Give up trying to get the ‘old you’ back. This may sound strange but with recovery you are not striving to get the old irrational you back. You are learning a new way of thinking, a rational way of seeing the world so trying to get your old self back isn’t the answer.
Stop the compulsions and reassurance seeking! They give us a very short term relief but often lead us down the rabbit hole. The tiny bit of relief is never worth it and causes more doubts to flood your head after you’ve done them/got the reassurance.
Read the books on Rob’s reading list! These are so important towards recovery, How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable About Anything… Yes Anything and The Myth of Self-Esteem by Albert Ellis were a game-changers for me and I read them multiple times.
Identifying and disputing irrational beliefs is one of the main ways we help to change our perspective on things, which is the main tool needed for recovery. You have to be consistent with this but at the same time not trying to force acceptance. This really can only be properly understood from reading How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable About Anything… Yes Anything by Albert Ellis.
Teaching myself that there are no musts and shoulds of the universe. The universe doesn’t have written laws and rules that people must abide by. We have made up these rules and take them as fact when actually people act against these rules we made up all the time. Therefore the rules you think people must abide do not exist except in your own head.
Learning unconditional other acceptance really helped unlock some of my fears. If you can accept others for doing things you don’t agree with and what caused them to do these things you will find that it loosens your irrational beliefs you have that people must act a certain way.
Having a good routine: I’m not saying distract yourself but sitting around and doing nothing everyday isn’t good for your mental health in general let alone with OCD.
Accepting that recovery isn’t linear or a quick fix, it can be very challenging but suffering with OCD is more challenging!
Take a leap of faith, OCD recovery requires us to take risks and be out of our comfort zone. Letting go of the control we’ve taught ourselves we have by doing compulsions.
Finally, give yourself compassion and don’t try to force recovery because acceptance isn’t something you can force, it’s something that happens over time.
