OCD or Not? How to Know the Difference

Music. Hello and welcome to the OCD and Anxiety Podcast where we explore how to have a more positive relationship with anxiety disorders taking back control so that you can start living the life you choose and not the one chosen by your fears.

Hello and welcome to episode 501 i hope that you're doing very well today and if you are struggling with ocd or anxiety and you would like to get some support with that well i offer a free discovery call to get that you can head over to my website robertjamescoaching.com there's a link in the show notes. In today's episode, I'm talking about the difference between actual OCD thoughts and thoughts that are more normal in nature.

You know, perhaps they're related to overthinking, you know, but they're not OCD. And this is a really important part of the OCD puzzle. I think so often when I was struggling in the past, I would be telling myself, but how do I know if this is OCD?

You know, if it's not OCD, perhaps, you know, I do actually need to think about this and figure it out and of course that kind of thinking if we're not careful it can really keep us in the OCD cycle so today's episode we're going to be exploring that if you find the podcast helpful please do consider subscribing and leaving us a review it really does help other people who might be looking for content like this to find it so many thanks guys if you have any questions at all about anything

I speak about today do please let me know and off we go.

So how do you know whether it's OCD or not so often we get caught up in these cycles now trying to figure things out and it's so infuriating because we're not quite sure whether we should leave it alone and kind of give it give ourselves some space or whether we should keep on thinking about it because actually maybe that thing is is bad or dangerous or you know immoral or terrible in some way so you know we should kind of think about it and so you know I think number

one the first thing that we need to bring to the table here is to recognize that OCD is always about looking for certainty. So if you're trying to look for clarity about something, if you're not demanding 100% certainty, then it may well be overthinking, it may well be a typical thought that you might have.

But as soon as we bring that absolute determination to have real certainty about that issue, to figure it out, to leave no stone unturned, then that's an indication that actually OCD has taken over.

And we're you know we're really demanding to have it all figured out you know if that's if that's the case or that can be a clear sign that perhaps it's time to let it go number two you feel intense anxiety and urgency and that is often coupled with the compulsion itself so what what is this all about well really when we're experiencing OCD it's because we have difficult emotions in the body. We're experiencing anxiety, perhaps shame, guilt, all sorts of very uncomfortable bodily sensations.

And we don't want those things to be there. So what do we do? Well, we perform compulsions because actually when you perform a compulsion, it gives you a kind of momentary false sense of control. It makes you feel slightly better for a very short time.

And that's why we keep on doing compulsions they're actually quite addictive because they do give you a bit of a bit of a payoff you get a bit of a dopamine hit when you do a compulsion but of course we're not actually learning how to allow to accept to tolerate that discomfort because we're always trying to artificially lower lower that discomfort in the short term you know and what that does is that's basically sending this message

to your subconscious mind that when you're in these situations, when you're uncertain about things...

You have to perform compulsions in order to feel better and so it means that you're gonna you're gonna do that the next time and the time after that unless you can learn to kind of interrupt that cycle you know so if you're finding that you're getting caught up in this kind of you know this cycle of OCD where you're feeling that anxiety and then you're wanting to perform compulsions well that can be a very clear sign that actually it's OCD and it's not your kind

of normal kind of thinking and also you know if you can learn then to interrupt that cycle right there you know that's how you can really begin to change OCD over time when you stop responding to these difficult emotions with you know trying to figure them out or trying to push them away you know over time you can begin to have a different relationship with them. These three tips have been something that have really helped me to to be able to manage my OCD thoughts more successfully.

OCD is something that I've struggled with for a long time since the age of 16 and thankfully today I'm able to manage it really really well. Six years ago I became a coach to help people with OCD and anxiety and if you would like to get a free discovery call with me well you can by heading over to my website robertjamescoaching.com there's a link in the show notes and please do subscribe it really does help people who might need to find this content to actually find it. Music.

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