Break OCD’s Rules

Goal

To weaken and break your OCD rules.

Learning to Break OCD’s rules (Derisley et al., pp. 98-99)

Sometimes it may seem too difficult to just stop your compulsions, even in a gradual way. Although this is your goal, you may need to practice the following strategies to weaken and break your OCD rules:

Delay the ritual. How long can you make OCD wait before you do the ritual? For example, if you feel that you need to check a switch right now, can you delay doing this for, say, two minutes? Once you can do this, gradually increase the time delay.

Shorten the ritual. Try to limit the amount of time it takes you to do your ritual. For example, if you need to wash your hands for five minutes, cut the time down by one minute increments.

Do your ritual differently. If you have to do your ritual in a certain way, try doing it in a different way. For example, if you have to do your ritual a certain number of times, change the number a bit. If you have to do the ritual until “it feels right”, stop when it still feels a bit wrong.

Do your ritual in a different place. If you find it hard to stop your ritual at home, try stopping it in another place first-such as at school, at work, at a friend’s house, at a store, etc.

Evaluating Progress Exercise (Derisley et al., pp. 106; 110)

Instructions: As you continue to complete the exercise from lesson 3 and implement the above strategies, it’s important to reflect on the progress you’re making. Reflecting on these questions will help you to see how far you have come and to problem solve any difficulties that arise:

• What compulsion did I target during the “Monitoring Anxiety Exercise”?
• What went well?
• Did my anxiety decrease over time?
• Did I do anything to reduce my anxiety during the task, such as another ritual, avoiding something, distracting myself? [Resist introducing any other rituals or avoidance behaviors as this will just keep your problems going.]
• What did not go as well as I had hoped? How could I do things differently next time?
• What did I learn about my OCD by doing the exercise?
• Have I rewarded myself for my successes?
• What do I need to do next to help me recover from my OCD?