The Secret to Beating OCD: Make Your Compulsions as Annoying as Possible

The secret to beating OCD isn't about stopping your thoughts - it's about making your compulsions as annoying as possible. When we make something incredibly difficult to do, we're less likely to do it.

Think about it like this: if your goal is to eat less sugar, you'll probably be more successful if you don't have sugar around you. It's not that you're avoiding it completely - you could still go to the store and buy whatever you wanted. But you're making it more inconvenient, and that makes all the difference.

This same principle works with compulsions. Let me show you exactly how to make your OCD as annoyed with you as possible.

Remove or Relocate Items Used for Compulsions

If you find yourself doing the same thing over and over - tapping a specific object, washing your hands with particular soap, checking certain items - remove them or put them in inconvenient locations.

For example:

• Move soap to a bathroom where the whole family gathers (making it embarrassing to wash excessively)
• Put the object you compulsively tap in a different room
• Remove the specific cleaning product you use ritualistically

You're not making it impossible - just more inconvenient. Maybe you'll have a better chance of not doing it when that barrier exists.

Block Reassurance-Seeking Websites

If you tend to go to certain websites for reassurance - Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, health forums - put blocks on them. It doesn't have to be 100% permanent, and you can probably get around the blocks if you really want to. But you're making it harder.

If you notice you're in your room every day scrolling, researching, and seeking reassurance, your phone probably needs to stay outside your room. Make it more inconvenient to do that behavior.

When that urge hits, you can sit with the uncertainty on purpose: "Yeah, that question I have might be true, maybe it's not. I'm willing to sit with this discomfort." Make the commitment: "I'm not going to do this anymore. I don't care if this lasts 30 minutes, an hour, 2 hours - I'm not going to check."

Use Physical Reminders

Put sticky notes over areas where you find yourself doing compulsions most:

• Light switches you check repeatedly
• Soap dispensers you use excessively
• Your phone screen
• Computer keyboard

You can write "compulsion" on them, or just "C" if you have guests coming over. Have that reminder that you're making this more inconvenient for yourself.

Build in Waiting Periods

Set a goal with a 5-minute timer (or use a sand timer). When you want to check that lock, text that person, or ruminate on purpose, sit there instead.

But here's the key difference: don't just sit there thinking "This is horrible, this is horrible." Sit there with purpose: "Yeah, maybe this is going to happen. Maybe I do have whatever it is. Maybe I'm sick. Maybe I offended this person. Maybe God's disappointed in me. Cool, amazing, I love it."

Five minutes goes by - can you flip the timer again? Keep going until the urge genuinely decreases.

Create Structured Daily Practices

Some people create mandatory 10-minute mindfulness periods - not because of a compulsion, but as a daily practice. Every day at 2:30, pull out a mindfulness app and listen for 10 minutes. Not to relieve anxiety, but because "this is what I do every day at 2:30."

Others write down urges with timestamps: "I need to go ask for reassurance" - timestamp it. See how long you can go before giving in. Hopefully you don't do it at all, but you want to see those timestamps get further and further apart.

Use Current Activities as Delays

When the urge to do a compulsion hits, ask yourself: "What am I doing right now in my life?" Continue that activity. Are you playing a video game? Watching TV? Going boating? Finish this activity before you even think about doing the compulsion.

Usually what happens is the person thinks "I don't really feel as much need to do it anymore." The inconvenience worked.

Break Up Familiar Sequences

Compulsions usually follow patterns. How can you break that sequence?

Example pattern: "Came home from school. On the drive home, my brain says 'think about it.'"

Break it: "I'm going to have a conversation with my parent instead. I'm going to purposely not talk about OCD whatsoever."

Another example: "Come home from work, take shoes off, wash hands, go to computer."

Break it: "Come home from work, don't take shoes off, sit with that uncertainty, don't get on computer tonight."

Use different bathrooms. Change where you sit, where you sleep, where you work. Modify lighting. Different environmental changes can shift how you're feeling and interrupt automatic patterns.

The Social Media Example

Personal example: I don't want to be on social media as often, so it's not on my phone. It's really inconvenient - I only get to see it when I'm on my computer. Posting requires finding websites that help me schedule posts because they don't make it easy on the web.

When I pull out my phone thinking "I'm going to check Instagram," it's not there. At the beginning, I caught myself pulling out my phone repeatedly, but now it's automatic - it's not there, so I keep doing what I was doing.

I can still use social media, but I'm meeting my goal of not being on it as often.

Use Accountability Buddies

I know people don't always like this, but having someone who can help - a friend you can text saying "I'm struggling right now" - can be invaluable.

They can say "Check in in 5 minutes, let me know how you're doing." Then "How about 10 minutes?" Creating mutual accountability: "If you do this, I'll do this."

Combining with Exposure Therapy

By delaying compulsions and making them inconvenient, you're doing a lot of the ERP work already. What we add with exposures is actively facing the fear - touching the thing that triggers you, doing the action that scares you (as long as you're not breaking your morals or values).

Then use the inconvenience factor: purposely don't do the compulsion. Repeat this process over and over.

Is This Just Avoidance?

People might say "Aren't you just avoiding if you take the app off your phone?" Kind of, but not really - you're making it inconvenient, and you could still do it if you wanted to. You're making it harder, not impossible.

It's going to feel like avoidance, but you're actually building tolerance. We slowly reintroduce these things back. If you only have soap in the kitchen, that's not for the rest of your life - it's just for now until you can resist that urge and feel more comfortable.

Then you move on, and it can be "soap central" in your house again.

The Key Principle

The goal isn't permanent avoidance - it's creating enough friction to give yourself space to practice sitting with uncertainty and discomfort. When compulsions are easily accessible, we tend to give in before we've had a chance to build tolerance.

By making them annoying and inconvenient, we create opportunities to:

• Notice the urge
• Sit with the discomfort
• Practice uncertainty responses
• Build confidence in our ability to tolerate distress

Think of it as training wheels for your recovery. Eventually, you won't need the inconvenience barriers because you'll have built the internal skills to resist compulsions even when they're easily accessible.

What's one compulsion you could make more inconvenient starting today?