How To Recognize OCD Thinking

Pop culture misrepresents OCD and obsessions, so here are the facts. OCD does not only pertain to behaviors like washing hands. It can also exist with continuously checking locks or stoves for safety. A person can be struggling with OCD without actually performing the behavior of checking but may struggle with the ‘urge’ to check.

A commonly overlooked type of OCD is Obsessive thinking, sometimes referred to as Pure O, Obsessiveness. It’s also referred to as internal OCD because all of the activity is occurring within the person, without external behaviors like locking the door again. This makes the conditions easily missed by others and even missed by the person struggling with it.

Covert Obsessions

• Thoughts or Images or Impulses

• Occur over and over again and feel outside of your control

• You do not want these thoughts

  *All of these are required

Covert Compulsions

• Worrying

• Ruminating

• Suppressing Emotion

• Fantasizing

• Planning

• Calculating

• Mentally checking

• Mentally combing through situations

• Problem-Solving

• What If’ing

• Mining for Information (maybe internet searching or “researching”)

• Seeking Reassurance

• Pushing away thoughts or images

• Doubting

• Trying to figure out if something is true or not

• Avoidance

Overall, the knee-jerk response to jump out of the anxiety that would be experienced otherwise is what occurs. This overall process increases the anxiety that you are rolling with throughout the day.

*Response Prevention is the only recommended treatment for OCD types. Other types of treatment are found to be unhelpful and harmful. Psychoanalysis has especially been found to increase OCD. The research concludes that psychoanalysis accidentally reinforces the obsessive thinking style by further theorizing baseless concepts (if the content is not desired) when the person only desires to avoid the experience of anxiety itself.