Can you use The Law of Attraction and it’s principles to alleviate or even treat OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? Watch the video or read the transcript below to find out!
Awesome Vita’s Burning Question:
“Dear Melody, I have a question about obsessive compulsive disorder. Mine has lasted for 14 years. I am tired, I suffer from regular headaches and hyperacusis; well it sucks. I’ve tried a lot of tactics, but it hasn’t worked. OCD is getting worse. I’ve been using acupuncture treatments for some time. This helps to reduce anxiety; the OCD, however, remains intense. I noticed that it’s different in nature from the anxiety, more irrational, difficult to calm down or ignore. Pure fear, between life and death.
Please advise if you know a way how to get rid of it.”
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Transcript
Well Awesome Vita, thank you for posing your wonderful question and having the courage to do that. I know it can be really difficult to talk about these topics and about OCD. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, for those people who don’t know, is when you usually have to get things just so, or you might have to do things multiple times. For example, some people might have a compulsion to turn the light off three times, check the door three times or wash their hands three times, because the number three has become a compulsion for them. Other people, for example, have to fold their clothes in a very particular way; everything has to be in its place. If that doesn’t happen, a tremendous amount of anxiety comes up, and it’s this anxiety that you are going to want to work with.
Before I continue, I want to acknowledge that this is not going to be the easiest of processes, and it isn’t something that you are necessarily going to take care of overnight. I know you probably don’t have that expectation, but I wanted to throw that out there. I also wanted to acknowledge what a big journey you are on and how much of an obstacle this can be in your life. If you’re dedicated, however, if you’re willing to jump into the lake of fire, so to speak, then OCD definitely can be alleviated; and yes, it can even be cured. Everything can change, because it’s all energy and it all has energy at its basis. If anybody has ever told you that you just have to put up with this for the rest of your life, that is bullshit. (#ICallBullshit)!
The compulsion is actually serving you
The feeling of anxiety that comes up when you don’t give in to the OCD is what you want to work with. I would suggest strongly that you don’t try to do this in the moment that you are actually having the compulsion. Don’t try to deny the compulsion or start asking yourself what it is that you’re feeling or try to work with it. In that moment, you are really being triggered and you don’t want to work with something especially when it’s really volatile and big like this. In the moment of being triggered, the compulsion is bringing you relief. This is something that you want to take a look at – the compulsion brings you relief from the anxiety. Don’t demonize the compulsion; it will go away when you get rid of the underlying anxiety. If you want to do it this way, then imagine that you don’t give in to the compulsion for a moment (but not when you are being triggered),do it when you are calm. That way you are going to feel it but you won’t feel it full on. Then you can allow yourself to get the information that this emotion has for you.
In the beginning, it might feel like full on fear (it’s just a fear), but if you allow yourself to feel it (again do it in a safe environment where you’re not actually being triggered), you are keeping it at a level where you are able to work with it. If you allow yourself to simply step into this fear rather than running away from it, you are going to get more and more messages.
Working with a practitioner can help
This is going to be a rather large process so I would encourage you quite strongly that if your OCD is very severe, go and work with a practitioner, somebody who can hold the energy for you, somebody who can guide you through this. Do not try to go this alone, because working with a practitioner will first of all speed up the process and it’s also going to make it a lot more comfortable for you. They are going to be able to manage the level of anxiety that you’re energetically feeling in that moment. They are also going to be able to keep you on track so that you don’t go into denial or deflection and run away from it.
Here are the steps again:
- Don’t do this when you’re in the moment of being triggered and the compulsion is being triggered.
- Don’t demonize the compulsion itself; remember it’s actually bringing you relief.
- Work on it when you are calm and allow yourself to feel the fear that comes up.
- Work with the information that you get from that.
Bottom Line
I can’t be a whole lot more specific about what to do once the information comes up. This is where you’ll want to read my book as it has a lot more information in it for you, or you might want to schedule a coaching session with someone like me, or…me, to get some help to guide you through this process. You can absolutely release this; there’s no question in my mind.
Hopefully this has given you some direction and I’ve answered your question awesome Vita. Again, thank you so much for asking it.
If you have any questions you’d like me to answer on the blog, or you’d like to share your own experience with OCD, please do so below.
Thank you for bringing you light to the world! Bye.
This is really good advice, thank you! I’ve suffered with OCD for over 10 years and finding out about LOA was one of the big turning points for me in my recovery.
I’ve found also affirming things like ‘thank you for my recovery’ ‘I release this obsessive thought to the universe’ helps a lot.
Also, using LOA when I decided I wanted to start recovering, I found this channel on youtube which helped so much:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1qeEI9khAj7YpYXUDuADIw
It can be a very cruel and painful disorder at times and can make the sufferer doubt everything they think they know, but you need to remember that it’s just spinning lies and deep down, past the OCD, you know this.
Giving into the compulsion makes the OCD stronger as your brain gets a hit of relief from said compulsion and thus it wants more of it, so it gives you more and more thoughts.
The only way out for good is sitting with the thoughts and the doubt and any feelings the OCD is producing and not giving into compulsions.
At first the OCD may get worse but just look at this as your brain having withdrawal symptoms from not getting the relief from the compulsions which you are no longer doing. If you can stick with it and ride it out, eventually the OCD calms down and you get to a point where its not impacting on your day to day life as much as it was before.
And if you ever want to know whether a thought you are having is OCD or not, the trick is, if your doubting it as OCD, then it’s OCD. That’s the key!
Hi Melody,
I know this post is old but it’s very, very relevant to what I’m dealing with. I’ve posted on your blog before and never heard a response from you, but I was wondering if you could tell me why I am obsessed with people’s ages. I have a feeling that the age is the identity, if I don’t know someone’s age it’s like something’s missing from the relationship, if I do know their age it’s like heaven, like I know the person better. Why do ages represent identity emotionally when I intellectualy know they are not, citing your post from 2011 on the subject? What d to do to not have to ask people how old they are and still feel like I know them on that deep level?
Thanks,
Amy
Hey Amy,
While I can’t give you a specific answer on your personal belief here, I can give you some general pointers as to what it might be.
Knowing someone’s age makes you feel that you know more about them. You have associations with ages, identities that you’ve linked to ages. And that’s ok. Most people do. Of course, those identities are an illusion; ultimately someone’s age tells you very little about them, as does their religion, race, upbringing, etc. But we like to think that these characteristics do tell us something, and when we know these things about someone, we know them better.
It’s about safety. Because when we know who someone is (even if it’s just an illusion), we assume we know how they will behave. And that makes us less vulnerable. An unknown quantity – someone with undefined characteristics, makes us feel afraid. Who are they? What will they do? Are they friend or foe?
This is precisely why people freak out over transgender, or non-gender conforming individuals. Are they male or female? We have to know! We have to put them in a box with a label, so we can feel safe…
Your need to know someone’s age is your attempt to mitigate a fear. And when you’re less afraid, you let your guard down and you can allow for a deeper connection. But, you could allow for that connection anyway, even without knowing their age, if you so chose to. If I were you, I’d sit with this fear – what do you think will happen if you don’t know someone’s age… what could go wrong? And go from there.
I hope that helps!
Hugs,
Melody
Hi Melody,
I’m so sorry I haven’t responded; I think I’ve been dealing with a lot of resistance that kept me from commenting. Anyway thanks So Much for your comment. As soon as I read it I felt like your energy was coming to me, even if I didn’t find an instant solution (they don’t exist.) I love your energy, can’t believe it’s almost 3 years since I discovered you and LOA! Anyway it’s funnny because I almost have a spiritual connection with ages, like if they tell me their age I feel I’m connecting with their inner being, that could be an illusion though. I particularly have a connectio with milestone birthdays, people turning 60 specifically, and the number 60 in general. The idea of 60 to me is All that is, pure love, peace, harmony, meditation, perfection, etc. Do you have any idea what this whole 60 thing is about? Or could be about? Thanks so much Melody, and I can’t wait for your next video! Keep being awesome!!!
Oh forgot to mention that for me younger ages feel less exciting than older ages, which is weird because I’m 18! But I seem to bond better with older adults than my peers because due to my blindness I’ve always grown up with teachers, aides, therapists, etc, so the older ages might just be a reflection of that background but I don’t know, just speculating.
Thanks for the post, Melody and thanks for asking the question, Vita. 🙂 I have OCD and anxiety and find them hard to shift. So the first step is to look at the fear and the feeling of anxiety?
Thankyou. Would love you to follow up with some real life stories of people who dealt with this. What they discovered the fear or anxiety was about.
Awesomest Melody, thanks for this post and for touching on a delightful topic!
Once upon a time, I had a roommate who had OCD and she’d want my own dishes placed in a certain way on my own dish rack in my own mutually agreed upon corner of the kitchen platform and she’d also insist on how and where things were supposed to be placed and how often it’d stay that way etc. During summer, she threw away my bag of winter clothes which was in the basement because it got in her way and she didn’t know what it was. (it was in a mutually agreed upon corner that was mine for as long as I paid the rent and not even once she she even ask me about it before she thought it was trash so I basically had to buy new winter clothes when the next winter came). When I asked her once to please stop bossing around, she told me I was a ‘girl’ and that I was supposed to be a ‘clean’ person and that she was shocked I was the way I was haha. I think she had OCD because she probably believed that because she was a girl, she was supposed to be clean and was operating under that belief. Personally, I like things to be a little out of place because it adds to the charm of a home and makes a home feel a home because if things weren’t a little messy, ‘humans’ don’t live there. Anyway, everybody has their idiosyncrasies, beliefs, preferences, raison d’etres etc etc so I moved to another apartment a year later.
PS. Someone like you would definitely be your awesome sister Tina who talks like you and is a different kind of awesome. 🙂 I will be talking to her soon again. Thank you Melody for putting so much energy, love and light into the awesome gunk of the universe and for building such a creative blog around it. <3
I love posts like these
Hi Melody
I haven’t experienced OCD personally but I did struggle with pretty serious anxiety at points in my life so I do understand that part of it. Like you said, the compulsion gives some sort of relief. I guess that can be said for any action we take that may seem problematic on the surface but we can’t seem to stop like overeating to curb emotions,etc… The advice about not trying to shift in the moments of intensity is really good because that is what we usually try to do and the urge to do whatever it is we feel we want to do is so incredibly strong, it’s almost like we can’t help ourselves, and trying to force not doing it can feel even worse. And then we feel like a ‘failure’ if we don’t succeed and we give up before we can start making any real headway.
There is always some sort of fear at the root of anxiety and when we can dive in a bit deeper and see what those fears are, we can get at the true root of our issues rather than just trying to manage the behaviors.
Awesome post. I’ve had compulsive tendencies in my own life, so I know how it is.
You’re absolutely right about not trying to stop the compulsion while it’s happening. It’s way too overwhelming in the moment, and actually can make it worse to try to fight it.
But yes I agree that it can be managed.