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!”

  1. Hi james n mike..,i’ve been suffering from sensorimotor ocd since 7 years i.e. from when i was 19 to 26 which m right now.The catch in my story is that,in the previous 4 years it was attention given to hyperawareness of seeing in another’s eyes,breathing,urination evacuation, 24/7,but now i dont pay attention to these bodily processes but still they happen,i feels for me to effortfully do them.,which feels like totally oppisite of my personality which happens,for about 1 hr.,which happens once in 2 months,when m under meds.Pls help me..,i gusess this all happens bcoz m24/7 under anxiety state.

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    1. Yes indeed Kush, that’s why the true answer is always a multi-pronged strategy. Correct all 6 lifestyle factors. When you do this, you change your overall state from anxious, mind on overdrive, seeing danger and problems everywhere… to relaxed, happy, healthy and confident.

      Not paying attention to those bodily processes is a great start, and the right thing to do “in the moment.” But the true answer, the complete answer is to remove the cause of the problem — and that means correcting your overall state. Make it your top priority to check those 6 boxes every day. When you put the causes of happiness (health and peace of mind) in place, your problems simply won’t exist anymore. You’ll be simply, naturally, happy and healthy.

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  2. What do you think James? Or others?
    To be clear: I know 100% that i only want sex with women. I never felt that i realy want to do taboo thinks. Never had a real erection from taboo thinks. Only Groinal responses and in the morning sometimes a little erection.
    But in the morning when i just woke up my thinking was also more confused. Then the ocd takes over sometimes. But i think that this is because i’m not clear in my mind in the morning when i just woke up. Just like when you are dreaming, people can also dream strange things.

    I had only very rare egodystonic moments in my live with strange feelings.

    But a few months ago ocd started. Many checking, compulsions and all things that fits in ocd.
    I wrote many times to Jon Hersfield and he also think that i developed ocd.

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    1. Hi Tom, yes it’s all about attention. I did reply to your first comment on May 15th a little further up the page. Please check out those two articles, I think they will clarify things for you.

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  3. This is my post on the website of OCD Baltimore. I think it is important not only talk about unwanted thoughts but also unwanted (egodystonic) feelings that can sometimes happens in people their lives.
    Also strange sexual arousal, not every month but a few times in a lifetime for example.
    What i read on many websites like that from Jon Hersfield is that everybody can experience unwanted egodystonic feelings/arousal sometimes.
    I think many people have experience that sometimes in there lives.
    But that people can still be 100% straight!
    The attention people with ocd give to that occasional feelings is the problem. So By the wrong attention that feelings will become more pronounced.
    Beside that when you suffering ocd it is a fact that a unwanted thought wil pop up in your mind. After it pop ups it can also give an unwanted feeling. Thought-feeling-fear-wrong attention -fear-and so on.

    Do you agree the post below and what i discover?

    Tom March 29, 2016 at 12:10 pm – Reply
    Dear Jon,
    Does this mean everyone can experience strange egodystonic sexual arousal (occasionally)
    But people with OCD are going to give too much attention to an occasional strange sexual feeling so it can become an obsession?
    By the obsessive nature of the state of mind you can get ”caught up in feelings” The attention you give them, they create the real problem?
    Thinking and thinking what you feel, everything want to explain, the fears making them even worse and so on?
    By the obsessive character (OCD) weird sexual feelings (egodystonic) can get too much pronounce sometimes?
    I give my obsessive thoughts less space and check less and less. My OCD symptoms are getting less!
    So what you give attention on a wrong way can give OCD problemens that are there because of the wrong kind of attention?
    Exposure therapy in OCD is good because you get ‘out of the circle ” you create with your own mind? The sort of prison of obsessive thinking? Exposure therapy is like throwing someone who sleeps a bucket of cold water over the head so he is in reality again?
    OCD can give a sort of overload of egodystonic feelings?

    Jon Hershfield March 31, 2016 at 1:28 am – Reply
    Yes.

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  4. Hi James and Michael! I’m so thankful for this article. I’ve suffered from anxiety for nearly a year and I’m tired of every minute of my life feeling like a war with myself. I’m ready to get back to my carefree self. I have been doing The Linden Method, which has the same principle as you- diversion. I think my problem is that I over complicate things. I definitely try to problem solve- I obsess over creating mantras that might work for me. Sometimes they do and I think I’ve found my solution but when it comes back and my current mantra doesn’t work I start making it almost like a math problem “why didn’t that work, what can i repeat over and over to myself to prevent this next time?” My current problems are that I don’t just have unwelcome thoughts, i think “anxiety, ignore, anxiety, ignore, anxiety, ignore” in the background of my mind basically every second of every day which is causing me anxiety in itself. I also think ‘What if I have a panic attack?” frequently when I am talking to someone. I’m not even sure what I’ve done different but I’ve gotten myself out of this loop (usually only for a day or two) and then like your friend, when the twinges come back I’ve reacted. I know that this background chatter is harmless, as are any unwelcome thoughts but they don’t feel that way. How do I undermine them? If I keep telling myself “I don’t care” every few seconds and continue doing what I’m doing despite how I’m feeling, will my brain catch on? I guess the point of what I’m saying is that I’m anxious about being anxious because I know I’m making the problem worse. Thankful for your input!

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    1. Hi Pumpkin Spice,

      I’ve been sitting here for a while trying to figure out how to answer you without it sounding like a sales pitch. Because the absolute best thing you can do, the biggest shortcut you can take, is to read the book. It only takes about an hour. I was going to tell you about this that and the other thing, but the true solution is to remove all the causes of what you’re experiencing. This requires a multi-pronged strategy. When you put the book into practice, the outcome is health and peace of mind — feeling good for no reason. Everything you’ve described will fall away out of your life.

      Best wishes,
      James

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  5. Good article ,
    Does this work for all types of OCD?
    I am suffering of many different taboo and also gay sexual intrusive thoughts.
    I no that i not really want that what pop ups in my mind.
    But because of the Groinal responses i keep worrying.
    At the other hand i notice that my groin also can react only when i am affraid that it reacts.
    I have no erections, only in the morning sometimes a little growing there because of an intrusion or only because of the fear getting one.
    I suppose that i am in the morning more vulnerable for the ocd.
    Is that possible?

    So i was also wondering how my groin can react on taboo and gay thoughts. I mean is everything on a continuum????
    Or is that because of the confused ocd thinking and wrong attention?
    But how can that happen?

    I mean sometimes i think i my mind sexual thinks that i never want in real life! That happens only very rare but that is how the ocd ever started.
    Has everybody sometimes (like i have very rare) egodystonic thoughts? I mean thoughts or feelings you never want in real life.

    I hope you can help me with these questions.

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