Heya playa, have you ever felt like your OCD, your Obsessive Compulsive Disorder has taken
over your life and you want to do something about it?
Well, that's exactly what Jacob asked me when he said: "Please do a video on how to manage
my OCD".
Now OCD can be really intense and really hard to deal with sometimes but there are a few
key things that you can do in your day to day life to help you work through it.
This is The Josh Speaks.
You're watching The Josh Speaks.
For those of you that are new here, my name is Josh and every single Monday through Friday
I make videos sharing tips, ideas and stories teaching you how to be your best self and
sometimes people throw around the word OCD when maybe they just like things clean or
need to do things in an organized way.
But for many people, OCD is a very real and difficult thing to deal with.
It can lead to depression, anxiety, nervousness, social exclusion and a ton of other things
that you don't want to happen.
Two things I don't want to rule out when it comes to OCD is getting the proper medication
for it and going to therapy.
Both can be extremely helpful and successful ways to help you cope.
And along with those two options, there are still other little things that you can do
to help you figure out whether or not you're experiencing OCD in that moment or you're
not.
One thing you should do is to make a list of all the different anxious thoughts that
go through your mind.
And that can include anything from constantly having to wash the dishes to check to see
if the door is locked to checking in with loved ones to make sure they're safe.
Whatever happens in your mind.
Once you have this list written out, make a second column and next to each thing that
you wrote, write down the trigger moment.
Something that happened to cause you to think that thought.
Maybe you were just leaving the house, you shook someone's hand or you just haven't spoken
to your family and friends in a while.
Put down all of these different explanations and reasons that led to the anxious thoughts.
And now that you've gotten those two columns down, you're going to make a third column
and in this third column, you're gonna write down whether or not you think this fear is
realistic or unrealistic.
Now you may feel like they're all realistic but I would really try to challenge yourself
here and to break down and identify which you think are truly realistic, things you
think if you didn't do them bad things would happen and which you think are just because
you're experiencing your OCD.
Making this list is going to be extremely helpful going forward because the next thing
you're going to want to do is to come to terms and accept the fact that you have anxiety
and OCD.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
It doesn't make you any lesser of a person or weird in any way.
We all have our different experiences and things we have to go through so this is simply
one of yours.
And along with making this list, one thing you could try doing is journaling.
Write down your different experiences throughout the day.
That way seeing it on paper makes it easier for you to recognize when it's happening and
to see that you can do something about it.
So along with documenting your experiences, you're also going to want to challenge them
head-on when they do spring up.
For example, if you feel like your hands are covered in germs and you constantly want to
clean them, try to push yourself every single day.
Start by doing it for one minute without going to rush to clean your hands.
And the next day, do two minutes.
After a while do five, and then ten.
As you keep practicing you'll start to be able to push those behaviors further away.
And the reason for doing it like that is because everything is small steps, making those incremental
changes from day to day will make it a lot easier to see how you're growing rather than
just trying to jump to the finish line from the start.
I know you have what it takes and even if you make just a small step, that's a huge
progress from where you were before and you should definitely be proud of yourself.
What do you think though, have you ever experienced OCD or OCD-like behaviors before?
Leave your comments down below and we'll talk about it.
Now, this may be something you want to talk to me about in a more private setting so you
can always shoot me a DM over on Snapchat or Instagram, I do my best to answer as many
messages as I can.
But otherwise thank you so much for watching.
Hit the thumbs up button if you found this video to be helpful and make sure to check
out the videos I have over there on the side where I go more in-depth on dealing with anxiety,
depression, nervousness or any other kind of negative thought or feeling you're having.
Those videos will be super helpful.
On that note guys, I'll catch you next time.
As always, love and peace.