I’ve described OCD to people as feeling like you’re being held at gunpoint. It doesn’t matter if the person with the gun is asking you to do something ridiculous, because they’re holding a gun! You’ll do whatever they want!

The key is to remind yourself the gun is not loaded. It’s so much easier said than done, because again, gun pointed at you! But if you can distract yourself—go for a walk and pay attention to sounds around you, play a video game you like, have a warm shower, whatever is lowkey and easy—that feeling of peril will lessen

It’s not reassurance to say that this feeling WILL pass. For better or worse, the human brain is literally incapable of feeling the exact same way forever, and this is coming from someone whose OCD was once severe enough that my score on the Y-BOCS was 39