Try This When OCD Strikes

The OCD and Anxiety Podcast by Robert James Coaching. Music.

Hello and welcome to The OCD and Anxiety Podcast where we explore how to have a more positive relationship with anxiety disorders disorders taking back control so that you can start living the life you choose and not the one chosen by your fears. Music. Hello and welcome to episode 383. I hope that wherever you're listening to this podcast today that you're doing very well.

However, if you are struggling with OCD or anxiety and you would like to get some support with that well you can get a free session from me to get that you can head over to my website robertjamescoaching.com there you can book in for that free session directly or if you prefer you can send me a message and let me know about what you're struggling with in today's podcast i'm going to be talking about something that you can do when you kind of find that ocd is

catching you it's kind of catching you out it's catching catching you unawares and you know in those moments where you're not prepared for it perhaps you're kind of accidentally giving in to the obsessions you're performing compulsions and it's kind of keeping you stuck so today we're going to be talking about that of course if you would like to follow on instagram you you can my instagram handle is at robertjamescoachinguk the podcast is now also on youtube so you

can follow and like there too and that's it guys i really hope that you enjoy and if you have any questions do please let me know off we go.

If you struggle with OCD, then you will most probably be familiar with this situation. Perhaps you've been doing a little bit better. Perhaps, you know, you're managing the OCD a bit more and you're learning how to deal with it. But you're finding that you're getting caught out at particular times. And when you do, it's very difficult in those moments, you know, to kind of not go down the rabbit hole with the OCD.

It's very tempting to start ruminating to start pushing away to start fighting with it and in these situations it's so important that we you know we have something that we can do something that we know you know is likely to help us in that situation so that we don't just fall back into that old familiar behavior you know that really is going to keep us stuck of course it's It's going to be much more about learning how to accept the discomfort rather than just straight away trying to start

fighting with it, trying to start pushing it away. The problem with the latter is, of course, we're actually just performing compulsions when we're doing this. With the idea that really what a compulsion is when we kind of get down to it is it's a kind of way in which we push difficult emotions away.

Way we're not wanting to experience uncertainty we're not wanting to experience the difficult emotions that are associated with uncertainty fear anxiety anger guilt shame all of these very hard to feel emotions on some level we'd much rather just kind of push all of those things away and you know really kind of that is part of what OCD is all about it's a kind of strategy and maybe at some point in your life it was actually supporting you in some way by kind of

pushing down difficult emotions when perhaps those difficult emotions were very, very hard for you to experience in the past. You know, by actually allowing ourselves to begin to open up to those difficult emotions in the present and actually feel them. Well, we can learn a lot from that experience. And, you know, it's not so much about trying to figure it out or problem solve anymore, which is, you know, a typical strategy that we tend to perform in OCD.

You know, we're actually trying to allow the difficult emotions to come up and to acknowledge that, you know, we have this habit. OCD is really a kind of form of habit where, you know, whenever difficult things come up, we're trying to deflect, we're trying to not feel them. And you know in order for us to really change I think in the long term you know we've got to change that habit we've got to find a way to more routinely as we go through our days when we find ourselves getting triggered.

You know, to be able to actually check in with ourselves and feel what we're feeling.

Now, of course, you know, this is the purpose a lot of the time of doing exposure work is, you know, that you plan in specific activities that are going to create some anxiety for you. And, you know, you're learning how to gently lean into that anxiety and kind of habituate to it.

Try to to learn how to get more comfortable with anxiety and wait and be patient and normally what happens then is it it comes down you begin to feel a lot better you know but there's a difference I think between kind of planned activities that you might do with ERP for example and actual real life exposures things that happen during your your day-to-day life that are you know very very hard to deal with because they're not planned.

They just come up. And so often, you know, this is kind of what I'm talking about in the title. This is when OCD strikes, you know, we're not really ready for it. We, you know, we haven't planned to have that very high anxiety appearing suddenly. We're not ready for that, that new theme or topic that's just suddenly appeared out of nowhere. And it's really terrifying, the idea of it.

And so, you know we're feeling that urge to start ruminating about it you know when things aren't planned and you know you just get around like a random trigger from somewhere it can be harder to know what to do in that situation because it it catches you off guard you feel kind of uh like you haven't quite got your equilibrium and it's almost like the the kind of more obsessive part part of us really wants to feel a bit better before you start

tackling that thing or before you start dealing with that thing and of course what's that way that we so often.

What's the thing that we so often try to do to feel better in those situations well just perform perform a compulsion get a bit of reassurance think about it a little bit perform a physical ritual or compulsion in some way do some counting whatever it might be for you you know and unfortunately when we start doing that of course all we're really doing is reinforcing the cycle called OCD and so instead if we can learn you know more habitually in these situations where we

do get caught out and it does happen unfortunately quite a lot of OCD you know if you're able in those situations to view them as a challenge rather than a threat it's very easy to kind of label these things as threats and to believe that they're going to take you down that you don't have have a chance against them that this is OCD it's too strong remember how we interpret difficult events in our lives has has a big impact on how we're actually able to deal with them so if you

can view them moving forward as a challenge you know that you can try to overcome I think it does it does kind of help and then the idea is to to do your very best to rather than start problem solving it or pushing it away in various different ways, compulsions. Instead, what we're going to do is something strange in a way.

And if you've been practicing some of the meditations that I've shared on this podcast, for example, where we practice moving towards the difficult emotions rather than pushing them away, this is the kind of thing that I'm talking about here.

You know, as you're going through your day, if you get a trigger, if you can actually practice feeling the difficult emotions that come up directly in that moment, rather than straight away taking some kind of countermeasure that involves pushing it away in some way, if you can instead feel it and do your very best to just acknowledge, practice.

You've been triggered and that there's a real physical reaction going on in the body in that moment you can learn a lot just from doing that and sometimes i say to people have a 10 second rule or have a 30 second rule when when you feel yourself very triggered and you're very tempted to to start compulsing you the urge is there just see if you can slow everything down for 10 seconds to a minute you don't need to close your eyes you don't need to kind of meditate but just move into your

body with your eyes open paying attention to that anxiety where you feel it in your body often it tends to be in the stomach or in the chest but it can be in different places for different people sometimes it can be in the jaw or the head or the shoulders but just pay attention to to that feeling of anxiety try not to judge it try not to push it away see if instead you can be curious about that feeling as strange as that sounds and i know it does sound strange and it's very counterintuitive

to try to move towards anxiety when you've been triggered but actually you know in my experience this really does have a huge impact and just from kind of taking a break in feeling what you're feeling for, you know, anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute. Often it's enough time to just kind of slow things down enough where, you know, perhaps the urge to perform that compulsion, it just goes down a notch or two. You're able to have a bit more perspective on the situation.

You're able to then kind of refocus your attention and kind of apply, you know, some of the concepts behind acceptance commitment therapy of acknowledging and then refocusing your attention back onto a valued activity.

And before you know it you've kind of moved on and forgotten about that thing because you're not paying so much attention to it anymore but if you're able to actually feel it before you do that moving on with acceptance commitment therapy you know in my experience that tends to be really really helpful because you've you know you've truly acknowledged it because you've actually tried to feel it and so often with OCD we're doing the opposite we're doing

everything we can to not feel those difficult things so you know 10 10 seconds to a minute if you can get into a habit of doing that and it may be a really really helpful thing that over time it begins to change your relationship with your with your difficult emotions and it may just help as well in that moment you know to kind of deal with that trigger in a in a slightly better and more positive way.

So there we go guys i really hope that you found that one helpful if you have any questions at all do please let me know and i will see you next time.

Just a quick reminder that if you want to get a free session all you need to do to get that is to head over to my website www.robertjamescoaching.com and there you can leave me a message and we can arrange the free session and now just a quick reminder of my disclaimer any information that you view on my website instagram page facebook group or anywhere else online or any information that you listen to on the podcast is for informational purposes

only and is not intended to be a substitute for actual medical or mental health advice from a doctor psychologist, or any other medical or mental health professional. Music.