Reid Wilson, PhD, who wrote the Afterword to my memoir, Is Fred in the Refrigerator? Taming OCD and Reclaiming My Life, and I recorded “How to Maintain Your Gains in the OCD Recovery Process” in June 2020 for the International OCD Foundation online conference.
Steps to maintaining OCD recovery gains
In the video we discuss:
- Step back to step up: change the focus from OCD content to a generic sense of doubt and anxiety
- I want this!: dropping the resistance to OCD because this is an opportunity to get stronger
- Step forward with attitude: put your Shoulders Back!
- Be cunning: act as though the content doesn’t matter and don’t get tripped up by subtle compulsions
- Give up doing it perfectly: practice self-compassion
In the 48-minute workshop, Reid outlines the 4-step process (plus self-compassion), and I share a story that illustrates how to put the process into action.
Those of you with health anxiety or OCD about real events that are happening in your life will probably relate to my story, as I discuss getting a vaccine in April 2020 (not the COVID vaccine, as that hadn’t been invented yet!) and then having an auto-immune neurological reaction to it. OCD tried to use my situation to its advantage, until I started to apply the process Reid and I discuss, which allowed me to instead use what happened to make my OCD recovery stronger.
We hope you can use the process to do the same, so you can continue taming OCD and reclaiming your life!
Learn more about taming OCD
To learn more about Reid’s powerful guidance for how to apply my OCD-taming strategies in your daily life, read or listen to the Afterword of Is Fred in the Refrigerator? Taming OCD and Reclaiming My Life. Click here to purchase a copy.
