10 Self-Help Tips for Taking Control of OCD

OCD can disrupt your day even when everything is going well. Compulsive behaviors and obsessive thoughts—and the anxiety that comes with them—can consume a lot of time and energy. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by obsessions, intrusive thoughts, and compulsions associated with the obsessions. Medication and therapy are the main methods to treat this lifelong condition, but self-care also offers plenty of benefits. Online therapy is a cost effective treatment, and self-help strategies can be used to help manage symptoms in daily life.

1. Get Facts

Understanding that OCD is a type of anxiety disorder is helpful to understanding how to overcome it. It is estimated that approximately 2% of the adult population in the United States suffers from OCD at some point. Usually appearing at around age 19, there are various ways these symptoms can affect individuals.

2. Understand Anxiety

Consider what situations cause anxiety. Anxiety often results from knowing that your fears are unfounded but feeling powerless to stop them. If you write down anxious thoughts, investigate each one and determine whether it is a real worry or not. Identify your triggers by including what has happened previously.

3. Follow Prescriptions

Drugs and alcohol may seem like an excellent way to escape OCD, but they can be triggers in disguise. While alcohol may seem to offset your anxiety, it can create more before leaving your system. Smoking cigarettes which contain nicotine does the same.

4. Exercise Regularly

Aerobic exercise has been found in studies to reduce OCD symptoms. Combined with existing OCD treatment, researchers found that exercise significantly reduced OCD, depression, and anxiety symptoms. Whether individuals were doing home exercises or participating in a health-based program, these effects were shown to be similar.

5. Interpret Situations

It can be helpful to evaluate fear to determine whether it is a realistic fear, a conflating of facts with thoughts, or correct thinking. Mew thought processes can be found when fears are challenged. A recent study found that mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy (MBCT), which changes thinking processes, can be effective for people with OCD.

6. Accept Alterations

Analyzing anxiety before too quickly taking proactive steps to combat it can be beneficial. Healing and recovery often come from understanding how the illness affects life and then subsequently shifting one's mindset.

7. Maintain a Journal

Listing unwanted and intrusive thoughts while describing rituals or compulsions you used to combat them can be therapuetic. Even though objectively examining thoughts by journaling is possible, it can also become self-obsessive which should be discussed with a therapist.

8. Reduce Compulsions

TWork to reduce compulsive bahaviors by repeating them perhaps ten times, then allow only eight times, then six, then four, until the behavior is reduced and eventually eliminated. Working closely with a therapist on personalized self-help strategies can help those struggling with OCD.

9. Delay Rituals

Try to delay performing a ritual for one minute, three minutes, five minutes, or more. If it is imperative to perform a ritual, such as washing your hands immediately after touching someone, keep delaying the ritual until not performing it becomes comfortable.

10. Practice Relaxation

Taking deep breaths, calming the muscles, and meditating can all be relaxing, and the effects can last for hours. OCD is often triggered by stress, but many people experience less stress after practicing relaxation techniques each day.

Setbacks and successes are sometimes part of the process of working toward OCD recovery, but it's equally important to recognize the progress that occurs along the way.