When the "Brain Lock" OCD-disordered neural circuit hijacks the brain's natural, automatic gearbox's ability to shift its focus away from ceaseless obssessions, then's the time to overide the automatic gearbox with Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz's "manual" brain-shift.
Here's the condensed owner's manual for this four-step brain-shift:
Step 1: Relabel
Recognize that the intrusive obsessive thoughts and urges are the result of OCD. You don't want to do this in a merely superficial way; rather, you must work to gain a deep understanding that the feeling that is so bothersome at the moment is an obsessive feeling or a compulsive urge. To do so, it is important to increase your mindful awareness that these intrusive thoughts and urges are symptoms of a medical disorder.
Step 2: Reattribute
Realize that the intensity and intrusiveness of the thought or urge is caused by OCD; it is probably related to a biochemical imbalance in the brain. "It's not me -- it's my OCD." That is the battle cry. It's a reminder that OCD thoughts and urges are not meaningful, that they are false messages from the brain. Self-directed behavior therapy lets you gain a deeper understanding of this truth.
Step 3: Refocus
Work around the OCD thoughts by focusing your attention on something else, at least for a few minutes: Do another behavior. The Refocus step is where the real work is done. In the beginning, you may think of it as the "no pain, no gain" step. Mental exercise is like a physical workout. In Refocusing, you have work to do: You must shift the gears yourself. With effort and focused mindfulness, you are going to do what the caudate nucleus normally does easily and automatically, which is to let you know when to switch to another behavior.
Start the process of Refocusing by refusing to take the obsessive-compulsive symptoms at face value. Say to yourself, "I'm experiencing a symptom of OCD. I need to do another behavior." The goal of treatment is to stop responding to the OCD symptoms while acknowledging that, for the short term, these uncomfortable feelings will continue to bother you. You begin to "work around" them by doing another behavior. You learn that even though the OCD feeling is there, it doesn't have to control what you do. You make the decision about what you're going to do, rather than respond to OCD thoughts and urges as a robot would. By Refocusing, you reclaim your decision-making power. Those biochemical glitches in your brain are no longer running the show.
Step 4: Revalue
Do not take the OCD thought at face value. It is not significant in itself. The combined effect of these three steps is much greater than the sum of their individual parts. The process of Relabeling and Reattributing intensifies the learning that takes place during the hard work of Refocusing. As a result, you begin to Revalue those thoughts and urges that, before behavior therapy, would invariably lead you to perform compulsive behaviors. After adequate training in the first three steps, you are able in time to place a much lower value on the OCD thoughts and urges.
We who have OCD must learn to train our minds not to take intruding feelings at face value. We have to learn that these feelings mislead us. In a gradual but tempered way, we're going to change our responses to the feelings and resist them. We have a new view of the truth. In this way, we gain new insights into the truth. We learn that even persistent, intrusive feelings are transient and impermanent and will recede if not acted on. And, of course, we always remember that these feelings tend to intensify and overwhelm us when we give in to them. We must learn to recognize the urge for what it is -- and to resist it. In the course of performing this Four-Step Method of behavioral self-treatment, we are laying the foundation for building true personal mastery and the art of self-command. Through constructive resistance to OCD feelings and urges, we increase our self-esteem and experience a sense of freedom. Our ability to make conscious, self-directed choices is enhanced.
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