How to Stop OCD Compulsions
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ค. 2024
- Here are tips to STOP your OCD Compulsions.
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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.
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Until next time...I will see you in session,
Paige
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(Although Paige Pradko is a licensed psychotherapist, the views expressed on this video and this TH-cam channel including comments or any related content should not be taken for medical, psychological or psychiatric advice. Always contact your physician and mental health provider before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health.)
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It's crazy how these triggers take the color of life. When I manage to not do compulsions and accept uncertainty, life is beautiful. When I do them, I become miserable. It shows how, in my case at least, I'm not depressed, pessimistic or sad, I'm just extremely afraid of something.
Yes, exactly. You have a good understanding of what is happening.
I just started OCD therapy and my therapist hasn't discussed "I AM" with me.
We did however talk about commitments and an urge/trigger rating scale. Its hard work. I've had this disorder for almost two years and I just began therapy a few weeks ago. Therapist availability is limited these days and I'm lucky to have found someone. Still getting to know her.
the ‘I.A.M’ method works absolute wonders in destroying/calming my OCD, especially when connecting to the moment/back to reality from all the background OCD thoughts, bc at the end of the day thats all what they are, just thoughts
You are absolutely right. They are just thoughts and nothing more.😊
Excellent advice. Thank you.
Paige you are such a godsend. You bring so much clarity and affirmation to your audience. Thank you SO MUCH for the content you make
You're so welcome! Thank you for watching. I love your comments and questions 🙏😊
Another great video by Paige. Stopping in the middle of my compulsion has been a real method to progress. Thanks for all your help!
Thank you. I agree that catching yourself and stopping mid compulsion is a game changer!
I love the way u explain each and everything. Be blessed. Thanks for helping ❤🎉
You are so welcome. Thank you ❤️
Your videos are fantastic. You explain this well. Very well.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it. 😊
Very informative . Thanks Paige .
Thank you for watching 🙏
Your videos are the best I ever seen, greeting from Moscow
Thank you. 🙏❤️
Paige I am Tremendously grateful to you for making such an informative, excellent, Wonderful video. Stay blessed
Thank you, Uzma. Your comment warms my heart. Hope you are well.🙏❤️
Paige I am extremely grateful to you for replying so lovingly!I am on massive psychiatric medication. I take 1and a half mg Xanax and 20 mg Seroxat in the morning and 20mg in the evening. I have a strange type of OCD I.e I can't do even a slightest chore without writing about it that is what I'm going to do and what I have done. It's effecting my life.I think I was born with this disease. Kindly make a video on my problem. I would be profoundly grateful to you. Stay blessed
Thank you, as your videos have hit home for me. In my situation, last year I started having cardiac anxiety as something felt off. I ended up in the ER twice as I was told that it was just anxiety. I was convinced that it was anxiety too, given that my father suffered from cardiac issues through a good part of his life. To get additional reassurance, I did make an appointment with a cardiologist, who actually found that I had severe mitral valve regulation and needed surgery. As first I was relieved, as the anxiety then melted away as I dug deep into finding out all I could and finding the right hospital and surgeon.
The surgery was a success, and I was on my way to recovery. Then I had two incidences of AFIB, which is actually quite common for people in recovery from heart surgery. This type of AFIB goes away in the vast majority of cases and does not come back. However, these two incidents have caused me to take on avoidance of exercise and multiple pulse checking.
I think I am slowly getting better but still have a way to go. I am going to start cardiac rehab, to exercise while being monitored. I am hoping that this will give me what I need to move forward with my life.
Hi Kenneth. Thank you for sharing your story. I am sorry that you have experienced anxiety following your procedure. It is quite common for people to develop health anxiety following a cardiac procedure. It sounds like you will be facing your fear during your rehab by exercising. I want to encourage you to go into the fear and intentionally feel the anxiety as you exercise. This train the brain that there is nothing to be afraid of during exercise. And of course, no body symptom checking if at all possible. I wish you the best in your rehab and believe you are on a good road.
@@PaigePradkoTherapy Thank you, I remember that as I go forward.
DO YOU NEED HELP WITH OCD COMPULSIONS & ERP?
👉🏼 If you are tired of your OCD and need help treating it with ERP so that you can feel better, I can help you.
Find out more about my course for OCD here:
paigepradko.com/ocd.
👉🏼 Here is a link to a FREE SELF ASSESSMENT for OCD:
www.paigepradko.com/ocdquiz
👉🏼 Here is a GIFT for you. A PDF for The Top 10 Things to Know to Practice ERP for OCD, Phobias & Anxiety:
www.paigepradko.com/erp
Thank you ❤️
You’re welcome 😊
Awesome
🙏😊
I just want to say Thank You, though I don’t know you, after listening to your You tube videos, I want to tell you last night was my first good sleep in a long time, I finally found someone that understands anxiety, it’s been a long long time with fear of palpitations and constantly checking to make sure I was ok, you hit so many things I’m going through
I will continue to see you and read your messages and things you suggest
I’m trying, Thank You
Have a blessed day, you’re awesome, today is a good day 🥰
🌷
Thank you for such a kind note, Judith. I am glad that you have recognized that mentally checking can reinforce the health anxiety cycle. It is a process to retrain our brains that we are safe ❤️
I m so happy that you mentioned about breathing ocd specifically, the same problem that i have been having for years. Can you please give specific guidance as to how to overcome it. I m Manoj from India.
TIA
@@mvarma1960 , I am not sure if you saw this video on somatic awareness OCD. I hope it helps you: th-cam.com/video/0kjFbCy_Sio/w-d-xo.htmlsi=ldLbPoJoOtZwSsVL
I'm always repeating thoughts over and over where I get irritated and panic. I just wish this could turn off in my brain
You can learn to stop rumination. It isn’t easy, but it is possible. th-cam.com/video/Kj3WhVISFN0/w-d-xo.html
Hi Paige. Pls can you help me. I have ocd all my life but never diagnosed. The most recent one I had was about my body. So Il push my eye on the whites mostly gently to see if they go inward slightly.....from which point an obsession will be triggered. So I will then check them over and over pushing as I think one is going in further than the other. Today I had where I would check to see if my finger would go in further on the left side of my eyes on one more than the other.....unfortunately I felt that one finger would slightly have more wriggle room and go in further just a fraction of the eye socket than the other one. No these are relatively for the most part small pushed - increasing in intensity as Im aware I dont want to cause damage. I would usually find a happy resolution with the result but had to stop pushing as it was too hard. Since then I have stopped acting on the compulsion but its playing on my mind constantly with a strong temptation to check it. However I promised myself I would not feed this monster anymore....as has enough once and for all. I really feel tempted to check more but dont want to damage myself or push the eye whatsoever even if its a harmless check. Im also aware that I can be in an ocd episode for an hr or more causing me to want to cry or be in terrible anxiety. I also had ocd about all part of my body but never find anything online about them only some of the common ones. The other week I would bend my finger beyond a natural click to see if it is ok and abnormal.. the more I would check it through ocd to ensure its not getting loser......but then have to stop as as checking/bending its motion against the joint will only make it worse if anything. I had this about my neck, back and pretty much I have had all OCD's in my life that you can imagine....but I have so many that I cannot find online or people talking about. In my case they are around things I care about not wanting to damage...i.e my eyes or joints etc....volatile areas.....and I check them to make sure they are as they first were....but as the ocd checking increases I become unsure more than ever if that body part has in some very very small way loser or clicks more now after messing with it. This kinda of ocd is based upon an actual even of concern that I have something wrong with me or damaged myself somehow...pls can you help me on this at all and tell me where I can find anything online of other people with this or very similar ocd rituals......as I feel very much alone with this. Thank you
Hi Greg. I understand your obsession with wanting to make sure that different parts of your body are not vulnerable or changed or different and that you are okay. And, I understand the compulsions of checking and touching and probably ruminating and analyzing and mentally checking as well. You are absolutely doing the right thing by not allowing the checking no matter how strong the urge. This is a form of checking OCD, mixed with somatic and just right OCD. I am absolutely sure there are loads of people that have this form of OCD, but everyone seems to have slightly different variations in every theme in OCD. I have worked with hundreds of people with OCD and no one is exactly the same. But, OCD is OCD. I hope you do not feel alone with this. As I said, in some ways all people with OCD can relate to the urges to do and think things that are irrational yet their relentless doubt and wanting to be certain drive the urge. And again, people with OCD also feel alone because no one has exactly the same urges or compulsions. I wish I could give you some documentation to help you feel understood and less alone. You are not alone in this battle. Be kind and compassionate to yourself as this is difficult and continue to practice response prevention and resist the temptation to check. You are doing a great job.
So many little things about aspects of my body or even words I hear or see trigger compulsions for me that my OCD is constant. It's every second of my day. My brain will just be thinking about the veins in my arm or something CONSTANTLY. Sometimes I try to do ERP, but it feels like this is so constant I wouldn't be able to get through a day if I tried to fight it all the time. Will the frequency just lessen over time if I do exposures every now and then? Doing them every time I obsess seems impossible, since it's literally every minute of my day in my head. I feel hopeless.
Yes, you can choose any amount of time that you wish to work on it. The more time you are doing ERP, the faster the recovery. But, I completely understand when it encompasses your whole day. Perhaps you can work on ERP for 60 minutes a day, and break that into intervals if possible.
Anxiety level increasing rapidly if I stop compulsion.
Yes, it does increase temporarily. Eventually you will feel it decrease on its own.
Hi sister. I kept repeating things like rituals like scrolling closing and opening apps. Voices in my heads to follow the certain rituals things,talks everything. I’m an cardiphobic is it OCD? I believe if i don’t listen to my mind something bad will happen😢
It does sound like OCD. You may want to see a mental health therapist for a screening. Here is a self assessment for ocd:
OCD Self Assessment Quiz
www.paigepradko.com/ocdquiz
Hi, I have severe OCD compulsions with repeating pasting comments and deleting them over and over again until I feel my comments are perfect. This only happened when I'm typing my comments on other social media platform like Instagram and Facebook posts. Do you have a specific way of helping me to overcome this OCD compulsion? Thanks!
Yes, this is perfection ocd or just right ocd. We treat this by doing things in a hurry and leave imperfections and then resist the urge to go back and delete or correct them. It is difficult, but you have to set a hard boundary about the deletion and correction. That is the “response prevention” component and the most important element to work on this.
I have been doing the testing compulsion for sexual OCD and it’s been catastrophic for my mental health. Has made it 10 times worse.
Yes, that is a common body checking compulsion and that urge to check will need to be resisted.
How to solve memory related ocd
There are different ocd themes associated with memories. There is false memory ocd, where you are doubting things that never happened, but are not trusting your memory. And real event ocd, where you are ruminating about things that did happen and questioning what that means about you. I teach what to do to treat both themes of OCD in my course on ocd. You can use ERP and use scripts, exposure and response prevention and more global ocd approaches like the I. A.M. method I described in this video.
hello ma'am...what is the most erp for breathing ocd?most of the time i can sleep...i'm afraid if my breath suddenly stop...
Oh good, I see that you found my somatic awareness video on breathing that I was going to share with you. 😊
I love what you do. I have learned so much from your videos but I do have one question.
Why don't you have a detailed video on RESPONSE PREVENTION? I have seen countless videos on the Exposure part of ERP but no one really talks about response prevention.
I know once we expose ourselves to anxiety, we're supposed to fight off the compulsion urges and rituals that normally follow after we are triggered.
But no one has really gone in-depth on how we should respond to a triggered response. What are the correct steps?
Do we tell ourselves, "don't think about it"? Do we try and just stop all thoughts? I am sure some of us are getting it wrong because when I first started, I was trying to stop the thought but I know there is a better way of handling it.
Once you tell someone to try and resist urges and rituals, some of us will naturally try and stop the thoughts completely.
What should we say to ourselves? Do we say anything at all? Do we block or do we sort of deal with compulsions? Help me understand
Hi Mark. I love that you brought up these questions. They are all so important. We communicated a bit on a different video, but this is a topic that deserves its own video. I am going to work on it this week and you will see a video posted on this topic in about 3 weeks. I am sure that lots of other people would love a deeper explanation. So, thank you for your suggestion. 🙏😊
@@PaigePradkoTherapy
You are so kind. Thank you for answering.
One question if you don't mind. Is alcohol bad?
I mean, does it do more harm than good. The sad thing is, I never consumed alcohol until I started experiencing anxiety. Stop?
@@markj6681, unfortunately, the withdrawal from the alcohol causes a rebound affect in the body. You can be more anxious the day after drinking along with having sleep issues. In some people it creates relaxation in the short term, but creates more anxiety in the long term. 😫
Will obsession will go away if u stop doing compulsion by the time goes
Over time, with no compulsion or avoidance behaviors, the obsession do die down and stop all together for most. However, can OCD wax and wane and you cannot control what thoughts pop into your mind. So, it is important to remember to not respond to thoughts with mental or physical rituals and compulsions.
@@PaigePradkoTherapy thank you for replying I appreciate . Do die down mean they will stop coming in your head
Yes. 😊
@@PaigePradkoTherapy do ocd have classic condition between obsession and compulsion?
The background music here is distracting...
Thank you.