Allen H. Weg, Ed.D. Stress & Anxiety Services of New Jersey, LLC Springfield, NJ East Brunswick, NJ
From Wikipedia: A paradox is a statement that, despite apparently sound reasoning from true premises, leads to a self-contradictory or a logically unacceptable conclusion.
From Vocabulary.com "This statement is false." If you think it's true, then it must be false, but if you think it's false, it must be true. Now, that's a paradox!
From Wikipedia: In psychotherapy, paradoxical intention is the deliberate practice of a habit or thought, undertaken to identify and remove it.
A counterintuitive proposition is one that does not seem likely to be true when assessed using intuition, common sense, or gut feelings. Bottom line- Its not what you expect!
I need to think on purpose that something bad is going to happen because I did not engage in my ritual of checking, repeating, or washing. So: I DON’T reassure myself during exposure, but rather, I “obsess on purpose”
I think to myself on purpose that I did hit someone, that body parts are dangling from the grill of my car, and there is a trail of blood for the police to follow, and I will be jailed, and my family will be publically humiliated, and I will be shunned forever.
and when I serve them dinner, I imagine that I did put chemicals in the food and that my family will all be poisoned during this meal.
So, in my attempts to feel in control, I make my parents answer a very long series of reassurance questions at bedtime, which makes them very angry with me, keeps me and them up late every night, making it difficult for me to function the next day in school. I lose control of my life.
I need to embrace the uncertainty, the possibility of bad things happening, or the uncertainty that maybe I will do something out of control, take that knife and kill someone, blurt out that curse word during church services, die of a horrible illness.
Should be the very thing you run towards
Do your best by not trying to do your best. Strive for mediocrity!
Surrender in order to win. Embrace the anxiety. If you want to think about it less, think about it more. Make it worse on purpose.
If I am afraid to get contaminated, I need to contaminate myself. If I am afraid and so I have to tap, rub, count, or repeat, THAT is the VERY thing I SHOULD NOT be doing.
Leave the door unlocked, inviting in burglars and rapists. Bump into people on the street, potentially injuring them. Misspell a word. Write off the printed line. Write a wrong answer. Risk NOT getting the “A.”
Do the thing that OCD warns you NOT to. Think the very thing that OCD tries to scare you with.
Do what you are afraid to do! Think what you are afraid to think! Fly into the darkness!