Mental compulsions

Is it true that the fact that you've been ruminating, checking your feelings/thoughts, or analyzing for so long, your brain automatically won't let you stop the compulsions? Like you've trained your brain to do the compulsions, your brain automatically makes you start doing compulsions even when you're trying your best not to do them?

I think I've read that overcoming OCD is about retraining your brain- I think I've seen something about pathways in the brain and that it gets stuck in these loops, and you have to derail the loop. If you can manage it, you can rewire it. For me and my harm OCD intrusive thoughts, it just took a lot of practice of making myself not act on the compulsions. I had to cop the attitude that I didn't care about the thoughts and I wasn't going to do anything to prevent me from acting out the thoughts and I had to make myself not worry about the thoughts.

It's really hard.

It's simple, it's not complicated, it's not magic, it's not rocket science- but it's hard. At first. it got easier. It just takes a lot of willpower. You have to be more stubborn than your OCD. And OCD is really, really stubborn. I'm convinced more and more, kicking OCD's butt is a lesson in obstinance. It's irrational, you can't reason with it directly- you reason with yourself, then you make yourself more mule-headed than the OCD.

Notice I almost always talk about OCD as if it were a separate entity. That's something that works for me. It's a little demon that lives in my head and eats fear. The more fear it gets, the stronger it gets. The less fear it gets, the weaker it gets. I can't kick it out- it has permanent squatter rights. But I can try and keep it half-starved. The more I can starve it, the less it can do with me.

Snaga wrote:I think I've read that overcoming OCD is about retraining your brain- I think I've seen something about pathways in the brain and that it gets stuck in these loops, and you have to derail the loop. If you can manage it, you can rewire it. For me and my harm OCD intrusive thoughts, it just took a lot of practice of making myself not act on the compulsions. I had to cop the attitude that I didn't care about the thoughts and I wasn't going to do anything to prevent me from acting out the thoughts and I had to make myself not worry about the thoughts.

It's really hard.

It's simple, it's not complicated, it's not magic, it's not rocket science- but it's hard. At first. it got easier. It just takes a lot of willpower. You have to be more stubborn than your OCD. And OCD is really, really stubborn. I'm convinced more and more, kicking OCD's butt is a lesson in obstinance. It's irrational, you can't reason with it directly- you reason with yourself, then you make yourself more mule-headed than the OCD.

Notice I almost always talk about OCD as if it were a separate entity. That's something that works for me. It's a little demon that lives in my head and eats fear. The more fear it gets, the stronger it gets. The less fear it gets, the weaker it gets. I can't kick it out- it has permanent squatter rights. But I can try and keep it half-starved. The more I can starve it, the less it can do with me.

Thank you, Snaga.