The 5-Step OCD Recovery Primer
I’ve been wanting to put something like this together for a long time - basically a “primer” on key topics that everyone should read and understand as they go through their OCD recovery journey. This is not meant to be an exhaustive and fully detailed recovery plan, but more of a rough outline covering the key topics and steps along the way. I’ve created the 5-Step Primer below, with links to other blog posts I’ve written on the various topics, which will help keep things organized and direct you to the most relevant topics. Use this as a resource to help structure your own personal recovery plan and/or to help supplement any formal therapy you are receiving from a licensed mental health professional. As a disclaimer, I am not a certified psychologist or psychiatrist, but I believe this 5-Step Primer will be helpful for anyone going through the OCD recovery journey.
The 5-Step OCD Recovery Primer
Step 1: Know Your Enemy. In order to recover from OCD, you must first understand how it works and why your compulsions are actually sustaining the OCD lifecycle. Once you know how your enemy operates, you in turn will know its weaknesses and how to beat it.
Step 2: Practice Exposure Response Prevention (ERP). ERP is often regarded as the Gold Standard for OCD treatment, and there’s a good reason - because it works. Start practicing ERP and stick with it, even when things get challenging. Your anxiety will very likely skyrocket during the initial stages of ERP, because if you’re doing it right, you’re cutting out the compulsions which used to feed reassurance to the OCD demon inside your brain. Even when it gets tough, continue doing ERP - this is the single most important practice you can do in OCD recovery.
Step 3: Supplement ERP with Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT). People often ask: should I do ERP or ACT? And my answer is always: why not both? ACT is a wonderful complement to ERP and really rounds out the recovery process quite nicely. ERP teaches you how to eliminate compulsions, but in my opinion it doesn’t quite offer all the tools to help manage resulting feelings of anxiety and uncertainty. That’s where ACT comes in - at a high level, it teaches you how to observe and accept uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, and urges without judgment, and without tying your identity and self-worth to those thoughts/feelings. Essentially, through ACT you learn to separate yourself from your obsessions and intrusive thoughts. An OCD recovery plan that only features ERP, or only has ACT, is incomplete in my opinion - the two frameworks complement each other perfectly and you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t implement both of them.
Step 4: Practice Mindfulness. Mindfulness is the ability to ground yourself wholly in the present moment, focusing only on the current events at hand, and not dwelling on the past or ruminating on the future. It is an invaluable skill to have, and like any skill, the more you practice it, the better you get at it. Try implementing at least 10 minutes of mindfulness meditation each day and use it as a tool to bring yourself back to the present moment whenever you find yourself drifting into uncertainties about the past or future, or when you find yourself getting overwhelmed by intrusive thoughts.
Step 5: Adopt a Recovery Focused Mindset. People always ask: How do I know when I’m recovered? The answer is complex and nuanced, because it’s different for everyone, and there isn’t a truly quantitative metric to gauge OCD recovery. For example, everyone (even “normal” people) get intrusive thoughts, so if you try to define Recovery as “never getting intrusive thoughts,” then you’re destined for failure. My personal definition of OCD recovery means having the knowledge, skills, and mindset you need to handle any uncertainty, thought, or feeling that may pop up in every day life. Ultimately, OCD Recovery is an action: we can choose to do compulsions, or we can choose to spend our time and energy focused on value added actions. “Being recovered from OCD” isn’t a state of being… it’s more of a lifestyle or mindset. For example, if you want to be physically healthy, you eat nutritious foods and workout regularly. Similarly, if you want to be mentally healthy, you live mindfully and with acceptance and gratitude, which are all core skills taught by ERP and ACT. Once you understand this and achieve this mindset - that is when you can consider yourself recovered.
Other helpful tips and resources along the way: Be persistent, consistent, and disciplined in how you practice ERP/ACT. Treat your mental health like your physical health - you need to be practicing ERP/ACT regularly to see true progress. And finally, practice gratitude and be thankful for even the small things in life, because having a positive mindset will help facilitate your recovery journey. Check out the other recovery resources I listed here for helpful insights from other people who have lived with, and recovered from, OCD.
OCD recovery IS possible - and you owe it to yourself to free yourself from this mental disorder and take back your life!
I hope this 5-Step Primer helps you in understanding some of the key concepts and teachings which you will need to learn and practice in order to beat OCD. This is only just starting to scratch the surface (particularly for ERP and ACT) but this 5-Step Primer should be a good high level overview of the core concepts and a great supplement to more formal therapy you may be doing with a licensed mental health professional.
As always, I’m happy to answer any questions. Wherever you are reading this, I hope you have a wonderful and blessed day.
Eric