
As an OCD sufferer, being triggered by an intrusive thought or starting to feel a disagreeable sensation can be much worse than just a small irritant.
For many of us, especially those of us who have habituated ourselves to routinely arguing, pushing away, or attempting to resolve these triggers, the simple encounter with an unwanted trigger can immediately set off our fight or flight response and turn on the cortisol-soup inner state so many of us deal with.
The maxim to simply allow the thoughts and feelings to be there and watch them come and go can often feel completely unattainable to the many of us who find the unwanted, intrusive thoughts absolutely repellant, unbearable, terrifying, shame provoking, and/or cringeworthy.
This is because the fundamental nature of what OCD chooses to go after are the things we care about to the highest degree that are ego dystonic, or go directly against our values and what we care about. For instance, someone who values their hygiene and the well being of others around them that suffers from contamination OCD may feel that their ‘inherent dirtiness’ will contaminate and ultimately sully, injure, or even kill those they care for around them who they come into contact with. This will drive the sufferer into a downward, never ending spiral of compulsive behaviors (such as checking, washing, re washing, re checking, washing again, etc, etc.) in order to attain a cleanliness level that mitigates or eliminates their fear. In fact, in writing these words, even the notion of mitigating this fear wouldn’t be good enough for the sufferer who wants to make sure that he or she eliminates any possible doubt or degree of uncertainty that he/she is dirty and may infect others.
As you can see, this cycle is endless and any temporary relief brought about by the compulsion response will only be good enough to bring down the intensity of the anxiety and fear, but not to provide a foundation of reassurance or confidence that they can rely on, thus belying the very reason they engaged in the compulsion in the first place.
So how does one, who cannot bare to exist with the repulsive or terrifying feelings they get when triggered deal with unbearable, ego dystonic thoughts and sensations when resolving them or neutralizing them doesn’t work and in fact brings them further away from peace?
The answer doesn’t lie in willful action, at least not in the presumed direction we instinctively will take towards achieving resolution.
In the passage that follows, I have laid out three very useful responses for how to deal with acute feelings, sensations, and thoughts that provokes fight or flight and usually triggers us to confront them head on. Instead of going into your typical default mode of defending yourself from unwanted triggers I recommend you try your favorite approach from the below (or play around with all 3 of them), and see how it changes your experience.
1. R.A.I.N. by Tara Brach
Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture
The R.A.I.N. technique is a mindfulness-based process that gently leads you through the storm of an OCD trigger.
The acronym entails:
- Recognize the thought, emotion, or sensation that’s arising. Naming it helps create distance: “This is fear,” or “Here is that urge again.”
- Allow it to exist without fighting it. You’re not approving of the thought—you’re choosing not to battle it.
- Investigate the feeling and sensations (not the content of the thought) with curiosity. Where do you feel this in your body? What color, shape, or texture is it? This step invites compassion and non-reactivity.
- Nurture yourself. Offer soothing words, kindness, or even just the acknowledgment: “This is hard, but I’m safe right now.”
R.A.I.N. helps us handle more extreme feelings and thoughts by turning our experience from one of fight or flight into one of passive observation.
This creates just enough inner space to avoid being engulfed by the trigger—and in that space, healing becomes possible especially when we shift our mindset towards self compassion.
2. Let the Mind Chatter On, But Don’t Pay It Any Attention – Michael Singer
Michael Singer’s approach encourages a complete shift in perspective: your intrusive thoughts are like background noise—chatter from a hyperactive roommate who never stops talking.
The key instruction here is to let the mind do its thing without trying to correct, resist, or engage with it.
- When a disturbing thought arises, don’t argue with it, just let it chatter on without paying it any attention
- When your brain screams for reassurance or to follow the flow of an emotionally powered reactive feeling, don’t go with it yourself. Your brain can go with it, but you (your attention) stays focused on the here and now.
This more cut and dry method teaches detachment. By refusing to “buy into” the urgency of the OCD mind, you train your system to stop treating the thoughts as threats. Over time, this reduces the perceived danger of the triggers and starves the compulsion cycle of fuel.
3. P.A.S.S. – Pause, Awareness, Shift, Step Into
Here is my personal favorite (which I’ll elaborate on in my next blog on the matter).
P.A.S.S. is a four-step mindfulness framework that creates an intentional break between being triggered and reacting compulsively.
- Pause: The first and most vital step. Interrupt the automatic reaction. Take a breath. Create space.
- Awareness: Without judgment, observe what’s going on internally. What sensations? What thoughts? Is this really what the current moment is giving you or is this what you’re pushing onto yourself with no need required for it? Also become aware of the good resources you have at your disposal too (your intelligence, sense of humour, loved ones, pets, nature, your goals, etc.)
- Shift: Gently reframe the moment. What positive resources are around you or with you that you can make use of and enjoy?
- Step into: Step into those resources and choose your next action intentionally. Not from fear, but from values. It may be returning to your day, making tea, or calling a friend—not performing a compulsion.
P.A.S.S. empowers you to stop running on autopilot. Instead of being hijacked by your OCD circuitry, you reclaim your agency—one pause, one choice at a time. It also enables you to live life according to a much fuller, more accurate life view where OCD becomes just 1 small thing amongst many in your life, and no more the director of what you have to do.
Reclaiming Your Mental Freedom
These frameworks—R.A.I.N., Singer’s Detachment, and P.A.S.S.—all serve a common purpose: they carve out headspace between you and your trigger and provide a more adaptive path forward.
That space is where freedom lives., so step into it. When you stop trying to wrestle the thought to the ground, and instead take one of these routes, you’ll notice OCD’s grip lessen and other (better) thoughts and feelings will start to pour into your life.
The bottom line here is that recovery doesn’t come from resolving intrusive thoughts. It comes from changing how you relate to them. So try these tools, and please by all means reach out and let me know how they worked for you as well any extra insights or additions you think other sufferers would find helpful.