I like to think of it as if you're exploring city and the thoughts are the buildings. When you find yourself in a building that you don't like there's no need to tear down the building, simply walk away from it.

It's so frustrating that my head is congested with so many annoying thoughts that I can't ignore, and also that no one I know has any idea I'm having them. Thanks for the videos and hopefully one day I can look back and think of how silly this was.

The goal is not to get rid of the OCD, but rather to control your responses to it.

I've had to keep my thoughts to myself all my life

Oh my God.I've been having OCD problems for 2 years and didn't know what to do about it. I cried. I thank you soooo much for making this video! I can't thank you enough…because this video really made a difference. My life is not as miserable. Keep this up!

OCD sucks for me. if i imagine myself running, a thought will pop into my head of a wall appearing out of no where and blocking me. and if i try and imagine the wall not being there, it always comes back and takes over my brain and its impossible to imagine running again because the thought will always come back and enslave my brain.

She has such a soothing voice

This was really helpful. I've been experiencing pure OCD about two months now. I thought i just had really bad anxiety. I've had depression on and off since I was 21-22(26 now) and my anxiety was at its highest last year with facial numbness/tingling and racing thoughts. So I googled intrusive irrational thoughts yesterday and found out that pure ocd is exactly what I'm going through. I'm happy I have an answer and don't feel like I'm some sort of sick/evil person. Any books you recommend? I stopped seeing my therapist months ago for my depression because I felt better. Your videos are very helpful! Thank you so much! Don't stop making them!!!

Wow Katie, I am astonished to find out about you. I speak for myself and I do suffer quite a lot from my repetitive thoughts and patterns of thought, and it is so nice to see someone like you that works on helping people to stop suffering as we do. Thank you very much for being such a kind person. You already know this but it does mean the world to us to get better on our pain, and you contributing to such thing is quite honorable. I feel so much gratitude right now. Thanks again

Everyday everything has to be perfect everything has to be the same I just can't help it.

I am so glad to find this video. I have been trying to fight my thoughts and they ARE getting more severe. This affects my depression and I don't want that to happen. I want to be well.

This is mindfulness..I think.

Very helpful. I keep getting the thoughts and solving them. N it never ends but this is the answer

Thank you so much for posting these videos.

Thank You! This is a very helpful video. Excited to see the rest!

It's almost as if everytime you do something you would concider to be a negative action that you can't forgive yourself so it concerns you with worry that you'll recreate that moment over and over again, where as if you try not to care you could over come the thought barrier

Thanks Katie,you have changed my life......thank u soo very much.

Since seeing this video the other day I have kept what you have been saying in this video and other videos of yours and though it is hard what you do with the thoughts afterwards keep things lingering on. I guess we just have to accept what comes into our heads no matter how annoying it is

Thank you!

This needs more views!!

I keep having these thoughts in my head that I won't be able too pee.. and when I go to the toilet I can't, It's way out of order now, It's horrible. Please help.

Thank you for reminding me of this therapy.. The train metaphors were the first therapy I had back in the days I first realized & diagnosed. It really work back then but as far as time goes I forget about it sometimes and all I want to do is back to the habit of pursuing the thoughts.

Thank you this has really helped me

Great stuff! Thanks!

Hi Katie .. First thanks for posting the videos , I have been suffering from OCD from last 2-3 years but in last one year i have been facing severe OCD problem at my workplace. I keep checking my work again and again and can't satisfy myself that i am doing correct work. Example - I keep on checking the numbers and words again and again , if i read a number 10 i just keep on checking it again and again that i am reading it right (In short i am really afraid that i will lose my job if i will do something wrong that's why i keep on checking it again and again). In this way i am taking really long time to complete my work. Please suggest something , i have even tried medicines for this for around 10 months but to no effect.Should i try CBT also please suggest.And as you suggested that whenever a thought comes don't focus on it keep it in the mind and do something else , just want to ask will this work for me as my thought are related to my work and i can't proceed further if i will do something else. Please help, Waiting for your early reply and thanks in advance

Hi Katie, thanks for this video. It really makes sense to me that thoughts are just meaningless mental images that we don't need to pay attention to.This has been really useful. Mostly, I can now prevent myself from reacting to disturbing thoughts by using breathing exercises, and let the anxiety dissolve. Although, I still have a few thoughts that I find so imposing that I can't stop myself from repeating a positive mantra - which I know is completely irrational. If try to ignore these particular thoughts I have a lingering, uncomfortable, kind of 'itchy' feeling which only goes away once I perform the ritual to 'nutralise' it. Do you have any tips for this? Or do I just have to ride-out the anxiety? I think that could get a bit stressful and I'd kind of like to stay in a positive emotional state if I can. Thanks again for all the videos!! James

Very interesting, I have been analyzing my thoughts and anything and everything to the point where I am now suicidal. I have done the whole listening to my pure o and letting it control me by giving into it, because I haven't let the thoughts just sit there and I have paid SO much attention to it and convinced myself how evil I am it has just escalated more and more to the point of where I am now which is very difficult just to function for 1 minute. It's very hard to just ignore thoughts that make me feel totally scared and in hell but I have tried recently and will continue now that I have seen this video. I am on medication and it does help the thoughts and words be more quieter but it does NOT get rid of things.

Hi Katie, I am really suffering from serious OCD. My ritual consists of tensing my whole face and neck muscles and vital parts (heart,eyes) of my body whenever I feel fearful as I feel it grants me protection from my worst fears from happening. I have been through session of CBT without avail. I have been conditioned to realize that tensing up always works all the time and things won't screw up if I do this ritual. I know its irrational but I cannot stop it. However I am just so unfortunate. One day when I tried to stop this ritual by relaxing. I managed to relax and everything went fine however 30 minutes later I saw a bedbug on my bed (one of my primary fears in life) and I freaked out and went into a panic attack. I called the pest control and they cleared those pests out and it was not a serious infestation. But the main point is : My worst fears usually don't come true when I tense up my muscles but OMG it actually did when I relaxed. However, months later I managed to get over it and tried relaxing again and not tensing up my facial, neck muscles. Just 20 minutes after that bad things or coincidences started to happen again. I drew my curtain and its snapped and fell . 10 minutes after when I left my house to throw the garbage, there was a hole in the bag and rotten meat started falling out all over the floor. It was so scary I started crying and freaking out as it my hypothesis is really true that I have to tense my muscles my entire life or bad stuff like this will happen all the time. I really do not know what to do and I am contemplating stopping school and later work and just sleeping in my bed as I cant relax anymore. The weird thing is that I am still able to sleep with no problem but when I get back up in the morning at 8am before work all these fflashbacks of the previous coincidences keep flushing in my mind that I cannot relax anymore as this coincidences might happen again.

I followed someone for the first time on KZfaq. I am going to follow with your all videos. I need help as I am suffering from OCD .

i am 20 years old and from small i have this pblm from early age idont know what to do i also have dreams bad dreams but i try to control by haring songs and watching romantic movies witch has less action but i watch action movies and ilove em and when ever i see blood i get scared that i may like it at the age of 11 i hurt a kid by cutting his hand with a blade and i still remember the flesh opening up wheni cut him deep from that day onwards i isolated my self from all family ties icontrol my fear by laughing idontget angry much often but if i do get angry i cant control the urge to kill or seeing blood i always hurt myself to become normal and control myself by cutting myself or locking myself up and punching the cubord plz help idont go out i dont hve freinds and i need help

Katie, i understand what your saying about just let the thoughts be, and don't fight them. but what do i do then? what is a step by step thought process that i could follow? For instance, i dont fight the thought to check something again, so i let the thought sit in my mind, and then do i let it leave by just doing something else that takes my mind off of it? How do i stop myself from jumping on the train?

thanks for this I have OCD. :)

So distracting yourself from the thoughts is'nt helpful as it makes them worse? Same as ignoring them? Also with stopping the thoughts - i have a habit from my panic attacks is saying stop to myself in my head - this is a bad idea with OCD?

Dear Katie, I looked in the amazon there are too many books by various author with the same title " overcoming OCD". Is there a particular book / author you were mentioning? Plze recommend. Thanks Jay.

Dear Katie, first of all thankyou so much for those wonderful videos. Secondly where can I get those " overcoming OCD" videos?. Also please give us some more resources if you can. Looking forward for more videos on ERP, infact if you can make us a step by step ERP with more examples it would be great. I totally understand the ERP principle, when I watched your videos and I thought it should not be that though. But actually when I applied it in my practical situation I couldn't do it more than some time as the urge was extremely forceful. Please if you can guide us step by step on how to beat this monster I would really appreciate that. There are not many people ( without OCD) who understand the pain of OCD sufferers and their mental agony . Thankyou so much for understanding our problem and it's intensity. Thankyou for your time and effort in providing us the best resource. Looking forward for more videos and the site to find " overcoming OCD" video.

Hello, Katie! I want to ask you this thing. I do ocd rituals in my head like counting something and repeating some words over and over again. It's a thought too so should I ignore it and let it be there, resist the urge to do that or should I do something else? I'm a little bit confused about that.

I'm New to OCD. Which thoughts?

hi katie i had this problem like couple yrs ago but i was able to get rid of it but now it seems that the thoughts are coming in more frequent and yes i have tried to block them and push them im scared of them they are images of me hurting my family animals i love animals i never wana hurt them but its just images please help im scared.

HI I don,t know if I have ocd but I have a compulsive issue when I want to remember a name in the past there faces pop up and then it begins im in my head for hrs tring to remember can you define what this is and why I cant just stop thinking about it

I have motion sickness and when I am in the car I have OCD thoughts that tells me to throw up in the car.....do I just do nothing when that happens....I often get sick in the car.

Hi Katie I am new to OCD. and My Problem is i cant control my Thoughts and its too difficult for me too face it all the time When i consulted Psychiatrist, I said everything about what i have been going thorugh,and he said i am having "God Fear n Few", Does these all comes under OCD ? I am facing many problems due to this,I dnt knw when will i get rid of this an how to face, Would you Help me by few suggestions ?

Thank you!

Thank you!