For many of us, we suffer from some mental health issues. From anxiety to even depression and bipolar, it’s common. While there are some ways to reduce these symptoms, such as swimming for anxiety and the like, you may wonder if there’s a way to reduce obsessive compulsive symptoms.
There is a way, and we’ll go over here how you can reduce obsessive compulsive symptoms so you can turn your brain off and feel better too.
Why treatment is Good
OCD isn’t just a little bit of obsessiveness, it can be thoughts and feelings that are involuntary, and you can’t really stop them. They become distracting or disturbing, and it becomes hard to overcome these obsessions once they start to take over.
If you’re compulsive about something, you feel you need to do this again and again, and sometimes, you develop rituals that are elaborate to help offset the relief, but it never goes away.
If not treated, this does come back even stronger, and can create further anxiety that takes a lot of time, and a lot of energy. The relief may be temporary with these rituals too, so it’s not overtaking you.
It’s a vicious cycle, but through treatment, you can heal.
Look at the Triggers
Part of healing and recovering from OCD symptoms is to find the triggers that start up the compulsions and obsessions. List these out, and when they happen, work on trying to do something a bit different. You can create mental pictures of the problem not happening.
For example, if you are obsessing over whether the oven is turned off or not, you can mentally create that you see the oven is off.
This can help to reduce the feelings and offset the triggers so you can recover.
Reduce Stress in Your Life
Whether it’s through changing your schedule or doing an activity, try to offset the stress in your life.
Stress is a common trigger for your brain to start going into overload with these thoughts, but by taking a moment to catch your breath, or maybe even just closing your eyes for a moment, it can work to offset the thoughts that are overtaking you.
Write it Down
Do you know what thoughts are obsessive? If you don’t, consider writing them down, so you can record the types of thoughts that come up, what you’re obsessing about, and what the trigger for this is.
Sometimes, writing them down helps you face your fears too, so even if the thoughts are utterly disturbing, it can help you understand why these damaging obsessions are there.
Create a Worry Period
This is a small period of time, about 10 or so minutes, where you “worry.”
This is when you’re allowed to focus on these urges, thoughts and feelings that aren’t good for you. Then, you correct them.
At the end, you want to take a few deep breaths. From that point, once it’s over, go back and do what you’re doing. You will notice it’s a lot easier to go about your day since you’re not as bent on those obsessions.
And whenever a bad thought comes around, write it down so during your worry period, you can focus on them.
Create a Tape of the thoughts
If you have one specific obsession, try to write it down. Recount it, and play it over and over. You’ll start to realize that these thoughts aren’t as bad, and you’re not as distressed.
Get Help!
Finally, if you are still struggling, you can get help for your obsessive compulsive disorder.
Talking to someone is a great way to express your feelings, and to help you overcome the obsessions. Obsessive thoughts aren’t easy, but by getting help and doing something about it, you’ll realize the worries will go away.
