OCD likes to highjack our emotions by using the following thinking errors:
- Narrowing your thinking onto a specific topic of worry that is attached to a catastrophic consequence.
- Analyzing and thinking/rethinking that goes back and forth, trying to argue for and against whether something is an obsession.
- Believing that thinking about something over and over will bring certainty.
- Believing that there is a perfect solution that will bring certainty.
- Making decisions primarily based on feelings (emotional reasoning).
- Making issues that aren’t moral issues into moral issues.
- Believing that you can and should have perfect control over all of your thoughts.
- Treating all thoughts as if they had significance instead of letting them pass through.
- Feeling that you must do something a specific way “or else” something bad will happen.
- Using avoidance as a way of coping with things that are feared.
Remember:
- Worry does not make you safer, although it tries to tell you that you are.
- Moving through and past anxiety actually increases your ability to discern, make decisions, and solve problems.
- OCD is always going to try to bring up yet another “what if?” in your mind.
- OCD is always going to “yell” and call to mind worst-case-scenarios when you try to ignore it or move past it.
Click for printable document.
