Understanding & Learning to Control Your OCD Anxiety
Symptoms of OCD are:
Obsessions - unwanted, repetitive and intrusive ideas, impulses or images
Compulsions - repetitive behaviors or mental acts usually performed to reduce the distress associated with obsessions
Although people with OCD know that their thoughts and behaviors are nonsensical and would like to avoid or stop them, they are frequently unable to block their obsessive thoughts or avoid acting on their compulsions. Psychic equivalence occurs when one concludes, “I think, therefore it is!” - what one thinks is an objective rendition of objective reality. Psychic equivalence creates dangerous delusions that warp one’s version of reality and lead to extremely dysfunctional patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving.
Common obsessions include:
Persistent fears that harm may come to self or a loved one
Unreasonable concern with being contaminated
Unacceptable religious, violent, or sexual thoughts
Excessive need to do things correctly or perfectly
Psychic equivalence thinking
Common compulsions include:
Excessive checking of door locks, stoves, water faucets, light switches, etc.
Repeatedly making lists, counting, arranging, or aligning things
Collecting and hoarding useless objects
Repeating routine actions a certain number of times until is feels just right
Unnecessary rereading and rewriting
Mentally repeating phrases
Repeatedly washing hands
Watch out for and monitor:
Repetitive and intrusive thoughts that interfere with your ability to be in the present - can’t focus on what is going on in the immediate moment
Rigid beliefs that cause negative expectancies and are not “open for debate” or correction when talking with each other
Rigid/repetitive patterns that you believe to be “right” or “correct” but are actually self-defeating
Cognitive rigidity - mind is not open for new information that would update your mindset so that our beliefs are more reality based
Inability to enjoy family or marital moments if “the list” is not completed
Rumination about past, present, and future negative events
Problems leaving the past behind - cannot forgive or forget even when the current events have improved
Rumination about feeling victimized when the situation has actually improved
Feeling like you are stuck in self-defeating patterns that you or others feel are irrational but cannot change
Omniscience - you feel that you have the correct perspective on reality and others are wrong
Solipism - you believe that others should see things from your perspective
