Stop the tug of war with your OCD... Drop the rope

Having OCD can be like having a constant tug of war in your head. Tug of war is a sport that pits two teams against each other in a test of strength: teams pull on opposite ends of a rope, with the goal being to bring the rope a certain distance in one direction against the force of the opposing team's pull.

With OCD there is tug of war like conflict going on between two (and maybe more) different parts of your brain.

• The anxious part of you trying to protect you from threat by getting you to engage in compulsions, rumination and overthinking in its efforts to keep you safe.

• There is another part, which we might call the more logical part, that knows the compulsions don't make sense, are not necessary or helpful.

When a trigger occurs you may then feel pulled in two directions. A back and forth debate between these two parts in your head occurs. This keeps the problem going because by arguing and engaging with it this adds to the sense of threat. Continuing to pull back against the OCD keeps you stuck.

Instead a different approach is required - you need to drop the rope What does it look like to drop the rope? This looks like not arguing back against the thoughts, not reassuring yourself or seeking reassurance, and not paying attention to the threat. It looks like just getting on with your life whether the thoughts are there or not. Letting them hang out in the background and getting on with things. While the thoughts may pop back in again from time to time, and again don't play tug of war with them, just ignore them. Treat them as if they are irrelevant and unimportant. Gradually thoughts fade more and more into the background and the anxious part stops reacting to them as a big threat.