Some may find it useful to mentally note “OCD thought” but I generally do not recommend this. The point is I release myself from acting on the thought in any way past noting its existence. I might respond to this as well by saying “thinking.” Or I could be more specific and acknowledge when the thought applies to a particular OCD concern, as in “murder thought” or “disease thought.” Once acknowledged, I then return to whatever I was doing before I became distracted (as in, going back to a specific activity) or I incorporate feeling distracted into that activity (do what I was doing but with somewhat divided attention). Similarly, when just going about my business in life, I may become distracted by an obsessive thought. If I notice that I’ve wandered off into a train of thought, I may say, “thinking” and gently hop off the train as best I can. So, for example, if I am meditating and I notice how bored I am, I might gently say to myself, “boredom,” and then return to watching my breath. In a basic mindfulness meditation practice, mental noting means labeling the internal activity that is occurring in the moment one becomes distracted from their anchor (usually the breath). It can quickly devolve into a habit of “white-knuckling” through life, which is unsustainable.

Active “ignoring” can trigger an additional sense of being in denial (and thus more anxiety).It can easily become a form of compulsive avoidance, a refusal to acknowledge that the thought occurred in the first place and a refusal to experience feelings as they are.It requires one to be in a state of mindful acceptance from the start, which is a major challenge for most people.It may enable the completion of tasks otherwise disrupted by OCD.It wastes as little attention as possible.It stays out of the content of the thought altogether.It treats the thought like the non-event that it is.It’s the “Keep Calm and Carry On” of navigating OCD. Doing nothing in response to a thought means not even taking a moment to acknowledge that the thought (or feeling or sensation) has occurred and simply plowing through your chosen activity as if unaware of any competition for your attention. How can we do nothing in response to thoughts? Well, first, we have to believe that nothing is happening. In terms of thoughts and the responses we give them, doing nothing means completely ignoring thoughts as meaningless chatter, no different than the ambient noise of traffic from a distance. One of my favorite things to do in general, or at least it would be if I ever did it for very long. Here are some options for responding to thoughts along with their potential pros and cons for OCD mastery: Doing Nothing About Your Obsessive Thoughts Any practice done by rote, or done every single time, especially if done in a sense of urgency, can quickly turn compulsive. There are practices that have a higher success rate (if we are associating the reduction of suffering with success) and practices that only work every once in a while in specific situations. There are practices that I see working better for some people and for others not so much. Ultimately, I don’t believe there is a best practice for responding to thoughts (OCD or otherwise). The significance of their content is attributed to them, not hidden in them, and whether they are “worth” incorporating into some behavior or better left alone is not the sort of thing that fits into a concrete equation. Yet this idea actually flies in the face of the central thesis of OCD mastery, which is that thoughts are thoughts, not threats. If we can fail in our response to thoughts, the implication is that thoughts have an intrinsic power, a quality that must be carefully examined. If we can be certain about the one true or “best” response to thoughts, it means that thoughts themselves have one true nature. One of the questions that often comes up both in my clinical practice and in the online support groups I contribute to is, “How do I respond to my thoughts?” Or more specifically, “What is the right way to respond to my thoughts?” There is a hidden OCD trap here in the search for the exact right way to respond to thoughts.

Examples of intrusive thoughts ocd