As you've noticed, "solving" the thought just makes it happen more. And trying to push it away only tells your brain that it's important. What works really well is just agreeing with the thought, accepting the possibility, and then carrying about your day and acting according to your values. This shows your brain that the thought doesn't matter. But you have to show your brain with actions. Arguing only makes it worse

"What if it's not even a banana?" OH MY GOD, this is so spot on, ahaha.

It is difficult but so is running or mountain climbing. Healthy exercises are generally difficult at first and they make you sweat and wear you out. But imagine if every time you went for a run, as soon as you started to sweat, you tried to "calm" your sweating. You'd never get good at running. The same is true for anxiety. If you try to stop feeling anxiety, you're never going to improve your ability to handle anxiety.

This is so dead on about how the ocd mind goes on and on about something......searching for answers. I live this quite frequently. Currently as a matter of fact. When you were doing the banana thing...it really hit home...had to comment right then. Now I'm going to finish watching it...thanks for your insight.

I'm glad I ran across your video. I have had OCD my entire life, and today is a bad day with my "false memory OCD" and all the "WHAT IF???" questions. You're video made me laugh and brought comfort. Thank you!

From one OCD sufferer to another, thank you! Your videos are very ensightful and I have found them to be extremely motivational on my road to beating my own irrational obsessions.

This is the perfect analogy! I have never heard someone explain ocd so well. Thank you! This made me feel so much better about having a terrible OCD day.

Just wanted to say thank you for all these videos. Got a lot of confirmation on things that I needed. Really appreciate it. Certainly no steps backward. Only forward.

I can't believe I've only just found this video, having watched nearly all the others. This is just brilliant. Mark - I heart you.

You are awesome! You're videos give me hope and inspiration. I'v been suffering from OCD my whole life but only within the last few years have come to understand that. It comes and goes, but I really determined to finally overcome it for good!

Thanks, Robert. That's great to hear. All the best as you continue along the road to recovery!

I am not a psychologist I just experienced these problems are still have them. But I've just Accepted them they are part of me you can't hate your self I still experience these thoughts but I sit back and let them flow.

"People say I'm good at thinking" I lost it here, you're awesome.

mark, this is truly one of the most brilliant youtube videos I have ever seen. your mind and your approach and your humor make for a powerful message!

Thanks so much! I'm glad the videos helped. All the best on this healthy journey you're on.

Thanks, I'm glad the videos are helping. Keep pushing along this path!

Thanks for checking it out! Yes, please do feel free to comment lots. If there's anything you want to see in a future video, let me know.

I just found your videos, they are amazing, they're helping me so so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you! 😊😊

Extremely helpful video they are start out as thoughts, exactly right when you label them you are showing your brain importance It doesn't matter if they go away or not they are still just thoughts. If you search the definition of thought they are just ideas in your head doesn't necessarily mean they have happened or not. Doesn't matter if it's graphical or whatever you call an image sound or your self sound box.

Thanks! I'm glad they're helping. It's totally normal to get angry when you first hear this kind of stuff. Recovery doesn't make sense, it just makes you healthy.

Your videos are everything to me. I feel the need to check things over and over again and it's gotten worse this summer. If I don't check them, I feel like something terrible is going to happen to me. To add to this, I have memories about did I really check the things I should check? It's very tiring to live this way, but thanks to you, I'm relief to know that I'm not the only one with this.

Hi Gary, no problem. Thanks for the comments. Maybe your question got cut off by the word limit in the other video because the only question in the comment is asking if you can ask a question. Try sending any questions you'd like to ask through KZfaq's email or through Facebook so there won't be a word limit. I'll try to answer them if I can.

This video brought me tears of happiness that someone understands

You're welcome! The things we all do in our heads are truly amazing.

hahahaha wow.. Thank you for making this video. It really helped me laugh at myself. I've been driving myself crazy lately and this made me feel better for at least a little while.

Many years later this is still incredibly powerful!

You are a good banana. This is very down into the nuts and bolts of what many people are working through. A refreshing approach indeed.

Many Thanks for yet again another fantastic video. I should comment a lot more on your videos. Great to see all these helpful videos for our disorder.

I always come back to this video when OCD starts making me question my self. Thank you! Nailed it 😂

Thanks! Yes, labeling that weather in our heads can seem really appealing and like we need to do it. But it's so much healthier to just let it be.

Mark, you don't have any idea how important you are to us! Thank you so much man!

Your videos and way sof tackling a topic aresooo refreshing

Also I want to thank you so much for trying to help me through this tough time....

Hey Mark, I think this also applies to the frequent question of "when is too much? "And did I do it right? Is it okay?" questions that anxiety leads to. You know if you did it right, and if you did it okay. You just have to trust yourself and then accept contradictory thoughts if they occur. Cheers for the video!

Great video! This is exactly what I do. Analyze thoughts that I had in my past sometimes as far back as 30 years ago!! I analyze them and try and think exactly how I felt then, and then determine if I really have OCD, or if it's really something else. Ugh! It's so annoying.

This video changed my entire perspective on OCD. I was struggling so badly back in 2013 but I found this channel, and my whole life changed.

WOW, this is actually making me laugh. I have False Memory OCD, Pure O, OCD and Borderline Personality Disorder. The way you are expressing EVERYTHING here is what goes on in my head. You are SO clever!!!!!

Thanks! I'm glad the videos are helping. It's tough living with OCD for a long time but keep pushing with recovery. It really is possible to see a big change and ditch the old compulsions. Just breathe and be present!

This is a really good video, thank you for making these

Weather passing over the soul! Excellent!!

This video is so funny, and everytime (yeah i have wached it many times) it remind me that my OCD is just in my head and why I need to keep fight it. THank you so much for this video it has helped me so many times.

it's sooo accurate! I was having a panic attack because of an intrusive thought that popped in my head about a past fact that I am really scared of. The anxiety was growing and growing and becoming overwhelming. I felt the urge to check if It really happened, if it was true or not, if it could happen again... I wanted to check on the Internet if it already happened to somebody else and how they got over it etc..... and then I thought it was better to look for one of your videos.. they're always helpful. I find it really hard to accept some thoughts when it scares you that much. I don't know how to do it when it's something you really really really don't want? I've been struggling with ocd for two years now. it gets better thanks to you, to Stuart Ralph, to my therapist and thanks to me also but sometimes it comes back harder for a while...

You're welcome! Keep pushing!

Wow this is actually so accurate. I always go over and over things in my head in this manner and put judgments and get upset for seemingly no reason bc like you said it's just a thought. Stop trying to label it... Thank you so much. Your videos are really helping me think rationally with my OCD.

thanks mark, I thought I was the only one thinking like this

Mark, ur my boy. You’ve helped me with so much brain shit. Much love

Thanks! We're all really good at thinking!

that is awesome and very helpful. thanks man

This channel is brilliant ! “Bananas are just bananas 🍌” is my new favorite phrase.

dude! these are great videos, so funny and accurate! many thanks!

U r an absolute legend. This is so helpful thank u!,

this is amazing and so so accurate!

Mark, this is brilliant! Although its a subject that I relate to in the exact way you describe it, I can't help but laugh at your delivery. Well done for making me laugh today! Kay

You did it again Mark 2:25 -:"The banana is real, but it's me that's not real" hahahaha

Hahahaha! Brilliant! Love watching ur videos! Might explain me commenting on the same ones over nover again: ) thanks Mark for all your help! Have to admit during my worst period on SIAD i was very angry with u (lol sorry!) But I've really grown to like what ur doing!

Very good video, although I'm sure the problem isn't completely solved this has made me feel 100% better. Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

I have this problem especially lately, thank you for this.

Brilliant. I keep getting stuck on thinking that some thoughts are more real than others. The banana part made me laugh out loud! Certian days I have this cloud hanging over my head (such as today), with a neckpain and headache. I feel so anxious and I cannot put my finger on why. I keep thinking on (feeling for) labelling things as "real love" and "unreal love". "Happiness" and not. Very frustrating. Despite this, when I am on a good mood, all of this is non-existant!!

Goosebumps. Thank you.

omg :56 to 2:57. LITERALLY what I did with my memories when my OCD was at its worst. Again. Thank you for this.

Brilliant video!!!

You are brilliant! Thank you 😊

Thanks! Fixing the nuts and bolts is a healthy place to start.

Stomach is hurting from me laughing 🤣such a brilliant video

Check out my videos on finding the root of your fear: "OCD is a weed..." and the video on "Harm O". But it's basically going to come down to finding out why you're afraid of death and understanding that's probably just a superficial symptom of a much bigger role OCD is playing in your life. With ERP, you should always follow some kind of program. Just launching into the thing that's bothering you the most is really tough. Build up your anxiety hugging abilities throughout your life.

Hi Mark, Just wanted to say thank you for all the videos!! They are so helpful and the warmth and humour you put into them is great. And with the right level of no-nonsense coaching! Thank you so much and keep the vids coming. :-) (PS. Do you not update your Facebook page anymore?)

Thanks! I hope it gives you some useful tools for accepting the thoughts bouncing around up there.

Thank you so much for helping us OCs

thank you so much! You're helping me so much

hahaha possibly the funniest thing ever. i really appreciate your ocd videos and you make recovery fun :) and it actually works

This is so true. Especially when you bring out the bananas.

SO funny, and spot on bro. This sounds a lot like my daily internal dialogue :p

Thanks! I hope they're useful!

I fall in this trap really badly! i get this big feeling of guilt or fear and feel like no escape

Another variation on this would be those who keep questioning themselves as to whether they might have already done some of these things, either very recently, or in the past

Thanks. I hope it helps.

I just want to say thank you for your video.

Earlier today I convinced myself that I had swallowed my cat’s thyroid medication, even though I would literally never do that. Spent hours looking online looking at side effects and having a panic attack.

"People say I'm good at thinking." Hahahahahaha.

Omg I do almost everything in these videos and I never thought that it would've been OCD because I'm not the most organized and beat person but now I know that that's just a stereotype.

You're welcome!

I am just so happy I am not alone

Wonderful video!

Had attended a wedding this weekend drank somewhat heavily nothing crazy,but several days after I'm peicing together everything I remember and what I can't remember I'm filling in the blanks with thinking I said or did something stupid but deep down I know I didnt, hate over analyzing even days after.

Hmmmmmm... I actually made this video in response to that very question. Maybe give it another watch. "Real" is just a label you stick on a banana, or a thought. All thoughts are "real" thoughts in that you really thought them. It's all just weather passing over you. OCD is in your reactions to thoughts, not your thoughts.

Hi Mark, I have been looking for your video where you made a great point regarding uncertainty acceptance in OCD, where you‘ve said „if we try to use a compulsion get rid of uncertainty, even if we succeed, the brain just creates a bigger uncertainty (and more anxiety) until we have reached a point where we cannot solve this uncertainty anymore“. What was the title again?

You are amazing!

So the choice is only one: be sure o recover! Thanks for all the resources you post on this channel! I'm actually a bit plagued by obsessive doubting about my everyday and long term choices and I fond myself using rationalization like "It's the last time" "Maybe you didn't analyze well the question" "This new information can change everything". Now everyday i'm trying to respond only to this question: "Do you want to recover or to be sure?" And I know for SURE what i want because I FEEL it. I find that people with OCD a lot of times struggle to trust themselves and the evidence that we can see at first glance. The reason makes our perception of things dirty and uncertain, we tend to doubt also what we should consider as granted (es. the love for a partner, our values and goals in life etc...) . Maybe we should also trust more our instinct and "gut" (and no, I don't mean our fears and anxieties but the healthy part of us).

Thanks!

Thank you sooooo much I thought my memory has a flow or something and that I couldn't remember shit and you just help me soooo much, thank you ❤️❤️❤️❤️

You saved me thank you !!!!!!

This hilarious but sooooooo true for us that have ocd

Thank you for the video made me laugh. But I have a problem dealing with the OCD with harm. And tinnitus the loud ringing in my ears. This weekend I feel really sick I really don't and didn't know what was going on but I was nervous anxious all day.

When an intrusive memory comes I tell myself"it's ocd I don't know if it's real or not"and then I try to move on sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't wat do u think

You are just great sir ty very much

But the great thing is that we can recover and we don't have to suffer with this.

Hey Mark, sorry to bother you again i was just curious to know if you have had chance to look ay question i posted on your video 'beat ocd tip 8- be unreasonable' ... im currently awaiting cbt at the moment so any advice or knowlodge would be really helpfull, hoping to hear back from you if you get chance, Thankyou.

LOVE IT

I feel there is another type of thought in me that doesn't aim at a compulsion. And that is plain sadness. I yesterday read a book title about ocd that had the subtitle" A life lost in thought". And I thought about what I would have experienced if I didn't have these issues. So imagined how beautiful everything might be. And now I have this strong yearning to undo the past. I know I can't undo the past and so this sadness just is there. I think it's not even related much to any issues. It's just sort of raw human pain. There is a scene in "little Miss Sunshin", starring Steve Carrell, in which the old grandfather goes on and on about his grandchild not losing time to experience life. And that's how I feel. It's a kind of raw despair that you can sit with but the poisonous sting within which is its unlikelihood of cessation. (There might be a component to it that is hostile, saying You wasted your precious time. The times that should have been your best ones are over and you made them hell ... But that's just an aspect.)

Mark I got to thank you,you really acted out that banana scene so those of us with o.c.d. could really see what is going on! I am stronger after that no kidding! I got my o.c.d. from hypothyroidism, the doctor gave me synthroid it made me sick as hell,lost 25 pounds in one week cried everyday finally developed into o.c.d..I finally got doctor to prescribe me a natural , armour thyroid,I'm getting better but still have the o.c.d.I have to get all answers to everything,I will hear just a piece of a song in my head and will have to remember the whole song,I have to carry binoculars around with me cause if I see something in the distance don't look right I have to pull out my binoculars and see it close up.other symptoms I have depression anxiety bad memory off balance etc.