How To Stop Hammering Ourselves With The OCD-OCD Of OCD?
We all have a machine-gun mind that, when it feels anxious or restless, does not stop shooting thoughts at us of the entire possible spectrum: sometimes beautiful or hopeful, and many others dense, invasive, intrusive, involuntary, intensive, recurring, uncontrolled, even degrading and insulting.
The extravagance or plausibility of the ideational content does not matter so much, nor the objectivity of its falsity, or the recognition of its equivocation; the greatest torture is in his incessant insistence. It is a persevering “tyranny of the absurd.”
Although there is often the lucidity or clarity of recognizing that, beyond their clothing of truthfulness, these obsessive thoughts are not true, their apparently invincible force manages to plunge us into an ocean of inevitable despair and anguish.
In this article we will see specific techniques and strategies that help dismantle the vehemence of these painful convictions.
We have all been victims of tortuous obsessive thoughts at some point (and then victimizers when we believe them). Before delving into the invaluable ways of appeasing them, let us ask ourselves how they appear.
Very synthetically, we experience a circumstance, give it meaning and shape an explanatory thought (conscious or unconscious). Fueled by anxiety, they begin to grow and take up more and more mental energy to the point where we cannot stop them at will.
What then is it that keeps this unpleasant symptom alive? Simple: the attention and dedication we give them, the seriousness and cognitive rigidity with which we welcome them. We believe that what is not true is true. We believe, in short, that Santa Claus and unicorns exist.
Keys so that the hammering of OCD does not harm us
The tactics to combat the tortuous mental invasion seek to disturb the habitual development of the complaint and encourage us to distance ourselves from it. Authors such as Milton Erikson, Luc Isebaert, Fisch from the Palo school, Giorgio Nardone from brief strategic therapy, Michal White’s narrative therapy, among others have created proposals, even funny ones, to remedy the biting effect of obsessions. Let’s go for them…
1. Name it
Assign a character to the obsession, for example, “Mr. Clown.” Treat it as an external object, not as an internal and own certainty. Observe it as if it were a voice or person independent of us, name it, for example: “here is my mind worrying again.”
2. Annoy the doll
Once we have realized that obsessions are a creation of the mind and unreal and we have externalized, for example, Mr. Clown, we can mold him with plasticine or buy a doll that represents this problem. We can do various things: take it with us or place it in a special place in the house as a way to remember that “we are at war” against it.
We can subject him to various humiliations (putting him in ridiculous clothes) or humiliation (leaving him out in the open, hitting him, insulting him), buying and putting insect repellent on him, putting him in the freezer certain days or times and all the cruelties we can think of to combat this unbearable “external enemy”.
3. Sing the obsession
Instead of thinking about it over and over again and entering the tedious repetitive spiral, we propose put music to some children’s song or even a slightly ridiculous one. For ex. “I’m a failure” would be a good football stadium brava chorus.
4. Not one more, not one less
Nardone suggests we repeat the thought an exact number of times, for example 10, “not one more, not one less.” The purpose is to try to make the decision to repeat ours and not our obsession.
This task is another way to increase control over the symptom, limiting it to a temporal limitation. When obsession attacks, with its faithful escort, the negative emotion, we will check the time. If the clock shows the last five minutes of a half hour (e.g. 3:25 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.; or 3:55 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. we will get into that emotion.
If not, we will have to postpone that rumination until the next last five minutes of that half hour (for example: If 15:10 arises we wait until 15:25; if 15:38 arises we wait until 16:00). If our negative cognition persists after the prescribed five minutes, we must, once again, postpone them to the final five minutes of that half hour. Postponing something is easier than trying not to do it or fighting it. And it is also friendlier to avoid the frustration of not being able to stop the obsessive cataract.
6. The ruminatory chair
When obsessions detonate, we will now impose a spatial limitation. We will sit in an ugly chair exclusively used for this and dedicate 10 minutes of time to the obsession, focusing solely on it. If we prefer to do something else, such as playing music, we get into it. If the obsession returns, we will go sit in the torture “rumination chair” for another 10 minutes.
7. The ruminatory half hour
We will stipulate half an hour of homework, in the morning and afternoon (e.g. at 10:00 and 17:00), as if it were time to take an antibiotic. We will dedicate that half hour to “ruminate” and write down our uncontrollable ideas, until the alarm clock indicates that the time has expired. If we run out of ideas but the half hour has not yet passed, we will continue writing in front of the page until the alarm goes off.
If obsessions invade us throughout the day, we have to postpone them until the scheduled half hour to “ruminate” them. With this technique, in addition to a spatial and temporal limitation, we introduce a positive saturation effect. We can read the writing aloud and then burn it or throw it in a trash can.
8. Screw up
If our obsessions are tinged with the authoritarianism of perfectionism, we will make small daily acts of blunders. Writing an email with a spelling mistake, inviting someone to a coffee without having money, wearing different colored socks, being late for an appointment, etc. In this way we try to learn to de-castastrophize the consequences of slips or errors.
9. Farewell and welcome letter
Like a love breakup, we write a goodbye letter to recurring cognitions. We appreciate the services provided by him and explain to him that we can now do without his annoying company. We can also welcome a new stage of control and decision not to allow ourselves to be manipulated by their annoying messages.
Concluding
There are more effective proposals to combat the disruptive “mosquito buzz” of this invasion of rebellious ideas, which I will expand on in the next edition.
The mental hammer of obsessions is something imaginary to which we give credibility; It is a virtual reality, it is fiction, a macabre fantasy Disney. It seems real, but it is not. He seems strong, but he is a weak ghost. The most important thing: we are not what we think we are. The phrase that summarizes all the strategies presented to silence and silence OCD once and for all is from the title of a book by Steven Hayes: “Get out of your mind and into your life.”
