Research shows that everyone experiences intrusive or unwanted thoughts on occasions. When the intrusive or unwanted thoughts occur, individuals that don’t have OCD will mostly dismiss the thoughts and move on. Individuals who have OCD may become anxious because they attribute meaning to these types of thoughts. Individuals with OCD will see these thoughts as significant and meaningful, and threatening.

For example, for individuals who don’t have OCD, having an intrusive thought about being gay, might look like this: “Okay, so now I am gay! As if! Just because I find someone of the same sex attractive it does not make me gay”. It would most likely not cause anxiety and the individual would move on to their next activity.

However, someone with OCD might think: “What if it means that I am gay and if I did not care about this thought, it would likely mean that I am gay. I cannot look at individuals of the same sex again, because I think I am gay if I look at them. I’ll better stop looking at them all together. What kind of person looks at other people of the same sex and think they are sexy if they are not gay?” This type of attribution will cause a lot of anxiety and the urge to perform compulsions are set-off, triggering the OCD Cycle.

For this reason, it is essential to handle obsessions and OCD in general, to challenge the misinterpretation of the obsessions, and identify helpful thinking.

Here are some steps practise and challenge your interpretations.

1. Became aware of your misinterpretations related to your obsessions and write them down on a piece of paper or on you phone. You start by writing down your obsession and second the meaning you are attributing to it or the misinterpretation you give to the obsessions. It is recommended to practise it on a daily basis, several times a day, once in the morning, in the afternoon and at night. See an example of recording below:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   To download the form to monitor interpretation of obsession click here.
   
   a. In the Event column, write down the situation in which the obsession was triggered.

   b. In the Obsession column, write down the intrusive/obsessive thought you experienced in that specific event.
   c. In the Feelings column, note down the feeling and the severity rating for that feeling. The rating scale goes from 0 (none) to 10 (extremely severe).
   d. In the Interpretation/Meaning column, write down the interpretation/meaning you have attributed to the obsession. Use the following questions to help you identify your interpretations/meaning attributed to the obsession: What makes this obsession so distressing? What does it mean about me if I don’t do something about this obsession? What will happen if I don’t do something about this obsession? What does this obsessions say about me (as a person)?
   

2. Challenging the Interpretation Attributed to the Obsessions - once you become more aware of your obsessions and interpretation attributed to them, you will learn to better handle them.
   a. Stick with the facts. Thoughts are not facts and thoughts don’t make you gay; although bothersome, these thoughts are harmless. Remind yourself of it.
   b. Stick with realistic thinking, thousand of thoughts appear in our minds through the day, many of them are negative or unhelpful thoughts. OCD will attribute a meaning/interpretation to them. Work on becoming aware of them, and make a decision to stick with realistic thinking.
   c. Work on changing the misinterpretation/unhelpful meaning attributed to the obsessions.
   
   Use the questions below to change misinterpretation attribute to obsessions:
   What are the facts/evidence for and against a particular interpretation?
   What are the advantages and disadvantages of this types of interpretation?
   Am I confusing thoughts with facts?
   Is this interpretation/meaning accurate or realistic?
   Does it mean I am gay just because I find someone of the same sex attractive?
   Am I basing myself on feelings or facts?
   What would I tell my friend if he/she told me they are interpreting their thoughts/obsession this way?
   What would a friend/family member say to me?
   Is there a more realistic or better way of looking at this?
   
   To download form to challenge the misinterpretation of obsessions and see example of practise click here.
   
   Once the new information has been identified, after challenging the misinterpretation of obsessions, remind yourself of it. The new idenfied information will enable you to manage obsessions by promoting a realistic outlook of the obsessions. The beginning of any practise you do is difficult. You may not believe your new interpretations to start with. It’s okay. It is part of the process. Keep on practising it. Also, keep on practising not engaging with your mental and behavioarl compulsions. As you practise regulatory, it will start getting easier.