Why Fighting OCD Head-On Keeps You Stuck

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 495 i hope that you're doing very well today wherever you're listening from 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 at robertjamescoaching.com. There's a link in the show notes. So in today's episode, well, I'm going to be talking about attacking OCD from the indirect approach.

And to help me with this, I'm going to be using the metaphor of the Greek myth Medusa, which is actually a great way to help us to understand what is actually the important things that we need to focus on in order to overcome OCD in the long term? And what are some of the things that actually, you know, tend to keep us stuck? If you find the podcast helpful, it would be fantastic if you could subscribe and also leave us a review, whether that's on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Trying to deal with OCD head-on so often actually makes it worse when we're looking for reassurance all the time when we're trying to fight with it when we're trying to have certainty when we're pushing away the difficult emotions or we're ruminating all the time all we're actually doing is we're making the OCD worse we're kind of giving it more power the Greek myth of Medusa can actually be a great metaphor for what we should be doing when we're dealing with OCD.

Of course, Medusa, she had a hair full of snakes and she was this horrible kind of monster. And you couldn't look her in the eyes. If you did, you would turn to stone. And of course, OCD is a bit like a monster sometimes.

And if we start actually performing those compulsions, if we're looking for certainty if we're ruminating on things unfortunately that is like looking at medusa in the eye we're staring at the ocd straight in the eye and we're trying to fix it we're trying to solve it we're trying to have that certainty and that tends uh you know to lead us to one place and that is feeling stuck feeling trapped feeling like you've turned to stone that you don't have flexibility anymore,

that you can't move in the way that you once did, because OCD has kind of taken over. And I think it's so important that we reflect on that.

Do we actually have to do what can we take from that myth well of course the way in which you you look at medusa is actually through the shield or through the mirror by actually looking at medusa indirectly you know you can learn how to deal with it you can learn how to take action in a constructive way and face that monster down and i think it's the same with ocd when we choose to focus on our values on our goals when we choose to focus on allowing the

discomfort to be there actually to explore that discomfort and that anxiety and what it feels like what we're doing now is actually you know we are going to the OCD we are learning how to to kind of manage it and deal with it but we're doing it in this kind of indirect way we're using the shield you know to to help us to actually look at that monster in a constructive way rather than just trying to problem solve it all the time or trying to make ourselves feel better in the short term.

Now we're actually going about it in the right kind of way. We're approaching it. We're trying to allow that discomfort to be there.

So often with OCD, one of the biggest problems that we experience is we're not allowing those difficult emotions to be there we're trying to fight with them all the time and obviously that turns us to stone so what do we need to do instead well we need to look into the shield or into the mirror and actually try to focus on you know the indirect path allowing the difficult emotions getting on with your values and goals despite the fact that maybe you're feeling uncomfortable even meditating on

those difficult emotions in the body trying to to learn an approach that allows you to feel those difficult emotions rather than fighting with them all the time and so if you find yourself you know really getting caught up in OCD this week and you're really struggling with it try to come back to that metaphor if you can and remind yourself that the indirect path to dealing with OCD is so much better than than going about trying to just get rid of it trying to fix yourself perhaps

actually you're you're not broken after all perhaps you've picked up some habits over the years or over the months that are not serving you anymore and really you need to learn how to let go of those habits and you know maybe the way in which you're going to do that is really by taking this more indirect approach to managing OCD and anxiety.

Over the years of dealing with my own struggles with OCD, this has really been, you know, the kind of approach that I've taken that's really been the most impactful approach. Not demanding that the OCD is gone, not being so focused on, you know, trying to feel right all the time. This is something that I really struggled with. I wasn't feeling on an emotional level the way that I wanted to feel a lot of the time. And I was very frustrated and angry about that.

And I was almost forcefully trying to change that. But of course, that would just backfire and make things worse. When I really opened up to this more indirect approach, you know, when I started to say, well, you know, maybe I can feel this way today. I don't have to feel a certain way. I'm allowed to not feel my best. I'm allowed to feel a bit anxious.

You know, just giving yourself that permission and actually then focusing your attention elsewhere onto more important things, things that you care about, things that you value. You know, that's really, I think, one of the big, big things that made a huge difference to me.

It allowed me to find the emotional freedom to finally be be be able to let go of all of that searching all of that demanding to feel that that right kind of way all the time so actually you know just focus and just be in the present a bit more and in in the process well the ocd became a lot easier to manage so many thanks guys if you have any questions at all about anything i spoke about today please don't hesitate to get in touch And remember, I do 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. And I will see you next time. 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. Music.