TRICKY MENTAL COMPULSIONS IN OCD

Here are 4 techniques or Tips to help you stop your compulsions 1. First, write down all of your compulsions. Identify every physical or mental compulsion that you are doing or have done. You have to know everything you are doing in order to stop. 2. Second, become aware of yourself when you have an urge to compulse. Noticing the urge is your opportunity to teach your brain that nothing bad happens when you do not give into the urge and do not do the compulsion. I realize I am making this sound so simple, yet understand how very difficult it is. Every time you resist is a victory, one more lesson for your brain. If you didn’t notice your urge, but caught yourself in the middle of performing a compulsion. Challenge yourself to stop, mid compulsion. This is a victory too. It is almost like waking up in OCD land and reconnecting with reality in the here and now. It helps my clients if they use my I. A.M. method here. The (I) in I. A.M. stands for identify. You can identify an OCD thought, an image, a feeling, and in this case, you are identifying your compulsion. (“Oh, I was just ruminating or mentally checking”.) That’s the (A) in the I. A.M. method. You allow it. You just allow the urge and the feeling of not just right or incompleteness to float there in the background. Then, while it is floating there unattended, you shift your focus to something in the moment (M). That’s the (M) in the I. A.M. method. (I. A.M. stands for Identify, Allow, shift your focus to something in the moment and move on.) The I. A.M. technique is a global strategy for OCD and it is often my clients’ favorite technique among several approaches I teach. 3. Another tip for stopping compulsions is to write out specific rules for yourself. The rules should be what you will allow and what you will not. Setting some rules is one way to take those incremental steps. 4. My 4th and final tip on stopping compulsions is to track and record what happened and what you learned when you didn’t compulse. This is called consolidation of learning. It is based on inhibitory learning model. And it is a process of simply writing down or recording what you planned, what happened, and what you learned. Stopping your compulsions is a learning process for your brain. You can go at your own pace here. What can you commit to this week? Every time you make progress, no matter how big or small, is a victory. That is how everyone recovers from ocd, one opportunity for your brain to learn at a time and one victory at a time. Your confidence then builds as you go. Resisting your compulsions is progress. Reducing your compulsions is progress. Stopping a compulsion in the middle of it is progress. Celebrate every single time you have an urge to compulse and you don’t. That is hard work….huge. It is a victory…every time you stop yourself

[الحويطيالحويطي-طت]

Today, I fought with my agoraphobia three times and I I felt a panic while driving, but I kept driving to my destination. I didn't take any back steps

[MohammedAhmed-lzvf]

That’s me for the last 30+ years. I analyze and ruminate accompanied by severe anxiety and headaches