Agreeing we with the thoughts

[yaracyrrah]

My intrusive thoughts have been acting up lately, and one thing I was told to do by my therapist when these thoughts occur is to agree with them. But it feels like every time I have the thought I have to say to myself "Yup, it's real", and it feels like another compulsion, as opposed to just not responding to it and going on with my day. Anybody else have this problem?

[crochetaway]

I think instead of agreeing with it, I just say that’s a thought. So that way it’s not me agreeing or disagreeing, but instead acknowledging that I had a thought. I treat it like any other thought.

[DeathtoOCD]

It's not really agree with the though per say, it is kind of more that you acknowledge the though realize the you are having it, and handling the fall out from that. Also, there are people that will try to "negate it" like one of mine was "it's okay to do this" which of course reducing the anxiety and defeats the purpose, but people do have those types.

[yaracyrrah in reply to DeathtoOCD]

Thank you! It felt like I was trying to negate it by saying to myself "yes it happened/will happen. Putting into perspective that way is super helpful.

[DeathtoOCD in reply to yaracyrrah]

Yeah OCD is tricky, and it is adaptive, and it will be like sure, you can do that, because I am letting you and eliminate the anxiety, it will tell you that's okay for this situation, but when things are "normal" it has tom go back to the way before. It's hard because you have to stop yourself from eliminating the rituals and sometime you don't even realizes you do it until you talk about it.

[Purl1952]

My therapist had me take three breathes, acknowledge that it is an obsessive thought, and identity it as a biochemical reaction in my brain. Then just carry on and “lather, rinse,repeat” as much as necessary. It is powerful for me and works!