I need to say something that’s probably going to annoy some people.

Watching OCD and anxiety content for six hours a day is not the same thing as practicing recovery.

I get why people do it.

When you feel scared, confused, desperate, overwhelmed, uncertain, or mentally trapped, information feels soothing.

Between watching TikToks, saving carousels, listening to podcasts, searching Reddit threads, watching another “5 signs you have OCD” video while lying in bed like a Victorian child slowly fading into the abyss – it feels productive.

It feels like:
“I’m working on myself.”
“I’m trying.”
“I’m learning.”
“I’m healing.”

Meanwhile your brain is basically sitting there like: “Ohhhh okay. We are spending six straight hours focused on this. Guess this must be incredibly important.”

And now OCD is fully clocked in.

The Internet Has Accidentally Turned Recovery Into A Spectator Sport

I’ve worked with OCD and anxiety since 2008 and one thing I’ve noticed over the last several years is that people now consume recovery content almost nonstop.

Some people know:

• every therapy term
• every subtype
• every compulsion
• every recovery account
• every ERP explanation
• every Reddit opinion
• every “sign you’re healing” infographic

And yet they still feel completely trapped.

Understanding recovery intellectually and actually practicing recovery are two VERY different things.

You can know every single thing about OCD and still spend your entire day compulsing. In fact, I see it all the time.

I’ve seen people who could explain the OCD cycle better than graduate students while simultaneously rearranging their entire lives around fear.

OCD can be sneaky as hell like that.

Sometimes “Working On Yourself” Is Just Another Compulsion

A lot of behaviors that LOOK healthy from the outside can absolutely become compulsive.

Examples:

• endlessly monitoring your anxiety levels
• checking whether you “feel triggered”
• consuming recovery content all day waiting to feel certainty
• researching supplements obsessively
• watching reassurance videos over and over
• going for walks specifically to get anxiety to leave
• journaling for three hours trying to “figure it out”
• checking whether recovery is “working”
• constantly analyzing your thoughts
• asking yourself “am I healed yet?”
  every fourteen seconds

I had a client once who spent HOURS a day listening to anxiety podcasts while simultaneously avoiding actual exposures in her real life. Girl, NO. We have work to do!

Another client became so hyperfocused on “clean eating” for anxiety that OCD just latched onto nutrition instead.

Now instead of obsessing over one thing, she was obsessing over:

• ingredients
• toxins
• supplements
• dyes
• chemicals
• food purity
• body products
• laundry detergent
• whether she was deficient in something
• whether one wrong food choice was secretly ruining her mental health

The obsession didn’t disappear, it just moved. #whackamole

All the shitty advice online (usually from influencers and people who aren’t even therapists) isn’t helping, either. People are acting like if you just optimize yourself hard enough, your OCD will disappear.

This is not how it works, people.

Yes, taking care of yourself matters.
Yes, nutrition matters.
Yes, sleep matters.

But there is no magical supplement, food, vitamin, or perfectly optimized morning routine that replaces actually doing recovery work.

At some point you still have to:

• stop compulsing
• stop avoiding
• tolerate uncertainty
• let thoughts exist without treating them like emergencies
• practice responding differently

If you’re not doing that, you’re going to come up short. Sorry.

People Are Accidentally Making Recovery Their Entire Personality

I see this ALL the time.

People become so focused on recovering correctly that recovery itself becomes the obsession.

Now every moment gets evaluated through the lens of:
“Am I anxious?”
“Am I doing this right?”
“Is this helping?”
“Is this exposure enough?”
“Should I feel better by now?”
“What does this mean?”
“Why am I still thinking about this?”
“Wait was THAT a compulsion?”

Your brain never gets a day off. What happened to play!? (I’m listening to Playful right now by Cas Holman and it’s so damn good).

You’re going for a walk while monitoring whether the walk is working. You’re hanging out with friends while checking whether anxiety is still there. You’re trying to “be present” while obsessively checking whether you feel present enough.

This sounds like…. not fun. Definitely does not sound like living and giving your brain the message that you’re safe.

And you end up damned if you do and damned if you don’t because the whole time your attention is still glued to anxiety.

One Of The Most Important Things I Learned Working Residential

One of the biggest things working with severe OCD taught me is this:

Compulsions eventually become the thing that shrinks people’s lives.

I worked with someone who was TERRIFIED of ending up hospitalized and losing all control and autonomy.

That fear became so intense that she slowly narrowed her life smaller and smaller and smaller trying to prevent anything dangerous from happening.

Eventually she was only eating two very specific foods because she was terrified of allergic reactions and contamination.

And eventually – ta da! She ended up in residential treatment.

In a hospital setting. You guessed it, without autonomy. And yep – without freedom to leave.

It was heartbreaking. But it was also such a clear example of how compulsions slowly become the thing people were terrified of in the first place.

That moment changed how I viewed recovery forever. That moment happened more than 10 years ago and I can remember that conversation/moment clear as day.

Because OCD will absolutely feel like:

• responsibility
• caution
• wellness
• self-awareness
• healing
• “doing the work”

As your world keeps getting smaller right under your nose.

Consuming Recovery Content Is Not The Same Thing As Practicing Recovery

Reading blogs like this matters, but eventually there has to be a pause where you close the laptop and ask:
“Okay. What am I actually going to DO differently now?”

Because when the trigger shows up in real life, your brain is going to want to go right back into autopilot.

You have to DO the damn thing.

Not just:

• learning
• saving content
• nodding along
• reposting mental health graphics
• intellectually understanding compulsions

Actual practice. Messy, imperfect, and on a random Tuesday afternoon.

The kind where your brain is screaming and you still choose not to pick the compulsion back up.

A Lot Of People Think Recovery Means The Thoughts Go Away

I wish more people understood this part. Humans have intrusive thoughts. All humans.

Research has shown over and over that people without OCD experience intrusive thoughts too.

The difference is that people with OCD tend to:

• latch onto the thoughts
• analyze them
• monitor them
• assign meaning to them
• treat them like urgent problems

The thoughts become sticky.

And the more attention you feed them, the stickier they get.

That’s why recovery is less about “never having scary thoughts again” and more about changing your relationship to the thoughts when they show up.

Something I’ve Been Thinking About Lately

I think people are craving more nuanced conversations about OCD and anxiety than social media really allows for.

Not soundbites, not “5 signs your anxiety is talking”, not perfect little carousel therapy.

Real conversations, the complexities, all of it. The conversions I used to have in therapy rooms. I miss it.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately..

More on that very soon.

But if this blog made you realize you might be accidentally feeding the cycle while trying to “~heal~” these are good places to start:

• 10 Sneaky Ways You’re Feeding OCD & Anxiety
• Free Spiral & Mental Compulsions Video
• Break The Cycle Masterclass
• Still Stuck Masterclass

And if your brain has been exhausting you a bit too much lately, the merch shop is here, too. Treat yaself. Affirmation card decks, sweatshirts, and more.

Talk soon,

Jenna