Motivation to beat Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Doing behavioral therapies like Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP) or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) are tough. And to be successful at those you need to do a lot of other tough things like eat well and exercise and communicate better. Taking care of your mental and physical health takes a lot of work and, unfortunately, there’s this very persistent myth that in order to do lots of hard work, you have to be “motivated”. But chasing motivation and waiting for motivation just becomes a barrier for many people. So here’s a video all about the secrets of motivation (and unicorns):
October 15, 2013 @ 11:45 am
Your books and videos are really good. They have helped me a lot more than visits to a psychologist to overcome my OCD. Thank you Mark!
October 16, 2013 @ 12:20 am
Thanks! I’m happy they’ve helped. If you have any questions or things you’d like me to make in the future that might be useful, definitely me know. Keep pushing on your journey!
February 1, 2015 @ 6:05 pm
hi mark can you tell that can ocd be really removed through this tough therapies like ERP etc
mark plz let me know because iam living with ocd since 15yrs.
help me out.
February 1, 2015 @ 10:34 pm
Asking for reassurance is a common OCD compulsion. OCD is all about trying to get rid of uncertainty. So I won’t answer questions like that. Instead of focusing on trying to get rid of OCD, I always recommend to focus on trying to bring healthy activities into your life that align with your goals.
February 2, 2015 @ 1:51 am
thand very much
February 2, 2015 @ 1:52 am
thanks alot
July 29, 2015 @ 1:24 pm
Am confused am I supposed to try not to think or go on thinking of about the things that bother me or am I supposed to try think about them so they go
July 29, 2015 @ 2:46 pm
I’m not sure I would try for any of those options. Instead, I’d put my time and energy into actions I value, that will make me healthy and happy, and help me reach my goals in life.
November 25, 2020 @ 5:00 pm
Hi Mark, not sure if you’re still answering these but would be good if you could chuck an idea my way if you have some time. I’ve been in and out of therapy for OCD. Beat it once, beat it twice, and I’m back in the hole again. I’ve been taking the approach you are talking about and basically my brain keeps telling me “you’re only doing this activity because you want to be free of OCD”, you’re only running, cooking, breathing, bla bla bla because you want to be free of OCD. Ad infinitum. It’s rather relentless regardless of what I try and get in to.
November 27, 2020 @ 4:08 pm
Brains! Something that I found very helpful was not listening to or engaging with my brain. And I had to learn how to do that very broadly, ie: not just with stuff I disliked. Because, in the past, I spent all of my time in my head having conversations and ruminating. And I saw a lot of that as necessary or enjoyable.
In your message there, you didn’t mention a specific question or why it’s bad for the brain to say stuff, so I’m going to assume that you’re seeing that as the problem. It helped me to approach the brain like a toddler. They say a lot of stuff, they cry, they demand things, they say things about you. It’s not useful to me to put that toddler in charge of my life. It’s going to say stuff. So my question would be: Why does it matter if your brain says that stuff? There might be some beliefs or judgments there that would be useful to change. Because when you start reacting to and doing whatever the toddler says, it’s only going to encourage the toddler to demand even more things!