Best advice fighting OCD?
Hi, everyone! I'm Eowyn, I've got a strong work-related perfectionism+checking OCD. I'd like to ask a question to anyone who has or just knows OCD... I really hope there will be lots of people answering, because just a short phrase could change someone else's life sometimes.
What is your best advice for someone fighting OCD?
(Something your therapist said, a friend's eye-opening comment, a book recommendation, a suggestion to practice yoga/meditation/something else, an important question from a Listener or a Member here, etc. ...)
As for me, so far, it was an advice from my therapist: she is a doctor and it's a true medical instruction not to check, so I'm not only allowed but indeed obliged to bear with the guilt of not checking and not knowing, because the guilt of not fighting OCD as the doctor instructed woud be worse and more damaging than the guilt of not checking.
Please answer, and spread the word; tag someone else, too!
Thank you so much 
(tagging @ShneurZ) 
When it comes to OCD, the best advice I’ve ever heard is among the most critical concepts first introduced when starting Exposure and Response Prevention therapy specially designed to treat OCD - gaining control of your thoughts by giving what we believe to be “control” up. (Note: this is not to be taken as psychological and/or medical advice - any requests for practical advice in terms of therapeutic treatment should always and only be directed toward a competent licensed therapist trained in the aforementioned therapy (ERP). I am not a psychologist or therapist and anything I say here should be taken with a grain of salt. I am not advocating any specific courses of action for any single individual either). Your thoughts will always exist - they will come and go, and for whatever reason someone’s OCD may decide, some thoughts feel scarier, more threatening, worrying, and concerning than other ones. All thoughts carry the same weight - they are quite literally figments of our minds, but the content of those thoughts can differ and thus give the thoughts a vastly different feel and lead us to react differently to them in accordance. When we encounter obsessive thoughts, our brains believe that we are in danger. That’s exactly what leads us to continue to focus on them *obsessively*, to try to gain control over our fear by engaging in compulsions or mental debates and reviews until we feel those strategies will finally rid our tortured psyches of those thoughts. Of course, as almost every sufferer of OCD will know all too well, those processes do nothing but make those thoughts seem even scarier and much, much stickier - in other words, by trying to gain control, we lose it in truth. We let those thoughts which we try so hard to get rid of gain more and more power over how we live our lives and feel. It would therefore make sense for OCD therapy to reject this notion - by engaging in practices to help us recognize and label obsessive thoughts for what they are, to disengage from conscious involvement with them, to learn how to cope with their presence in our minds, and by practically allowing those thoughts to do as they please instead of trying desperately to control them and conform them to our will, we come to understand that the only true way to regain control of your mind and emotions is by letting go of the *perceived* control we have other obsessive thoughts. The world of OCD therapy is vast, and its strategies can be life changing for those who choose to embark on that journey. I hope that all of the poor souls suffering from this disorder may be able to find healing and peace very, very soon.
Tagging @RebekahRoyal
@EowynTollers
Hi Eowyn!
First thing I'd like to say is that if OCD ever tells you "You fool! No man can kill me!" just reply with "I am no man." and BOOM, OCD will be defeated just like that.
Lol, on a more serious note...
I think the best thing you can do is divided in steps:
-1 Learn to recognize and label OCD thoughts and obsessions! Try to repeat in your head "this is not me, it's my OCD" (it even rhymes so it's very catchy)
-2 Learn to recognize your comuplsions and which obsession they are connected to
-3 Pledge allegiance to your mental health and officially declare war to your OCD
-4 Start messing with your OCD, like for example. Let's say your comuplsion is to touch the door 5 times, then touch it 3 times just to spite the OCD because you hate it so much for ruining your life that you want it to get mad. Or like, if you have to ask a specific reassurance-type-question to someone like "do you think I did a good job?", try saying something like "only a bad bitch would have been able to do that, right?" and then eventually remove the final "right?", so like slowly reduce compulsions with the goal of spiting your OCD. If at first you can't limit the time you spend doing the compulsion, it's okay, it takes time, but what you can do, is just do it completely wrong! Like let's say you have to look inside both of your shoes as a checking compulsion, then try looking inside one shoe but twice, just to say F U OCD! Or like, let's say you have to take an "Am I gay?" quiz for a sexuality obsession, then you could take it but respond as if you were your favorite fictional character and therefore not giving OCD the satisfaction of making you doubt who you are.
-5 Watch PURE! It's a British tv series about OCD and it could become your fave comfort show! It is highly relatable!
-6 I don't know but I love you all guys, keep fighting! 
Sending love and big hugs,
Alice
