12/11/2025
Just a little analogy to hopefully help you to know what approach we are aiming for when we acknowledge intrusive thoughts with minimal engagement in OCD.
Perhaps you can imagine someone with extremely problematic views and no desire to consider any alternatives, who speaks loudly about what they believe in and will not be swayed against it.
You would realise quite quickly that they are not receptive to listening to alternatives. You might try hard to argue with them at first, until you realise how it makes them double down and even get more extreme in their argument. You then might run away but they will likely chase you to continue to argue with you.
If you start to acknowledge that you hear them and offer minimal engagement after that, they might initially get louder to try to prompt you to get involved in the discussion. After a while, they might get quieter in their ranting and eventually get distracted. Meanwhile, you can perhaps try to tune them out and spend your time focusing on things that you actually want to think about. You can still hear them, but you focus your attention elsewhere, even if you occasionally catch a few words and tune back in. You just realise you are doing this and then refocus on what you are doing.
This is what we want to do with intrusive thoughts. They might feel scary and strong but they aren't important. Your threat response thinks they are, so it will try to push them forwards and panic if it thinks that you are ignoring the threat completely. So acknowledge it and keep refocusing on what you find important and interesting.
