From Panic to Peace: Managing Anxiety & OCD Triggers

Hi there. If you are someone who struggles with anxiety and ocd, then you know how challenging it can be when triggers show up in your life. Today we're going to talk about some practical steps that are going to help you work through these triggers so that you get less of them and they don't steal your peace of mind.

First, let's talk about what triggers are. Triggers are any thought, feeling or situation that triggers an uncomfortable feeling like anxiety, general discomfort, or the obsessive compulsive cycle. For example, a messy desk might trigger anxiety for somebody with just right ocd, or a sudden intrusive thought might cause you to spiral into a lot of what ifs and rumination. The key here is that triggers are your path to recovery. They're teaching you where there's fear, discomfort, perfectionism, or uncertainty. And knowing what to do in these moments is either going to make these triggers worse or actually make them better. You see, it's your response to these triggers that either makes them worse or better. When we respond with an emotional response, automatically believing that thought or feeling, or letting the thought or uncertainty drive your behavior, you're teaching your brain that you can't handle it, that there is something wrong. And your brain will continue to be hypervigilant and focus on this obsession or fear when you do the opposite. When you learn to lean in, to accept uncertainty, to accept imperfection, and you learn to let the discomfort be there. In the long term, this discomfort will get better and this trigger will no longer be a trigger. But when you respond in the ways that you've probably been responding, you may get short term relief. But in the long term, you're training your brain to be more and more anxious. Here are five steps that you can use when you experience a trigger. Whether you have OCD or anxiety, when you experience a trigger, the first thing that you want to do is pause. Don't jump into action and instead focus on your breath. This helps you from jumping into unhealthy reactions and learning to choose healthier reactions to rewire your brain. So let's do this here for a minute. I want you to take a moment to inhale. Hold for four and out for four. You only have to do this once, but what this is going to do is it's going to calm your nervous system. Granted, this isn't the technique you're always going to use just to calm your nervous system, but in the moment of a trigger, I want you to pause and take a breath. This is going to give you space in between the trigger and your response. Step number two, you're going to label what's happening. You're going to recognize that right now I am having a thought, a feeling, or a situation is causing me to be triggered. Fill in the blank with whatever that thought, feeling or situation is and tell yourself my anxiety or my OCD is trying to pull me back into the cycle. But I'm not going to go there. I want you to remind yourself this trigger is an opportunity to shift change. I know it sounds really strange to think that triggers are our path to recovery, but they absolutely are. I've been there. I know how confusing it can be at first, but just stick with me here. Remember, a thought, a feeling, or a real life trigger is just that. It's just a thought, it's just a feeling, it's just a situation. It doesn't have meaning or power until we give it power. And you're learning not to do that today. Number three, this is the hard part. Now comes the time where you're going to resist avoiding or doing the compulsive response. Whether it's checking, washing, seeking, reassurance, Googling something. I want you to remember that these actions only strengthen the cycle of anxiety and ocd. But you do have to be practicing resisting or not doing the compulsions. And I'm going to give you something to do instead. Instead, I want you to use what's called exposure and response prevention. You're going to expose yourself to the trigger without doing anything about it at first. This is going to feel uncomfortable, and that's okay. You're learning to tolerate the discomfort because the more you do this, the less discomfort you're going to feel in these situations. For example, if your trigger is a fear of contamination, I want you to touch that thing without washing your hands right away. A lot of times we have to see that when we do the scary or uncomfortable thing, our feared outcome actually doesn't happen. And in the rare situation that it does, it's not going to happen the way you think it is, and it's not going to be as scary as you think. But again, most the time it doesn't happen at all. But we don't know that unless we try. Preventing the response or not. Doing the compulsion is the second step to exposure and response prevention. Compulsions, on the other hand, may give you temporary relief, but they make it worse in the long run if the anxiety feels really overwhelming. Grounding or mindful techniques are really, really helpful. You're gonna take a moment here to recognize five things that you see in your environment, look around and name them. This is called the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 method. Next, you're going to recognize four things that you can touch. Go about touching the surface next to you or in front of you, touch your computer, touch your phone, touch your leg. Four things and name those. Then you're going to recognize three things that you can hear, two things that you can smell, and one thing that you can taste. When you do this, you're bringing yourself back into the present moment and getting yourself out of your head and out of your feelings, which is what we need to do in these moments. Finally, you're going to be really kind to yourself. It's okay to struggle with triggers. It doesn't mean that you're failing. You're going to remind yourself that recovery is a journey. It's not a straight line. I have recovered from multiple OCD subsets and it took a lot of time and that's okay. But I promise you, this journey is well worth it. Every time you practice tools like this, you are rewiring your brain. The recovery tools are not complicated. There's no magic pill or magical solution out there. It's just using these simple techniques over and over and over and over again. You're going to celebrate the small victories. Even if you're noticing that you don't do a compulsion quite as often, or maybe a particular thought hasn't come up in a couple days, or maybe you just have more awareness of what your compulsions are or how your brain is working. These are all really big, important things that you need in order to recover. So let's recap how to handle triggers. First, you're going to pause and breathe. Second, you're going to label the thought or the trigger. Third, you're going to resist avoidance or compulsions using exposure and response prevention. Next, you're going to use grounding or mindfulness techniques to stay in the present moment. And lastly, you're going to practice self compassion and celebrate your successes. Remember, you're not alone in this journey. Every time you face a trigger without letting it control you, you're one step closer to freedom. You've got this.