I hope you get a flat tire on your way home.” This helps the patient see that they don’t actually have control over things.
Finally, the tenth most common trick is thinking” if you don’t do this ritual, something bad will happen to you or your family.” To combat this last trick it can be helpful to change the way you do the ritual as mentioned previously, and to also purposefully wish for bad things to happen, which directly targets the fear.