Strategies for dealing with ocd obsessions

Just because you think something (a thought or image) it doesn’t mean it’s important or true.
We can’t do anything about the fact that thoughts/images enter our brain but what we do have control over is what we do with those thoughts/images. Just like you tune into a TV channel you want to watch or a radio station you want to listen to, you don’t want to watch all the TV channels or listen to all the radio stations because many are full of rubbish.

When we think about worried thoughts, some worried thoughts/images are productive, and some are unproductive. We want to tune into the productive worries, but not the unproductive worries.

Productive worries
Productive worries are a form of active problem solving and helpful. Active problem solving is when we spend time thinking about what we can do to solve, or partly solve, a problem that is troubling us. Active problem solving involves six key steps:

1. Identify the problem
2. Generate possible solutions
3. Evaluate the solutions (look at the advantages and disadvantages)
4. Choose a solution
5. Make an action plan to implement the solution
6. Review your progress

Unproductive worries
Unproductive worries, on the other hand, involve trying to solve an unsolvable problem where the outcome is uncertain or unknowable and so there is no good answer to form an action plan. You start to ‘solve’ the problem yet can’t come up with a good answer and so then you worry some more, and the entire process continues on repeat in obsessive loops/spirals.
So, productive worries are helpful, but unproductive worries aren’t. We want to tune into productive worries, but not unproductive worries.
The worries in OCD obsessions are unproductive worries. They are unsolvable because their outcome is uncertain or unknowable. The worries have become obsessive for 3 reasons:

1. You have made them important, when they are not because they are just thoughts/images in your anxious mind.
2. You engage with them and try to solve the unsolvable. This becomes an unsolvable escalating apprehensive debate in your mind that triggers more and more anxious feelings which make you feel like what you are obsessing over is important, keeping you trapped in the obsessive thought loops/spirals.
3. You try and push them away – i.e. you tell yourself you don’t want to think them, but this then makes the thoughts/images sticky/come back harder. E.g. if I tell you not to think of a loved one’s face then you will immediately think of their face and if I tell you not to think of the word carrot you will immediately think of the word carrot.  

The 1-2-3 formula for not engaging in OCD obsessions
So, there’s a 1-2-3 formula for not engaging in OCD obsessions, as follows:

1. Allow the thought/image to be there in your mind rather than try to push it away.
2. Don’t engage with the thought/image.
3. Calmly let the though/image pass out of your brain in its own time.

Here are some analogies to help you visualise the 1-2-3 formula process:
1.The worry train. You’re anxious, so you are at the ‘anxiety train station’ standing on the platform and in comes a worry train, it parks up and opens its doors and onboard are your unproductive OCD worries (maybe some people are shouting them out or they are on posters or TV screens). It invites you onboard, but you choose not to get onboard and engage in the worries and then you let the doors close in their own time and the train drive off in its own time.
2.Spam email. The unproductive OCD worries come in as headed emails and you say, “That’s spam mail” and don’t open the email and let it drift down your inbox in its own time.
3.Buddha and worry clouds. You are a buddha practicing mindfulness meditation and the unproductive OCD worries come in like dark worry clouds in the sky and you say to yourself, “Just worry clouds, let them float past in their own time” and allow them to do this.
4.The unwelcome guest. You picture the unproductive OCD worries as an unwelcome guest, something you would rather turn away if it actually appeared at your door. Open the door and let it in. Let it be unpleasant, noisy, or scary. Imagine making room or creating space for it by letting it sit next to you or take up space in the room, let it harp on and be annoying but don’t engage/have a conversation with it until it gets bored and lets itself out in its own time.  
5.Assign a character to your unproductive OCD worries. It can be anything, although something cheeky and outrageous tends to work best, as humour is one of the best-known diffusion techniques. E.g. imagine the thoughts coming from Donald Trump, they may grate at you enough to get you out of your head or help you just to let the thoughts pass you by as “fake news!”.
If visualisation isn’t something that comes easily, the following strategies might help you with the 1-2-3 formula process:
6.Come up with a “replacement” image – e.g. something neutral, like a red Volkswagen, a pink balloon, and always replace your thought with that same image each time the thought occurs. Don’t switch around to different images, make the image always the same.
7.Sing all of your obsessions to various tunes until they lose power.
8.Repeat or imagine your obsessions in funny or exotic accents or add the name of an animal, etc. in-between each word you say.
9.Tell yourself that it’s just your brain. Instead of saying “I’m going to throw my baby out of the window!” or “I am going to make a fool of myself at the party!” try to practice saying, “My brain gives me the thought that I am going to throw my baby out of the window” or “My brain gives me the thought that I’m going to make a huge fool of myself.”
10.Flood yourself with the words. Normalise them, after all they are just words. Think of the thought over and over or write it down over and over until it no longer has power over you.
11.Magnification and enjoyment – e.g. say to yourself ‘I’m enjoying it’ and play it along, “Yeah, Yeah, I’m going to do that!”. The idea is if you’re enjoying it then it’s not scary.
12.Lean into it with a willingness dial. Imagine you have a ‘willingness dial’ where you allow yourself to be 100% willing to be with the thought or image. Turn the imaginary dial up all the way to 100. Say, “I want this thought”. You could also say, “Bring it on!”, “Yeah, yeah whatever you say!” when you are really just dismissing it as just a thought/image or “I’m willing to be uncomfortable”.
Other leaning in statements for obsessions:

1. I’m not answering that question, asshole!
2. Thanks for sharing. Have a nice day.
3. Keep talking Big Mouth. I’ll be fine.
4. Junk mail. Click bait. I’m not going there.
5. Just meaningless noise. Fake news! I have no time for you.
6. Cool. Keep the lies coming. I love it.
7. Just a thought. No comment. Move on.
8. Not taking the bait.

Everyone is different and will need their own unique strategy to achieve the 1-2-3 formula.
Further helpful reading:
Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts | Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA
​​© Amanda Morgan