Detaching From Intrusive Thoughts
Everything you need to know about using Mindfulness to manage OCD.
Article by Max Maisel, PhD
Clinical Psychologist Practicing in Redondo Beach and Los Angeles, California
If you have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), you are no stranger to the horror, anxiety, and discomfort that intrusive thoughts can cause. Technically, an intrusive thought can be a thought, image, feeling, urge, or sensation that deeply disturbs people. It often leads to intense feelings of discomfort, such as anxiety, disgust, uncertainty, guilt, or shame. You may feel a strong urge or pull to “do something” about the thought to try to gain certainty, control, or protect yourself. While these compulsions may provide short-term relief (although this isn’t always the case), your OCD intrusive thoughts always come back, perhaps packing even more of a punch the next time. Our clients often describe the moment their intrusive thoughts hit them as a “whoosh” of fear, like an emotional punch right to their gut that can and usually does ruin their entire day or possibly even week.
OCD is especially adept at targeting the things you care about the most. Suppose you are like many clients seeking help from our practice. In that case, you may be struggling with intrusive thoughts about your identity, health, sexuality, value system, character, or personality. Intrusive thoughts also love to get people to worry about or question their past and fear a potentially catastrophic future unless the concern is solved.
Typical (but certainly not exhaustive) examples of intrusive thoughts we work with at Beachfront Anxiety Specialists include:
Intentionally or unintentionally harming loved ones or vulnerable people (e.g., children)
Making a horrible mistake and needing to check to prevent this (e.g., doors locked, oven off, keys in the pocket, etc.)
Getting contaminated by germs, toxic substances, or unwanted emotional/psychological states
Something in the past ruining the future
Never being able to gain certainty about the nature of one's relationships or identity (e.g., sexual orientation, value system, etc)
Having an underlying health condition that goes missed
Having bodily discomfort (e.g., unbalanced, “not right” feelings, urges) that never goes away and ruins their experience in life
Making the wrong choice and having to live with the fallout of this forever
Never being able to get an intrusive thought or sensation out of their awareness
Being a “bad person”
One of the reasons why OCD is as pernicious as it is is because our natural, instinctual responses to intrusive thoughts make things worse! It’s such a vicious paradox, but when we do what feels “right,” which is to try to figure the thoughts out, analyze them, problem solve, seek reassurance, research, or engage with them in any way, our mind will only generate more intrusive thoughts down the road! It’s like a vicious rip current pulling you straight to sea. Fighting and resisting will do nothing to get you back to shore safely, and you will only feel exhausted and less equipped to get back to the beach once the current ends.
Fortunately, mindfulness-based practices can provide a radically different way to relate to intrusive thoughts and the discomfort that OCD and intrusive thoughts cause. Jon Kabat-Zinn, one of the leading pioneers of mindfulness for psychological concerns, defines mindfulness as “the act of paying attention to the present moment, on purpose, in a non-judgmental and curious way.” OCD demands us to “Do” things, whereas mindfulness is about letting go of the need to solve any problems and simply observing our experience as it is, not as we want it to be or expect it to be. Countless studies are showing the benefits of mindfulness for many different concerns, such as:
Anxiety reduction (including panic, OCD, worry, rumination),
Stress management, depression reduction,
Improving markers of physical health (e.g., blood pressure, chronic illness, physical pain),
Managing addiction or compulsive behaviors,
Increased self-compassion,
Increased productivity and focus,
Less anger, more emotional control,
Increased self-awareness,
Increased relationship satisfaction,
Increased quality of life,
Increased resilience, and more!
Mindfulness for OCD and intrusive thoughts can be incredibly effective, as it provides a roadmap for action steps you can take to cut off the oxygen supply to your OCD. Have you ever been to a shark tunnel at an aquarium? It’s a tunnel-shaped room with glass ceilings and walls, giving you a 360 view of all the sharks and fish swimming around you. Cool stuff! When you are overly attached to an intrusive thought, you have been transported from behind the safety of tempered glass at the aquarium and INTO the shark-infested water. You feel as though you are in imminent danger, and you have an overwhelming urge to GET TO SHORE! That might entail swimming as fast as possible to get out of the water. But what happens when you panic and splash around in shark-infested water? That's right, more sharks will come! Now, the good news is that intrusive thoughts and the subsequent anxiety they cause can’t ever really hurt you, but the discomfort is less than ideal, and you may find yourself spending far too much time trying to swim back to shore rather than enjoying your life as it is!
Mindfulness skills can help you recognize moments when you feel like you are running away from sharks and transport yourself back to the aquarium room. The sharks still exist, but you realize they can’t harm you. As you step back and watch, you might notice that different sharks have different qualities. You may notice that some sharks are undoubtedly terrifying, with jagged, sharp teeth hanging outside their mouths and a menacing look on their face. You might also notice that other sharks are kind of adorable. And yet others might look goofy, boring, beautiful, funny, ugly, colorful, bland, etc. You will notice that all the sharks have one thing in common: as they swim, they all pass by eventually. The sharks come and go on their own, and when you are ready, you can choose to turn away from observing the shark tank and focus your attention on the loved ones who came to the aquarium with you. The sharks aren't gone, but they no longer take up your attention or mental bandwidth.
Being able to take a step back and watch your inner experience from a safe and grounded place is how mindfulness helps with OCD and intrusive thoughts. When you can observe your OCD intrusive thoughts and anxious feelings like you would observe those sharks, you’ll begin to realize that they can’t harm you and that they are temporary. Mindfulness trains your brain to allow your thoughts and feelings to come and go while choosing to focus your attention on the things in your life that give you meaning and purpose.
There are so many incredible resources to learn how to use mindfulness to transform your relationship with OCD and intrusive thoughts. Still, the best place to start would probably be The Mindfulness Workbook for OCD..it’s a gem!
Fortunately, there are some simple and practical steps you can take RIGHT NOW to begin learning mindfulness tools to help you manage your intrusive thoughts more effectively.
Mindfulness of Breath
Mindfulness of breath is one of the most essential and simple steps to fostering greater mindfulness skills. However, don’t let the simplicity fool you; the practice can be more challenging than it seems (isn’t that the case for anything worthwhile?). Here’s how to do it:
Find a relatively quiet spot to sit or lie down.
Find the spot in your body where you feel your breath the most strongly. It can be your belly or chest rising and falling, the movement of your shoulders, or the air going in and out of your nostrils.
Gently hold your attention on that spot, seeing if you can ride the wave of your breath from one moment to the next.
Silently count your breaths up to ten, and then start over. For instance, breathe in (count one), breathe out (count two), breathe in (count three), etc. When you get to ten, start over. Or, if you lost track of your count, start over. Counting is a tool meant to help you maintain awareness. You don’t need to go anywhere or achieve any particular outcome.
You WILL get distracted, probably within the first five breaths. Becoming distracted is not a problem; this is a moment to acknowledge OCD hijacked your attention and to gently re-focus on the breath.
Start small at first! Even a 2-minute practice can be potent. Try to work your way up to a 15- to 20-minute daily practice. You’ll start noticing the benefits within a few weeks of beginning.
Detaching Exercises
Detaching is a way to practice stepping back, disengaging from thoughts, and allowing them to be without fighting or resisting. You can practice detaching exercises anytime your OCD pops an intrusive thought into your mind. Instead of doing what your OCD wants you to do (e.g., ruminate, analyze, fight, resist, suppress, distract), you can use a detaching response instead! There are so many ways to detach, and below are my favorites.
“Thanks for that thought, brain. Noted…”
“I notice I just had the thought that [insert intrusive thought here].”
Repeat the intrusive thought in a voice that is silly or weird (e.g., imagining it in Yoda or Daffy Duck’s voice)
Sing the intrusive thought in your favorite tune (e.g., Happy Birthday to You is a classic)
Imagine putting the thought on a balloon and see if you can allow it to float in and out of your awareness without needing to do anything about it. You can use other imagery too (e.g., conveyor belt; leaves floating on a stream)
STOP Skill
The STOP skill is a nifty little acronym to walk yourself through the essential mindfulness for OCD steps. STOP comes from a powerful form of therapy called DBT (Dialectal Behavior Therapy), which is a heavily mindfulness-infused, skills-based treatment to help people deal with overwhelming emotions.
S: Stop and recognize that right now is a moment to break out of your habitual response pattern and notice that you have some choices in what you will do next. You no longer need to be bossed around by what your OCD has been demanding of you.
T: Take a mindful breath or two. Connect with your breath and feel the sensation of your breath for the entire in-breath and out-breath.
O: Observe. Take a psychological step back and notice, without judgment or critique, what thoughts, feelings, and urges you are experiencing. Notice that you are NOT the thoughts or feelings themselves; you are the one watching them. Take the perspective of a curious aquarium goer, watching all the interesting sharks safely behind glass. See your internal experience come and go without any attempt to control it.
P: Proceed mindfully. Allow your inner experience to be as it gently shifts your attention to the here and now; notice what you see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. Choose to re-engage in what feels meaningful or essential to you while letting go of the fight or resistance to your inner experience.
Word of caution for using mindfulness with OCD: As we discussed, mindfulness can be such a helpful tool in managing OCD by changing your relationship with intrusive thoughts. However, the biggest mistake I see people make with mindfulness is that they use it while continuing to engage in OCD compulsions or avoidance behaviors! Mindfulness is intended to help you notice scary or uncomfortable intrusive thoughts and to feel empowered not to have to respond in the way OCD wants you to. Suppose you respond to intrusive thoughts by mindfully overanalyzing and mindfully avoiding an anxiety-provoking situation. In that case, by mindfully washing your hands and mindfully checking the oven, you are continuing to fuel your OCD cycle. The goal of all OCD treatment is to learn how to stop OCD compulsions, not just be mindful of them!
Learn more about Mindfulness and how specialized treatment at Beachfront Anxiety Specialists and help you. You can also read more blogs with other helpful information Here.