YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

So, let's talk about our varying forms OCD. I learn through it. I will take about two or three weeks obsessing over a single subject. This time, it's chickens! Especially genetics. I do genetics a lot. Dogs, rats, chickens, fish, cats... Sometimes it's just about certain book series. I have to read series because I can't stand the idea of reading just one book and it's over most of the time. Xanth by Piers Anthony, Ender by Orson Scott Card, Harry Potter by JK Rowling, Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle... It goes on, obnoxiously.

I also have those lovely sexual or violent (or both) unwanted thoughts.

OH! And that lovely obsession about what people say or do or think and how I'm a piece of crap for X reason or how things could have been this way or that way if I hadn't done that thing.

I have found that speaking back to the repeated unwanted thoughts works.

(Me talking back to repeated unwanted thought) "I heard you the first time. You are repeating yourself, hence, no new information. No new information means I have no obligation to decide or take an action. If I am not making a decision or taking an action, I have no obligation to spend any attention on you."

Firmly and calmly. Like a mantra.

Also taking time out in a safe space to indulge the logical consequences of the unwanted thought. Lately, I have been really vividly imagining what failure in life would mean for me. Calmly working through all the consequences and decisions and actions. When you really explore an idea, it loses some of its power to hold you captive in terror.

Also, writing out your thoughts, even if you end up burning or shredding the journal notes, can be really helpful.