Challenge Unhelpful Thoughts (Part I)

Goal

To understand common OCD thoughts and gain awareness into your OCD.

Common OCD Thoughts (Derisley et al., pp. 132-134)

OCD convinces you that you have to do certain compulsions or avoid certain situations in order to prevent upsettingthoughts from coming true. In order to stop these distressing thoughts from coming back, sometimes it’s enough to just recognize that the thoughts are OCD thoughts. You can also ignore them and carry on with whatever you’re doing. Here are some common OCD thoughts:

Thinking you are responsible when you are not. Do you feel too responsible for preventing bad things from happening to yourself or to others? If so, your OCD has tricked you into believing that you are responsible for preventing bad things from happening.

Magical thinking. Do you have magical or extremely superstitious thoughts? Do you believe that your thoughts are so important that having a bad or horrible thought will definitely lead to a bad event occurring? If so, your OCD has tricked you into believing that your thoughts have a magical ability to control things that happen to yourself and others.

Over-importance of thoughts. Do you believe that all of your intrusive thoughts are extremely important and that you need to respond to them? Do you also believe that having such thoughts means that you are a bad, crazy, or dangerous person? If so, your OCD has tricked you into believing that your intrusive thoughts are all-important.

Liking to be certain. Do you need to feel 100% certain about everything? Do you need to know for certain that bad things will not happen? If so, your OCD has tricked you into thinking that you can control everything and that reassurance will prevent something upsetting from happening.

Liking to be perfect. Do you spend a longtime trying to get things absolutely right? Do you need to feel that things are “just right”, and if they aren’t then it feels intolerable? Do you try to control events in your life by doing things 100% perfectly? If you do not feel like you have done things perfectly, do you then feel like a failure? If so, your OCD has tricked you into believing that you need to do things perfectly to feel in control.

Awareness Exercise (Derisley et al., p. 135)

Instructions: Complete the following sentences to understand how OCD tricks you:

• My OCD is triggered when...
• My OCD makes me worry that...
• My OCD tricks me into thinking that...