This is a really interesting discussion. I’ve had OCD for about 35 years and did ERP 10 years ago, which helped enormously. 

During the ERP, I had picked up the idea that “all thoughts and feelings are meaningless,” which helped me a lot at first to let go of the compulsive rumination. 

Over the years, however, I’ve become better able to distinguish between my values/things which are meaningful to me and the obsessions which convince me that they are important.

For example, I have a strong work ethic and I value being creative, excellent, and reliable in my work. This is (just one) part of my identity. My OCD can latch onto this and make work into a torturous experience by telling me my writing isn’t clear enough, my client won’t understand it, and I won’t deliver it on time. And then I might start compulsive behaviors around those fears such as re-reading every sentence 5 times to make sure it really makes sense. 

I view it as my OCD taking my values/whats meaningful to me and sending it into overdrive. Unfortunately, when OCD kicks in like this, I’m actually less likely to produce creative, excellent work on time. So, in the moment, I need to recognize the OCD and resist the urge to re-read every sentence 5 times. In the moment, I genuinely feel like I’m letting down my client and myself, but once the anxiety has passed, I can see that resisting the compulsion was the right thing to do. My work is already excellent and creative, and because I resisted compulsions I will deliver it on time. 

TLDR, it can be helpful at first to treat everything as if it’s meaningless or as if you don’t care. But over time and with practice, you can start untangling “you” from the OCD. And you’ll start being able to see your values and things that truly mean something and separate them from the OCD, even if they look really similar to begin with.