5 Practical Techniques to Use Instead of OCD Compulsions

You know that exhausting cycle, right? An intrusive thought hits. The urge to do something about it feels overwhelming. You perform the compulsion. Relief washes over you for maybe a few minutes. Then the anxiety comes roaring back, even stronger than before. And the whole thing speeds up over time until you're trapped in a relentless loop.

Most people try to fight their way out of this cycle. "Don't think that thought anymore." "Just calm down." "Push it away." But here's the problem: fighting your thoughts and feelings actually trains your brain to treat them as legitimate threats. It's like telling your brain, "Yes, this IS dangerous, and we need to respond to it right now." That's what keeps the OCD cycle alive.

So what's the alternative? Today, I'm going to share five practical techniques you can use instead of doing compulsions. Instead of ruminating, checking, seeking reassurance, or performing mental rituals, you're going to learn how to respond differently to those urges in a way that actually retrains your brain.

Technique #1: Delay and Ride Out the Urge

When you act on a compulsion immediately, you're reinforcing a critical message to your brain: there IS danger here, and I need to neutralize it right now. But what if you just... waited?

Here's how this works: When the urge to do a compulsion hits, set a timer for five minutes. Tell yourself, "I'm giving myself five minutes before I engage with this thing." Before you wash your hands, before you ask for reassurance, before you check the door—just wait.

After five minutes, check in with yourself. Do you still want to do the compulsion? Maybe you do, and that's okay. Set another timer. Go another five minutes. I bet you'll start seeing that urge go down over time.

The Right Mindset for Delaying

Here's the critical part: Don't sit there for five minutes thinking, "Okay, this is going to go away. This is going to go away. Once I do it, I just got five minutes and then I can go do it." That's still giving the compulsion power.

We want the "maybe, maybe not" mindset. We're taking the threat and leaving it uncertain. Maybe we're even agreeing with it, but we're going to say, "I don't care anymore, man. I'm not trying to get rid of this thing. I'm just gonna wait and see how it feels."

Think of it like surfing. When you're in the water, the waves look massive. You're on it, you feel it, and it feels overwhelming. But when you're outside of it, looking back, you think, "Yeah, I probably didn't need to go do that compulsion." We want to get you to that moment where you're looking back at the wave instead of being consumed by it.

Technique #2: Agree with the Thought

This one sounds counterintuitive, I know. You might be thinking, "But I can't agree with it! That means I really think this thing is true!"

Here's what agreeing with a thought actually means: you're saying "I don't care." You're removing the thought's leverage over you.

When a thought comes in saying, "What if I yelled something horrible?" or "What if I didn't lock the door?" instead of rushing to debate it or prove it wrong, you respond with: "Yeah, man. Sure. Hope I left that door unlocked. Cool. Hope I yelled something inappropriate. Amazing. Pretty cool." And then you keep moving on with your day.

What About Taboo Thoughts?

I can already hear the objection: "But what about all the really taboo, disturbing thoughts?" Same thing. "Hey man, thanks for the thought. I love it. Amazing. I hope you keep giving me these thoughts today. Awesome."

Do you actually have to believe it? No! The idea is to almost be like a bully to your OCD. You're saying, "I don't care" with an edge of attitude. Sometimes I think of it like a birthday candle. If you have a candle sitting there and you don't blow it out, you're going to notice it. You're going to feel the urge to blow it out. But if you wait long enough, it's going to go out all by itself.

Yeah, it's going to feel uncomfortable for a while. But that's okay because you're teaching your brain along the way that this doesn't matter. Thoughts and feelings start fading away when we stop arguing with them.

Technique #3: Grounding

Compulsions often happen invisibly in our head. Mental replaying, analyzing, checking—these keep you stuck in your mind instead of moving through life. Grounding yourself means catching yourself in that moment and bringing yourself back to what you're actually doing right now.

"Oh yes, I'm writing this email. Oh yeah, I'm hanging out with my friends. I'm watching this movie." You're not pushing the thoughts away that are coming. You're letting them be there while you stay present in the moment.

Practical Grounding Techniques

Some people use the five senses technique: What are five things I can see? Four things I can touch? Three things I can hear? Two things I can smell? One thing I can taste?

But it doesn't have to be that structured. Just notice what's around you. I bet there are things in your room right now that have been there for years that you've never really noticed before. Look at the marks on the wall. Feel the texture of your chair. Notice the pressure of your fingers touching each other.

Here's the important distinction: We don't want to make this into a safety compulsion. You're not doing grounding to make the anxiety go away. You're doing it to say, "Hey, thoughts—you can be here, and I'm going to do this thing that brings me back to the moment."

Technique #4: Write It Out (Don't Ruminate)

Some people find it helpful to write out all the thoughts. Every single one. Put them on paper. Doesn't matter how taboo they are or what you think of yourself. Write out every little thought that comes up, and respond to it differently than you normally would.

For example: My brain says, "The stove is on." I write that down and respond with "maybe, maybe not" or I agree: "Yeah, man. Totally. The stove's on. That's great. Awesome. Extra heat in the house. Amazing."

Next thought: "But if the stove's on, it's going to start a fire." Response: "Yeah, man. Hope so. Amazing. Cool." We just keep riding it out, keep writing it out.

Don't Turn Writing Into a Compulsion

Critical caveat: If you're thinking, "I HAVE to write down this thought or else I can't get it to go away," that's a compulsion. The difference is in your intention. "I'm CHOOSING to do this while I'm having these thoughts. I don't care if it goes away. It can go away or not. Whatever. You be here if you want."

Technique #5: Do the Opposite

Compulsions feed on control. They tell you what to do, when to do it, and how many times to do it. So when the urge says "check one more time," you do the opposite. If it says "check seven times," maybe you check zero times or maybe one time. Break the pattern. Do it wrong.

OCD says "wash your hands again"? Sit with that unfinished feeling. "Get this thought out of your brain"? Cool, I'm going to sit here and smile while having this thought. "Don't touch that light switch"? Let me go touch it. "Don't have this thought"? Let me go have this thought.

The Meaning Behind Doing the Opposite

Here's the deal: we're not putting meaning on these things. We're not saying it's a good thing or a bad thing. We're not saying you're in danger. We're saying, "Who cares? Keep moving on."

Sometimes this can feel invalidating because you might think, "No, this DOES matter to me." And yeah, it does matter in a sense. But we know OCD is OCD. So let's take all the things OCD is telling us and say "mine's really bad" and respond with "nope, we're done with OCD, and that's what we're focusing on."

A false signal is being sent by your brain. The question is: How can I retrain that? We do it by resisting these compulsions. The more I can go without doing a compulsion, the more I'm teaching my brain something. I'm literally rewiring it to understand: You don't need to do the compulsion to feel safe.

Putting It All Together

These five techniques—delay it, agree with it, ground yourself, write it out, do the opposite—are tools you can use to respond differently when OCD hits. Each time you use one of these approaches instead of doing a compulsion, you're sending a new message to your brain. You're teaching it that these thoughts, feelings, and urges aren't threats that require immediate action.

The key is practice. You don't have to do all five every time. Pick the one that feels most doable in the moment and commit to it. Over time, as you practice resisting compulsions with these techniques, you'll notice the urges get weaker, come less frequently, and have less power over your life.

That's what recovery looks like: not the absence of intrusive thoughts, but the ability to have them without letting OCD run the show.