Danielle Thornton explains how OCD triggers spark intrusive thoughts and compulsions. Tracking them matters because they become exposure exercises in ERP therapy. Avoidance reinforces OCD; facing triggers while stopping compulsions is how you break the cycle.
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Welcome. My name is Danielle Thornton. I am an OCD and anxiety coach. And today I want to talk about triggers and ocd. Now, if you're working with an OCD specialist, preferably an erp, hopefully you are starting to learn with that person with what your triggers are, what your intrusive thoughts are, which I'm sure you're already very aware of, and then what compulsions are following those intrusive thoughts. But the triggers are really important because when I'm working with clients with ocd, when there's a trigger involved, that trigger can very often become the exposure exercise. So that's why when I'm working with clients, I have them track all three of those things, triggers, intrusive thoughts, and compulsions, because all three pieces of the information are very, very important. But the triggers are especially important because they can actually become our exposure exercises. Now, in talking a little bit about the OCD cycle, you may have seen this in previous videos, but the OCD cycle, when we're in that cycle, is really important to understand because obviously, first there may be a trigger, okay? But there isn't always a trigger. Or should I say it's not always conscious, right? A lot of times there is a trigger. We just aren't aware of it. So a thought may trigger a different intrusive thought, or seeing a certain pillow or a certain color may trigger an intrusive thought, but it may not be something that you're actually conscious of. So if you don't know what the trigger is, that's not a problem at all, because the exposure exercises can still be done with the intrusive thoughts that you. That you have. But the important thing to know is that the intrusive thoughts that OCD gives us, regardless of whether there's a trigger or not, then typically leads to the compulsion, which you may or may not be aware of, because there are a lot of hidden compulsions, and those compulsions reinforce the ocd, and there goes the cycle again. Okay? And that's why sometimes a lot of people talk about OCD being pretty quiet. They're having a good day, and then all of a sudden there might be a trigger. Something triggers your oc. So with relationship ocd, it might be an argument that you have with your partner, or for harm ocd, it might be that you see a pair of scissors. So depending on the type of OCD that you have, obviously Covid is a huge trigger for contamination ocd. There's all kinds of triggers that can happen, and they can be different for everybody. So it is really important to know what those are and secondly to not avoid them. Okay. Because that's one of the big compulsions is avoidance. We avoid the things that trigger us and therefore when we do that, when we avoid these triggers, we actually reinforce the OCD and therefore our OCD gives us more intrusive thoughts.
So part of the healing process and part of ERP is actually doing those things that trigger us. Right. And this is a way that we are taking control over our OCD instead of OCD being in control. But obviously this is much easier to do when you are working with a specialist. Someone to guide you to help you understand how to do exposure exercises efficiently is number one and number two, most important step is the response prevention and not doing any compulsions and getting those to zero.
If you are looking for help for any form of OCD for please see the information in the description section below. I have recovered from OCD myself and I've been helping people recover from OCD for over two years. It is very, very possible with the right treatment to stop the OCD cycle and therefore stop the intrusive thoughts that are coming up for you quite often and creating so much anxiety. I have a nine week program that is very beneficial to help you get to the recovery stage and you can see more by visiting my website at www.myocdcoach.
