[Mallika]

Hi Eli,

Thanks for reaching out regarding this. As someone who has lived with intrusive thoughts OCD, occurring on and off, right from when I was 15, I can definitely give you some pointers.

OCD comes in different types. One kind is the kind associated with a fear of germs and contamination, intertwined with a ritualistic behaviour such as washing hands continuously to avert that fear (seems like what you have). Another kind is the uncontrollable influx of really disturbing thoughts that give the sufferer very strange anxiety, though the sufferer doesn't have a compulsive behaviour to "combat" those thoughts, and in fact can lead a decent, even successful life, but live with having to battle this internal debilitating turmoil day in and out (what I have). There are more types of OCD too, such as those associated with an intense obsession with scruples and religiosity, etc.

Regardless of the type of OCD we experience, the way we deal with them is pretty similar. The first thing is to recognise is that we are not our OCD. Our OCD tendencies and thoughts don't define us. They really don't. I think of it this way - OCD makes us do or feel certain things. It likes to make us its victim. So the best way to counter it is in not doing those things it wants us to do. This is easier said than done, of course, and requires some perseverance.

Let me give you an example. Your OCD is telling you that you might get a severe infectious disease if you don't wash your hands 5-10 times after using the bathroom. It is natural for us, as people with OCD, to "listen" to that thought and do what it is telling us to do i.e. wash hands 5-10 times after using the bathroom. Now, what we don't realise is that in doing so, we are letting the OCD take charge of our life. But really, we have to now take OCD in our hands. So, everytime you get this thought, tell yourself, "It's my OCD that's telling me to do that. I'm not listening to my OCD. I'm just gonna wash my hands once." And just wash your hands once and walk away. You'll feel an intense level of anxiety for not having listened to your OCD, but that is EXACTLY what we want to do if we want to overcome our OCD. The anxiety will peak and eventually wear off. Over a period of time, you'll notice that you're no longer bothered by the OCD thoughts and they will subside eventually. Essentially, you are not allowing yourself to become a puppet of your OCD, which is incredibly liberating. This is called Response & Escape Prevention (ERP) and is usually done in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). I discovered ERP in 2014, a year after having had my first intrusive thoughts, and whatever I learned about ERP have helped me tremendously over the years in keeping a balance despite my OCD. Now, OCD doesn't really bother me that much anymore. You might want to look up ERP self-help guides or meet a therapist that specialises in ERP/CBT to overcome OCD. I'm attaching a PDF of the ERP/CBT self-help book that helped me back in 2014 here, as well as a few other useful links:
https://sunnybrook.ca/uploads/1/depa...guide-2015.pdf
https://iocdf.org/expert-opinions/ex...-directed-erp/
https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.papsy.org/...py_for_OCD.pdf
https://www.get.gg/docs/OCDselfhelp.pdf

Another thing I have learned recently is that many mental health conditions have a biochemical basis. What I mean by this is that we have some excess or deficiency in a certain biological molecule in our body that is causing our mental disorders. It sounds uncanny, but the more I read about this, the more it makes sense. In fact, there are so many recovery stories of patients who have followed this sort of treatment. For example, it has been well-documented that vitamin D deficiency plays a big role in depression. I recently learned that having high levels of histamine can be responsible for the kind of OCD I have and now I'm trying to find ways to decrease my histamine levels (e.g. by having more vitamin C in my diet). You might want to look into this. Pfeiffer Medical Center and Walsh Research Institute have specialised in this sort of psychiatric treatment for decades and you might want to get in touch with them. They treat a variety of mental disorders, not just OCD. There are people who had gone everywhere and got all sorts of treatment (pills, therapy, etc.), all of which didn't help, until they chanced upon these specialists and had their mental disorders vanish in no time. Sounds too good to be true, right? I couldn't believe it myself. So it's definitely worth reaching out to them and see if they can help. After all, you've tried everything. It doesn't hurt to reach out further:
http://www.hriptc.org/content/about.php
https://www.walshinstitute.org

I really wish you the very best. OCD might annoy the hell out of us and try to crush us, but something that instills anxiety and fear (i.e. OCD) can never be the winner. I'm also really happy to know that you're in a much better place now overall, and so it is definitely possible to overcome this. You can do this!