What is OCD?
OCD is likely not what you think it is. It’s not just perfectionism or being organized, nor is it a specific set of thoughts or behaviors. OCD is best described as a pattern. You may experience an alarming thought and feel compelled to do something to alleviate the distress associated with it. You might fear that if you don’t act, you’ll be stuck with that bad feeling forever. This “something” you do may not always be a physical action; sometimes, it’s a mental act, like convincing yourself you would never do that terrible thing that just popped into your head, scanning your last conversation to ensure you didn’t say something offensive, or monitoring how contaminated different surfaces are. You might even find yourself repeatedly trying to solve major existential questions about suffering and life after death, or checking your physical symptoms to make sure you aren’t losing control.
The issue, however, is that OCD is a paradox. The more you engage in these compulsions—those mental and physical behaviors that temporarily reduce your distress—the more your long-term distress increases. You may feel unable to do or not do certain things, fearing that not engaging in the compulsive behavior will leave you feeling so miserable that life won’t be worth living. Ironically, refraining from these mental and behavioral compulsions is where true freedom is found. As you stop trying to fix the distress caused by OCD thoughts, you’ll find that your distress diminishes on its own.
Stopping physical behaviors alone will not completely resolve the problem. It’s essential to also cease mental checking, reassuring, analyzing, and overall engagement with the distressing thoughts to find true relief and be present in your life. This isn’t about suppressing thoughts or pushing them away, as that approach will backfire and create new issues. Instead, you can say to yourself, “If today’s not the day I finally resolve this issue, what do I want to think about instead?” Then, focus on whatever else you want or need to think about in that moment. If you have OCD, you’ve likely spent countless hours trying to feel better about your struggles, and you need to learn to leave those issues behind. It’s both essential and possible to learn how to do this. By doing so, those issues will fade in importance, and you’ll experience lasting relief rather than a mere reduction in anxiety from yielding to compulsions. Don’t wait to get started, and don’t give up.
