Confused about the "Brain Lock" Controversy

I'm a little confused about the book Brain Lock. I know it's sort of "pop psychology," maybe, but it was written for people to try and help themselves, so...

What I'm confused about is that I see a lot of psychologists writing it off, essentially saying it's "garbage" and totally useless. That Jeffrey Schwartz is an uneducated hack who has no clue what he's talking about.

But then, all you have to do is look on the Internet to see so many people who have been helped (even to the point of complete recovery) by that book.

Okay, I understand that the book itself might not be perfect...I'm sure there are flaws and oversimplifications...but there's one thing that is extremely controversial, and that's the "relabeling" bit. Saying, "It's not me, it's OCD." This is claimed to be reassurance. However, if this helps people to resist compulsions, I'm not sure what the problem is?

Let's say right now my problem is washing my hands in a ritualized manner. One day I get really frustrated with this waste of time, remember the phrase, "It's not me, it's OCD" which causes me to get angry at this "thing" ruining my life and then walk away from the sink. I do this more and more until the point where the handwashing is not a problem. I don't think this is an unrealistic story. So, what, saying "it's not me, it's my OCD" is going to remain even though I don't have a compulsion anymore? I don't know about you, but I don't think I'd be bothered by the phrase "it's not me, it's my OCD" remaining in my head for a couple of weeks or something...seems an okay trade-off for not having to ritualistically wash my hands for two hours now.

I know Shannon Shy, president of the IOCDF and all-around awesome guy, basically recovered this way. He doesn't mention Brain Lock, but he got therapy in 1997 I think so the time-frame fits...Brain Lock was a very big deal when it first came out I guess. I saw a review of his book on Amazon saying, "No one can recover this way," I assume by someone who has been taught that disassociating yourself from OCD is a form of reassurance. And it's like...the sheer arrogance...do they think Shannon Shy is lying about what he did to recover? The evidence that some people can recover this way is staring you straight in the face!

So, is it possible that there is just no one "right way" to recover from OCD and slightly different approaches work for different people? I mean, the only common thread in all OCD success stories is resisting compulsions, I think. So my questions to you all would be...

1) Why is reminding yourself that your OCD is giving you these thoughts, feelings, and compulsions a problem if it helps you to ignore the compulsions? Why is it "reassurance?" Is ALL reassurance harmful? I always understood reassurance more as, if you're worried you'll catch a disease, researching incessantly on the Internet for symptoms of that disease, or making forum posts about it. In that example, I feel like a person telling themselves that their urge to Google is being caused by OCD and thereby finding the willpower to ignore it would be better than them actually Googling for reassurance.

2) What do you think of the many anecdotes of people who have found the book (or similar methods) helpful, even to the point of recovery? Why is Brain Lock rated so highly on Amazon with glowing reviews? Are many of these people who don't actually have OCD, or just found the book informative and posted a review immediately after reading it? Okay, I'll admit the Amazon reviews being positive is a weak argument now that I think about it, but the stories of people who actually improved or recovered stand.

Anyway...just wondering.

The book helped me a lot. A clinical psychologist gave it to me.

It wasn't any tactic in the book that helped; what helped was knowing I was not alone (normalizing) and also doing all the exercises to work out what my triggers were and any repeating cycles. Once I started doing the book exercises, and they helped, I found other OCD worksheets that helped even more. I also found some that did not help at all; "fit" is very individual, so I am not saying that what didn't work for me won't work for anyone else.

How on earth can knowing, and affirming, your crazy-ass behavior is OCD, be reassurance?

Who would say that? I came to that kind of thinking on my own, without a book to tell me, and it's done some good, especially with my intrusive harm thoughts. If nothing else, it gives me an adversary to strike out at- I'll take it further and say OCD is a little monster living inside my head, that eats fear. It's my task to starve that little son of a bitch into submission.

Ofc it's the OCD when I do stupid $#%^. I don't go back up the stairs 6 time to check the faucet because I enjoy it. Are we supposed to pretend it ain't OCD?