If you struggle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), you may feel like you are living in a vicious cycle of thoughts, feelings, and rituals. One helpful way to try to stop the cycle is to break OCD habits by changing or delaying your rituals. Unfortunately, breaking OCD habits on your own can be extremely hard. Therefore, an OCD therapist can help assist you in this process.
For example, let us say that you have an unpleasant thought that randomly “pops” into your head. This uncomfortable thought could be something like shouting something inappropriately in public. If you fasten unhelpful meanings to a thought (e.g., in our specific example, you could be thinking “I am someone who is not socially graceful”), that will only lead to more anxiety. When you get anxious, you may begin to look for any methods to tame your spiraling thoughts.
When you have OCD, the ways in which you attempt to lessen your anxiety may vary. For instance, you may obsessively check in with your friends and family to ensure that you do not lose your social connections and that, in fact, you are socially graceful. You may feel the need to check in on your loved ones a set number of times throughout each day or at specific times. Thus, it is the continuous cycle of OCD.
While these strategies can help in the short-term to lessen anxiety, you will only need to do them more and more often because your “bad” thoughts appear more frequently when you try to push them away. This can easily lead to you feeling trapped because you do not know what to do if you do not use some sort of coping skills or strategies. Your life can begin to feel controlled by your “bad” thoughts and your constant need to control them.
Anchor Therapy is a counseling center in Hoboken, NJ with mental health therapists specialized in helping children, teens, adults, and couples with anxiety, depression, relationship issues, trauma, life transitions, and more. Anchor Therapy is accepting new clients and is now providing in-person sessions and teletherapy sessions to residents of New Jersey, New York, Florida, North Carolina, and Utah.
What is OCD?
Simply put, OCD is a mental health disorder that is characterized by unreasonable thoughts and fears, also known as obsessions, that lead to repetitive behaviors, also known as compulsions. When people think of OCD, there may be some very common images that come to mind, such as obsessively washing one’s hands or organizing materials in your pantry so they all have the same labels and face the same way.
While these can be accurate portrayals of OCD, the disorder can also manifest in different ways.
What are some lesser-known ways that OCD can manifest in my life?
One of the lesser-known symptom groups of OCD include ritualized touching, tapping, and movement. If you have OCD, you may perform these rituals to help alleviate the anxiety and stress you are facing due to your OCD obsessive thoughts.
For some people, OCD rituals are primarily driven by obsessive thoughts. For others, your OCD rituals may be triggered by specific urges which some people refer to as a tension or pressure throughout the body. In any case, OCD rituals are a behavior or activity driven by a compulsive urge.
Some common OCD rituals connected to touching and movement include:
Repeating behaviors like sitting down, getting up, blinking, and swallowing a set number of times or until you feel right
Touching or moving objects in a specific way or number of times in alliance with special numbers or until the situation feels just right
Looking, turning, stepping, or walking in a particular way
Executing certain activities, like opening and closing cabinet doors, getting dressed for the day in a specific way, or repeatedly turning your stove on and off
How can I be driven by my obsessive thoughts?
Your “bad” or “negative” thoughts may cause you to feel distressed. In an effort to alleviate your distress, you perform touching and movement rituals. OCD obsessive thoughts are often referred to as “magical thinking.” This is because your OCD method of magical thinking truly makes you believe that one event happens as a result of another event even if there is no rational or logical link between the two circumstances.
A common saying that you may have voiced when you were a little kid, “Do not step on a crack or you will break your mother’s back” can be interpreted as an OCD obsessive thought. You may even know that your thoughts are illogical because, when describing them to someone else, you may preface your thoughts by saying something like, “I know this may sound bizarre, stupid, crazy, but…” You may feel like you are thinking irrationally; however, doubt and anxiety compound until you give in and perform the behavior in an effort to feel even the slightest sense of relief. You continue to engage in or repeat the rituals until you feel like it has been done “perfectly” or done the set number of times you initially set on.
Can rituals be seen in everyday life?
Absolutely! Many people tend to mask OCD rituals as superstitions.
Some examples of OCD rituals being labeled as superstitions include:
Not staying on a certain floor or room that contains an unlucky number
Knocking on wood to prevent bad luck
Avoiding certain colors because you feel like they have emotional meaning
Not splitting poles, doorways, etc. with loved ones because of a belief that doing so results in your separation
However, that is not to say if you believe in a certain superstition, like breaking a mirror causes 7 years of bad luck, that you have OCD. For someone with OCD, the rituals can be countless and may only provide short-term relief from ruminating, stressful thoughts.
For example, if someone without OCD thought splitting a pole with their significant other would result in their separation, they would not split the pole, but they would not constantly think about this topic for the rest of their day. On the other hand, someone with OCD will refuse to split the pole and then think about it all day long. For instance, they may think that, while not splitting the pole saved their relationship, it may have put other loved ones at risk. Now, next time they will have to be forced with the choice to split the pole with their partner to keep another family member safe and healthy.
I am struggling… Can engaging in my rituals lead to any relief?
The relief that you may feel from engaging in rituals is short-lived, and it may eventually start to interfere with your daily life. In serious cases, your OCD can take up a majority of your time throughout the day. This can lead to you compromising school work, your duties at work, social life, and more.
Some people who struggle with touching and movement compulsions can create ritualized behaviors, like touching random objects as you walk into your office at work or picking things up and setting them down while you are cooking dinner. These rituals can lend themselves to seemingly mundane activities, such as shaving, showering, cooking a meal, getting dressed, and performing other tasks.
Contrastingly, it may also be the case for you that you cannot identify an exact trigger for your OCD behaviors. You may just experience a general feeling of uneasiness or distress if you did not engage with your compulsions.
In the past, there may have been an obsessive thought pattern that motivated you. If you struggle with OCD obsessive thoughts and want to stop them by working with a CBT therapist for OCD, read our recent blog “How to Manage OCD Intrusive Thoughts with CBT.” However, now you may find that you do not need OCD obsessive thoughts to motivate you any longer as you have fallen into a habit. This new pattern of behavior is so ingrained in your daily routine it can be hard to remember why it started. If you are interested in stopping your habits, read our blog “Change a Habit in Just 21 Days!”.
“I feel driven by a powerful urge to engage in my OCD habits.”
As previously mentioned, it is not uncommon if you feel no one, particular reason for wanting to engage in OCD habits and compulsions. There truly may not be one specific trigger to point to or, in other cases, you may not be able to identify them because you are so deeply ingrained in your own world. It can be hard to step outside yourself and analyze your behavior. This is why going to OCD therapy can be helpful as it shows you how to track your thoughts and the meaning you give them which, in turn, leads to you engaging in OCD behaviors.
If you have OCD and move, touch, or tap compulsively, you may be engaging in the behavior for the sole purpose of alleviating a constant urge you feel. You may not experience a feared consequence if you do not engage in the behavior. Instead, you experience an internal sense of urgency to complete the ritual. However, that does not mean simply resisting the behavior is easy.
To think similarly, trying not to engage in an OCD ritual has been compared to trying not to scratch your skin when you are suffering from poison ivy. This type of compulsion can almost be described as a tic. In fact, in some cases, your OCD therapist may declare that your rituals are more like tics rather than touching or movement compulsions. There can be an overlap in symptoms.
How can an OCD therapist at Anchor Therapy help alter my rituals and improve my quality of life?
At Anchor Therapy, our therapists are trained to help you cope with your OCD and feel like your best self again. Our counselors for OCD are trained to combine therapeutic modalities to best suit your needs. From Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for OCD to exposure therapy for OCD, our therapists will be there to guide you each step of the way.
What does OCD counseling at Anchor Therapy look like?
While each OCD counselor is unique and has a certain style of therapy, there are some common things that OCD therapists will do in their sessions with you.
Here are some steps that you may experience during OCD counseling:
Alter your ritual
Your OCD may demand you to engage in a ritual, but you do not have to do exactly what your OCD is instructing you to do. Instead of your OCD, you dictate your actions. This can send a powerful message to your OCD.
For example, let us say that on your morning commute to work, you touched several door knobs and elevator buttons. Now, your OCD is demanding that you wash your hands with 4 pumps of soap and 4 paper towels. Instead, you can wash your hands, but you may do so with only 3 pumps of soap and 3 paper towels.
2. Shorten your OCD ritual
This is similar to the first step of altering your ritual. But, instead of changing the ritual itself, you are simply shortening it. For example, your OCD may demand that you spend 15 minutes every night cleaning your bedroom. Instead of taking the bold and difficult step to completely eliminate this habit from your life, try to lessen it. You may decide to bump it down to only 5 nights a week or every other day. The key is to find something that works for you.
3. Delay the ritual
When OCD demands a ritual, it typically wants the ritual to be completed right then and there. When you delay the ritual you are basically letting your OCD know that you are not on its timeline- you are the boss.
Rather than immediately jumping into the action, try to take a few seconds or even a few minutes to pause and think. Over time, this length in time will increase to the point where you can wait hours, days, and eventually stop giving into your OCD habits after all.
4. Slow down the ritual
You may have so many OCD rituals that it feels like a task to get them all completed in a timely manner. The pressure to rush through your OCD rituals will eventually backfire. This will cause you to go back and perform the ritual all over again. Some common thoughts you may think include: “Did I really wash all of the soap off?” and “I checked the front door’s lock, but I’m not sure if the back door is really locked.”
When these types of situations arise, slowing down is a superpower. It prevents the need to go back and re-perform rituals that will only worsen your OCD in the long-run. For instance, instead of running through the house to make sure all of the windows are shut, you can calmly walk through the house and check. Mindfully notice each window and take inventory of the locks. By doing so, there will be no need to re-return to the situation.
When you struggle with OCD, it can be tempting to want to perform any OCD obsession or ritual just to get rid of your discomfort. However, engaging in your habits does not support your mental health in the long-run. When you work with an OCD therapist, you will be able to successfully identify your triggers and learn how to alter your OCD rituals so you can start living your best life again.
Victoria Scala
is the Social Media Manager and Intake Coordinator at Anchor Therapy in Hoboken, New Jersey. She is a graduate of the Honors College of Rutgers University-Newark and is currently studying Clinical Mental Health Counseling at the graduate level. As a Social Media Manager at Anchor Therapy, Victoria is committed to producing content for and managing the office’s social media presence and blog.
IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR HELP FROM A PROFESSIONAL COUNSELOR TO ASSIST YOU IN MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES IN YOUR LIFE, CONTACT US
WORKING WITH US IS EASY
Fill out the contact form below.
Our intake coordinator will get back to you with more information on how we can help and to schedule an appointment. We will set you up with an experienced licensed therapist who specializes in what you're seeking help with and who understands your needs.
You’ll rest easy tonight knowing you made the first step to improve your life.
