I-CBT skills for OCD: How to Recognize Obsessional Doubt vs. Healthy Doubt

Doubt is a form of advanced thought that can be a healthy asset of human experience.  Sometimes the seed of doubt might sprout into intuitive knowing that guides us to safety.  Sometimes doubt comes accompanied with an uptick in anxiety, which can lead to a more alert state. This hyper-vigilance can lead us to discover otherwise missed details, and overall, improve our life outcomes.  

For clients with OCD that come into my office, the OCD has usually led them astray far more times than they can count, but conversely, has saved them and their loved ones from harm.  Sometimes this doubting, questioning mind has led to wildly successful careers — other times it has caused them to live in the outskirts of their own lives, always suspicious that the other shoe will drop.  

If you are a person with OCD, a critical step in your treatment is learning to distinguish between Healthy Doubt and Obsessional Doubt.  

Healthy Doubt sprouts from concrete evidence in the present (not stories about something that happened to someone once, or an anecdote from the internet).  Healthy Doubt uses the five senses, as well as context, to determine the relevancy of a concern. 

Finally healthy doubt is usually short lived — action is taken or not taken, but ultimately, the doubt settles and does not get re-hashed ad nauseam.  

On the other hand, Obsessional Doubt is a lingering, ethereal feeling.  Obsessional Doubt is based not on the current senses and new information.  Rather, it stems from an OCD story (an imaginative cause and effect sequence) or a traumatic memory.  Obsessional doubt plays in a loop tape in your head, without new context or relevancy to the present.  Obsessional doubt tends to revolve around certain themes, which represent manifestations of the individuals’ core fears, rather than doubt based on true dilemmas in the here and now.  

Most importantly, while Obsessional Doubt coming from OCD might represent a possible harm, it does not represent a probable one and therefore, is an irrelevant doubt.

OCD draws our brains into living in the fantastical rather than in the truth of our everyday lives.  

If you feel ready to utilize I-CBT in your OCD treatment, please reach out to Kairos Wellness Collective today.