The Tricks of the OCD Con Artist

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is when a person has chronic obsessions (thoughts, images, fears) and engages in compulsions (mental or behavioural) to reduce the anxiety these obsessions cause.

There are currently different subtypes of OCD. Examples include (1) contamination (2) fear of accidentally harming others (3) symmetry OCD.

One step in managing OCD is being able to label the ways OCD tries to convince you that your thoughts are reality. Here are some common tricks OCD uses to make it feel like your imagined intrusive thoughts are real:

Hearsay - ‘‘I once heard about a girl who ate maggots in her meat and got sick’’

Mismatching evidence - ‘‘my neighbour once left his garage door open, so I better check I’ve shut mine again’’

Using others - ‘‘but Tom is never anxious and even he was worried about the fire’’

Distrusting senses - ‘‘did I really turn off the oven?’’

But maybe this time - ‘‘i’ll get sick after touching the door’’

Butterfly effect - ‘‘if I don’t do this my friend might die in a years time from cancer’’

Out of context facts - ‘‘i’m a very impulsive person…what if i spontaneously hurt someone?’’

Living in the fear - ‘‘i feel anxious, therefore it must be real’’

Double jepoardy - ‘‘I checked the oven was off …but what if when I checked I accidentally turned it back on??’’

Thinking styles from Interference Based CBT for OCD.