20 years of OCD cured in 2 days!

~ Michael Kinnaird

I often write about my friend who has “OCD” — obsessive compulsive disorder. Because the issues he faces are the same ones we all face.

His are just more extreme, more obsessive but they’re the same. Just two days after giving his full effort to just one simple technique he called me…

“I’m cured,” he said.

This was after months of severe anxiety states. He was shaking a lot of the time, sweating heavily at night. His thoughts were racing constantly and he couldn’t control them.

He had to stop work several times and his life was grinding to a halt as he avoided as much as he could and withdrew into his private world of pain.

The reason I’m telling you all this is to show you the amazing power of attention. The technique is simple — distraction…

Attention is where your power is. Attention is the volume control for thoughts — as I’ve told him a thousand times.

The “cure” lasted ten days. Ten days of almost complete normality with no sign of OCD. And it took only two days to go from gibbering wreck to happy and enthusiastic using only distraction. Amazing!

Old habits die hard

And his cure would have been permanent but for the fact that ten days later after burning the candle at both ends, he had some little twinges of anxiety that triggered the old way of thinking. Slowly for a further 4 days, he ramped the whole thing back up again.

Again, this has powerful lessons for all of us. “Old habits die hard” as the saying goes. After making changes, we need to be sure to bed them in well.

It’s like riding a bike

“This OCD” I tell him, “is just like riding a bike. You’ll always be able to do it. Just DON’T GET ON THE BIKE.” Unfortunately he did — despite the most severe warnings. I talk to him for hours and hours and hours. “I can’t do this without you,” he says.

The truth is that all this talking is really unnecessary in the sense that it has only one purpose. To convince him that distraction IS the answer — to explain to him that his way can never work, and to get him to commit 100% to the simple method of distraction. Once he commits; two days. He is normal after two days. Twenty years of OCD gone.

If you stick your hand in the fire… it ALWAYS burns

So… round and round we go. As I speak he’s fallen back into the old way. Now he needs me to talk him out because it’s very foggy in there. He can’t see his own way out. I hope and pray that this time he’s learned and he won’t need to stick his hand in the fire one more time to realize… IT ALWAYS BURNS!

Thoughts are… just thoughts

The lesson for you and me is that thoughts aren’t us. They are for the most part conditioned reactions that we believe in and identify with. Once you can see thoughts as just thoughts, you have the power to remove your attention from unwanted ones.

Now you have a choice — to pay attention or not. Whether it’s because you want to stop a bad habit or stop a thought loop about a girlfriend that just dumped you, the process is the same. Distract from thoughts you don’t want (ie. ignore them) and their power is gone.

The amazing power of attention

Once you know this simple process, you’ll find a thousand ways it can serve you. Someone says something hurtful? Distract. Worried about tomorrow? Distract. Craving unhealthy food? Distract.

This one simple technique ALONE can have a massive impact on your health and happiness because you always have choice. There is always a choice of where to put your attention. You can stop reacting to everything in the same old conditioned way — the way everyone else reacts — predictably.

Master the process

Now you make your decisions consciously. You are in charge — not old habits, old ways and the same old reactions. If distraction can end 20 years of misery in only 2 days, what can it do for you?

Learn and master the incredible power of attention and you’re going to get happier and happier.

It’s been 8 years I am searching for a cure. Just to tell you thank you so much, I started the attention (distraction) method and my OCD is fading away. Many thanks!!

— Jad, Canada

Update: I received this feedback from the friend I talked about in the article:

Sometimes there’s things you don’t want but it’s a reality. But I now know thinking can bring nothing but more suffering. I don’t do OCD anymore. Thanks to you. Love you brother x

— Paul Attwell, UK

Best wishes,
Michael Kinnaird

249 thoughts on “20 years of OCD cured in 2 days!”

  2. Hi James and Michael,

    It’s Teddy again, and it’s not an OCD thing I think…OCD isn’t really apparent in my life anymore! My problem is more of a spiritual one and I thought you guys would be able to really help. I’m a Christian. Always have been and never doubted the existence of God and at certain points I got really into the church. I’ve been baptized and confirmed, etc. but then I sort of had this crazy breakthrough that has really altered my perception at the moment. First off, most of the gospels are apparently historically immaculate. Second, there is so much bad stuff that happens in the bible. Third, many other civilizations have their own religions and past ones as well and for those past ones we see them as myths. But the fourth one is really my biggest problem and it really has made it hard for me. That is, I learned early in being a boy that you have to be able to fight back. You need to stand up to bullies, and be aggressive with them otherwise they won’t back off. You need to be able to punch back if need be (thankfully I’ve never been in that situation). And also in life, you need to be able to get what you want, be assertive, successful, etc. and that takes that same sort of thought process. But my problem is that this seems exactly contradictory to what Jesus said. He said “turn the other cheek”. Now in the past I would just say “oh well you can’t read the bible literally” but now, that just seems like bs if you know what I mean. “Oh well you can’t take the bible literally” works for things like Genesis but I feel like it doesn’t make sense in terms of going against what literally my savior Jesus Christ said. But I know that how I acted previously wasn’t bad or anything–it’s just life! And I know that I will continue to have to be that way, to be the man, be tough. It’s like I see famous American Football players praising God (Christians) and yet they themselves can be cocky, and violent, getting in fights sometimes. But in the past I wouldn’t really see this as anything against Christianity or wouldn’t really take it that seriously! So I don’t know what to think now, except for the fact that I will have to continue the way I was in the past. I am not a violent person or anything, I just have learnt that in life you need to stand up for yourself: physical, verbal, etc. if you can see where I’m coming from, can you please help me with this problem? Because I don’t want to lose faith over this situation. My school is a very secular environment, that never bothered me in the past but now I just can’t stop thinking about it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Teddy

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    1. Hi Teddy, it’s very difficult to talk about religion as people are very much identified with, and defensive about, their own particular branch.

      I will say this: Happy Guide is about creating a happy life and religion is not *required* for that. The big causes of happiness are health and peace of mind. When you have both of these conditions in place, the result is a simple, joyous “feeling good for no reason.”

      Nothing else is required. That state is pure and joyous — it requires no thought, no ideas about who we are, no mental self definition.

      Best wishes,
      James

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    2. Hi Teddy, a lot of the teachings of Jesus are riddles, intended I believe to cause those who hear them to want to discover their meaning, which is exactly what is happening with you, so it works :-)

      I’ve studied spirituality for a long time, and I’m familiar with the teachings of Jesus. Interestingly I once read, I think it was in the Tao Te Ching, that “a master creates confusion in those who think they know,” which certainly correlates to what Jesus strategy seems to be :-)

      The opening line of the Gospel of Thomas which is basically a list of the sayings of Jesus is “Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death.” So the goal is for the person to “discover.”

      Also, I agree with you that the Bible is a mishmash of documents and writings, some of which have been interfered with, stuff added, stuff removed. And it is certainly incorrect to take the Bible as the finished Word of God to the people, as many do believe… that is if it is in the Bible, it’s “Gospel.” :-)

      To your dilemma… Jesus often spoke about what I consider to be “the finish line,” e.g. love thy neighbor, turn the other cheek, etc. In my experience, trying to be something, like loving towards your neighbor, or loving towards an attacker, verbal or physical, is basically egoistic. The ego by my definition is a false sense of self caused by identification with thoughts. So the ego wants rules, definitions; “here is who I am and what I do in x situation.”

      The ego phenomenon is cause by a split from being “whole” in the first place, and so trying to define ahead of time what you need to do in x situation in order to be a good Christian, is not the way to go in my experience and opinion.

      Deciding ahead of time straitjackets you and totally limits your freedom to act in the best possible way according to what x situation is, which cannot be defined ahead of time.

      BUT when you practice living in the moment, which is what being whole is, then you bring all that you know and perceive into any action you take, and you allow your unconscious, bigger and creative mind, to work through the conscious to create the best action for that situation.

      There are a million factors that could play into x situation, and the conscious mind cannot do that math and pop out the answer but the unconscious can.

      Jesus also warned against worry, which is what you do when you project an imagined future bad thing into this moment, and then worry further about who you are in relation to all that.

      Wholeness brings self-trust. When you focus your energy onto being whole (present), then you start to trust the unconscious creative self to act spontaneously in the moment in the best way, it becomes a powerful experience.

      So really it boils down to “how can I be my best self in every moment” and that is the 6 lifestyle elements in the book. All powerful individually, and give the best results when working synergistically.

      The core teaching of Jesus is love, and that is wholeness too “thy will be done,” “I and the father are one.” What happens if someone attacks you and you are whole, loving? Do you then hit back? In my experience no, because love always wants to heal, and sees clearly the situation with millions of interconnected causes. We hit back when something in us is hit, so out of that pain we hit back. But what if nothing gets hit, no pain, only love? That is what Jesus is talking about when he says “turn the other cheek.”

      So align with love by being present essentially, it’s a very simple thing, but not easy to do at first, it takes a consistent intention and effort. And then see what you do from this consistent state of presence. Align, experience “loving your enemy.” That is a powerful experience that can never be had by the egoistic decision through worry to try to be better.

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  3. HI Mike ,

    I have taken antidepressant for 5 yrs.As its side effect i have lost my Libido (Sexual Desire).

    I have taken different tablets to regain my libido back but none of them helped me. I have tried
    Bupropion ,Buspirone , Pramipexol tablets to increase desire but non of them worked for me. I have not able to feel pleassure in pleassurable activities. I have dopamine defficiency as a result i have not feeling plessure in doing sex.
    I am very frustrated now. Can you please help me to regain my sexual desire. Please tell me how to increase dopamine.

    I have taken HAppy Guide book last year. I am doing exercise also but nothing is helping .

    PLease help me regarding this problem.

    Thanks in advance.

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    1. Hi Atul, I’m sorry to hear about your situation. The nature of your question suggests you haven’t fully absorbed the book yet :-) It’s important to understand the mindset, and put it all into practice — it all matters. This gives your the body the best opportunity to perform as it should in every way — and also allows you to simply feel good for no reason. Health and happiness is our natural state, so if you’re not feeling it, your lifestyle still needs correcting.

      Best wishes,
      James

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      1. HI James ,
        Thank you for replying me.

        I am following the Happy Guide book. But my question is how to come out of antidepressant Sexual Desire lost side effect. I am not able to feel pleasure in pleassurable activites like listening music , doing sex etc. Due to prolong use of antidepressant dopamine defficiency occured. Dopamine is pleasure chemical in the brain.From last 3 yrs I have tried different medication to increase sexual desire but not helped any.
        I want to increase Dopamine level in the brain.

        Do you know any method to increase Sexual Desire without any side effect?

        Mike is on vacation?

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      2. Yes — put the causes of health and happiness in place. That’s the only way to do it without any side effect. Drugs are not needed for our bodies to function properly. They didn’t even exist until very recently in our evolution. Plus, there is not a single drug out there that doesn’t have side effects, because they are unnatural. This is key information. Trust me Atul, I know that you’re not familiar with the book, or at least have not taken it “on board.” Please read it carefully, it’s all there. If you were familiar with the “Discover the Happiness Secret” and “Be Free from Drugs” chapters especially, your questions would be answered :-)

        Best wishes,
        James

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      3. In other words — all you need to do is focus on putting the Happy Guide lifestyle into practice. This gives your dopamine level (and all other levels) the absolute best chance to regulate themselves. You won’t even need to know what dopamine is :-)

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      4. OK Thank you James.

        I will put the Happy Guide lifestyle into practice.
        Is antidepressant induced Sexual Dysfunction side effect goes automatically without any medication.

        From last 4 yrs ,it is present. I am frustrated for this.

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      5. There is every chance Atul, because the Happy Guide lifestyle will give your body the best chance to do its housekeeping and function fully. You may be able to short-cut the process a little in terms of your actual issue, by prioritizing certain foods. I remember seeing a documentary about guys who solved sexual dysfunction by including raw onion, I think it was, in their diet. Worth Googling anyway :-)

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      6. Hi Atul, I will just quickly add what what James has already said. Depression is caused by inflammation which has many causes that all need to be addressed through lifestyle e.g. balancing essential fatty acids, removing grains and dairy etc. All these things are critical in that failure to address any cause may keep you trapped. That’s why it’s always a multi-pronged approach.

        Stress is another factor feeding into inflammation, so you’ll be wanting to do as much as possible to stay relaxed and not send signals to your body that danger is everywhere.

        Severe inflammation can be tricky to resolve as the biochemical processes involved can create a self-perpetuating cycle. Fasting is the fastest way in my experience to resolve inflammation, as the body starts cleaning up by a process called autophagy. You could simply skip breakfast every day, or just have something light like grapes or watermelon for a month or two and this will help.

        Follow the diet precisely because it is designed to be anti-inflammatory. Initially it will probably be helpful to increase your omega-3 more than maintenance level, so you could have oily fish every day for a while.

        Focus on resolving the inflammation and creating health (homeostasis). That’s the key. Drugs can never address these causes, and just add more long term problems as they throw delicate biochemical pathways even more out of balance.

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      7. Thank you for your valuable information Michael & James.

        I will follow the direction suggested by you & will inform you about the updates.

        Thanks once again.

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      9. Atul,

        Many clinical observations relate an early (between day 2 and day 7) effect of fasting on depressive symptoms with an improvement in mood, alertness and a sense of tranquility reported by patients.

        http://www.psy-journal.com/article/S0165-1781(12)00815-3/abstract

        From the conclusion…

        Today many studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of anti-inflammatory drugs in psychiatric disorders. Our goal in this article was to increase psychiatrists’ awareness of the potential positive effects of adjunctive fasting therapy on mood.

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      10. Thank you Michael.

        For cooking of food which cooking oil will you recommend , considering my sexual desire lost case.

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      11. Hi Atul, almost every symptom we can experience, almost every disease, including loss of sexual desire, has the same causes — loss of health. So the solution is restore health. For cooking, I would recommended oils that are low in omega-6 like beef tallow, lard, duck fat, olive oil and coconut oil.

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  4. Thank you James. I 19 and I am super straight and I am very masculine. But recently I was watching a video on YouTube about gay and it knocked the wind out of me…. I had fear what would happen if I was gay.?am I gay? Etc. Than I went in net and learnt that its a type of ocd called HOCD or sexual orientation ocd. And the treatment is ERP… exposure response prevention. And my ocd went within a day or two. Then a couple of days later I saw caitlyn Jenner video. I got ocd of what I am a transgender…. I got rid of it fast. Then I saw a documentary on mental illness. And ocd kicked in….. I was having same symptoms as a pervious commenter asuthosh had. But I hardly had these thoughts for 3 days. But I thought I would venture deeper into what caused all these idiocy so I went on a blog about HOCD and it was very good later I saw comments section it made me panicky because I saw a guy comment that he cured it within a few months and another man who still gets chronic thoughts for years. Well I had had cured it within couple of days.. So this makes me afraid that is my approach effective because I just treat it like a vague thought that doesn’t require my attention. And it worked perfectly. But others took a long time . This makes me afraid about relapse and I got a relapse I cured it instantly. So. What to do.? Should II o I am obsessing that have i really cured myself….? And I. Would also like to know. How Mr asuthosh is coping with his ocd….thank you again for the positive post.

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    1. In so many cases the OCD label is sooooo unhelpful. It pains me how often people either self diagnose OCD or are even officially diagnosed by a professional, when really all that happened was you reacted to, and paid attention to, something that required ZERO attention. You reacted to an *idea* with shock/fear and then gave lots of attention/importance to the resulting thoughts and feelings.

      Because you reacted “big” to the *idea* of being gay, the thoughts and emotions keep popping up and seem incredibly important. That’s how the mind works. We communicate what is important to our brains by how we *react* to events, thoughts and ideas. But instead of realizing that *we* created the sense of importance, we interpret it as something that we just weren’t aware of before, or that somehow arrived “externally”… So we think “Omg, I can’t stop thinking about this — it must be true!!!”

      But no, the *whole thing* was entirely self created. Big reaction of shock/fear to an idea, followed by lots of habitual attention. That’s all that happened.

      So. You know you’re straight and now you know *how* you created this, you can relax and ignore all thoughts and emotions on the subject. When you do that, they will fade away out of your world… and because you don’t care about them anymore, you won’t even notice.

      Best wishes,
      James

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    2. Hello..,i just wanted to answer about ur concern of u getting cured in 3 days,another person in months,and an another person who has been struggling from chronic thoughts for years.Its not a matter to worry,the cure can happen anytime.

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