Mental ERP in Pure-O OCD Patients
8 Strategies for Decreasing Anxiety Caused by Thoughts
Apr 27, 2009
When someone is afraid of their thoughts (a situation known as pure obsessions, or Pure-O OCD), they need to decrease the anxiety or fear that their thoughts cause. This can be accomplished with prayer and exposure-response prevention, in which the OCD patient exposes themselves to the thoughts while delaying any compulsions that he or she may employ to reduce the anxiety.
The following are mental exercises designed to do just that. They involve repeated, amplified exposure to whatever thoughts the pure obsessive patient is afraid of or anxious over.
For these exercises to work, the patient must do their best to delay or withhold the compulsions the thoughts cause.
Exercises for Compulsive Thoughts
It's important to note that repeating, amplifying or focusing on the obsessive thoughts does not mean agreeing with them, enjoying them or acting on them. Rather, the purpose here is to alleviate the anxiety they case through prolonged exposure and delayed—or withheld—responses.
- The Intrusive Neighbor - Imagine that a neighbor comes and rings the doorbell. When you open, he starts yelling the thoughts of which you are afraid. Do not try to stop him, either in the image or with another thought. You can shut the door once the anxiety caused by the thought (or thoughts) has decreased.
- OCD Radio - Turn on your mental radio to hear the thoughts you fear playing through the speakers. Listen to each thought until your anxiety over it decreases to an acceptable level, then change the “frequency” to another troubling thought.
- The Echoing Room - In this situation, you shout out a feared thought and hear it echo dozens of times. The sound can stop echoing once you are made significantly less anxious by the obsession
- Repeat and Jump - This strategy requires little imagination, but lots of courage. When an anxiety-producing thought or image enters your head, repeat it five to ten times in your mind. If another intrusive thought comes into your head, jump over to that one and repeat it.
- A Ticking Clock - This exercise requires a physical clock. Find (or buy) a clock that ticks after each second. Sit near it and allow your obsessive thoughts to sound in tune with the clock. For example, four seconds of this strategy may sound like: I — want — to — stab. Keep on listening to the “tick” until your mind has habituated to the anxiety caused by it.
- Thoughts to Music- Listen to music with a particularly loud or steady beat. Do the same thing that you did with the “ticking clock” exercise: think a fear-causing thought in tune with the music, then stop once your anxiety over that thought has largely decreased.
- The Movie Theater - This strategy works best with anxiety-producing images. Imagine yourself sitting down at a movie theater, only to find that your feared mental images are playing! Keep watching over and over again until your anxiety over the image has largely decreased.
- The Movie Player - This is much like the “movie theater” exercise, except you now have a mental remote control with which to play the feared images. Pause, rewind and watch in slow motion until your anxiety over the violent, sexual or even blasphemous images has lessened.
More Information on OCD
If the subject of obsessive-compulsive disorder interests you, or if you’d like more help in your fight against OCD, try reading some of these additional articles on obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Fighting Back Against Pure-O OCD provides an examination of treatment methods for those afraid of the thoughts and images in their head.
Afraid of Your Own Thoughts? offers a general resource for pure obsessions OCD sufferers, while When OCD Stains Religion provides a general resource on religious OCD.
