You are not your thoughts/You are not your OCD

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I think that I posted this in the OCD stories topic, but I've been thinking about it more:

iocdf.org/blog/2017/11/10/y...

particularly this section:

OCD is like having two brains: a “normal” brain and an OCD brain. Think of OCD as a separate entity; you are not your thoughts. People with OCD have the same thoughts as people with “normal” brains, but our brains get stuck in an uncontrollable loop we can’t stop. It is uncontrollable because no amount of reassurance from someone else or self-rationalizing will help.

I've been starting to think of OCD as a set of impulses and thoughts that are separate from myself. I am the one that gets to evaluate my thoughts (OCD thoughts or not) and decide what to do with them. My OCD mind may bring things to my attention, but these thoughts are not me. Previous to a couple weeks ago this was impossible for me to wrap my mind around, but I think that I'm starting to get it. Just because I think something doesn't reveal a deeper truth about myself. The thought doesn't show what I really want to do, or provide some insight into my character. It is just a thought, and more important than the thought itself is what I choose to do with that thought. If I view the thought as something to consider, then I can choose to pay attention to it or not. If I am completely fused with my thoughts then I think that they reveal some deeper truth about me, but it is just my OCD mind at work, trying to trick me into engaging with its agenda.

It seems like the people that have gotten farther along the path toward recovery and dealing well with ERP have been able to make this distinction between their OCD mind and their normal mind. Any tips to keep some distance between yourself and your OCD?

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I ran across this article today:

ideas.ted.com/self-doubt-ca...

It's sort of long, but if you skip ahead to about three-quarters of a way through the article to the lead sentence of:

How we refer to ourselves in our self-talk can also make a difference.

You can see them saying pretty much the same thing. Try to refer to yourself (or your OCD) in the third person. Give yourself a little objectivity and distance as you evaluate what is going on and how you react. If you can view your OCD separately from yourself, you will process and deal with it differently.

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This is a really fascinating talk on The OCD Stories that goes into this same topic:

theocdstories.com/podcast/d...