OCD Recovery Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode: ERP For Pure-O OCD

Host: Ali Greymond
Date: December 2, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Ali Greymond explores effective techniques for tackling Pure-O (Primarily Obsessional) OCD using Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). Drawing from her personal and professional experience, Ali delves into practical, actionable methods for responding to intrusive thoughts with the goal of promoting lasting recovery and reducing the power OCD holds in daily life.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Living Parallel to Your Thoughts

Concept: Treat intrusive thoughts as background "noise"—like a neighbor yelling through the wall.
Advice: Acknowledge the thought's presence without interacting or analyzing.
- “Imagine that the thought is your next door neighbor... you hear him, but you are living your own life on the other side of that wall.” (00:32)
Goal: Go about your daily activities, accepting the uncertainty that thoughts bring without feeling compelled to respond.

2. Managing Emotions During ERP

Reality Check: Not feeling good during recovery work is normal—don’t expect immediate relief.
- “You shouldn't even really look at the feelings that much throughout the day… the feelings, the way they are right now, is kind of the brain's response of how you've been taking OCD thoughts…” (01:24)
Tip: Evaluate your reactions over the past two weeks when reflecting on your current emotional state.

3. Handling Stress and Setbacks

Influencers: Events like holidays or stress can intensify OCD, making exposures feel harder.
Core Message: Your reaction remains the most crucial part of recovery, especially under stress.
- “If you’re doing good but there’s also a lot of pressure... you have to make up for that extra pressure because more thoughts are coming in when you’re stressed out.” (03:12)

4. ERP for Pure-O: Focus on Mental Actions

Key Question: What are you doing when the thought comes—are you analyzing, checking, asking, confessing?
Warning: Engaging with the thought in any of these ways is “a step back.”
- “If you can’t refuse, because in the beginning it’s very, very difficult to refuse… at least try to delay.” (05:03)

5. The Power of Delay

Practical Strategy: Start by postponing rumination instead of engaging immediately.
- Example: “If I start to ruminate at 9am, I’m going to be terrible by noon... I’m not gonna ruminate at 9 o’clock. No, thank you. I’m gonna at least wait until 1 o’clock... Now you’ve cut out quite a few hours of rumination.” (05:47)
Build Up: Gradually increase the time you can delay and work towards refusing entirely.

6. Challenging Common OCD Traps

Myth-Busting: Don’t fall for the belief that solving just one thought will end the OCD cycle.
- “Don’t fall into the trap of, if I just solve this one thought, it will all be okay. It will not.” (07:14)
Refuse/Delay: Continuously aim to reduce time spent ruminating for sustained recovery.

7. Understanding the Recovery Process

Brain Analogy: OCD thought cycles are like a wheel spinning—compulsions fuel it. When you stop compulsions, the wheel slows down gradually.
- “The motor being your compulsions… Now you stop the motor, but the wheel is spinning from that past energy... the brain starts to heal.” (08:24)
Residual Energy: Expect some thoughts to linger after stopping compulsions; this is normal.

8. Everyone Gets Intrusive Thoughts

Reassurance: Intrusive or “weird” thoughts are common—having them isn’t unique to OCD, it’s how you react that matters.
- “People without OCD get the same thoughts as people with OCD… it's just the reaction.” (09:30)

9. Avoiding the ‘Am I Recovered?’ Trap

Pitfall: Monitoring your recovery too closely can itself become a new obsession.
- “If you always keep looking over your shoulder… now your OCD from whatever the theme was before has now become, ‘Am I recovered?’ That becomes your main theme.” (10:55)
Advice: Progress is often gradual—isolate from anxiety about recovery itself.

10. Consistency is Key for Recovery

Encouragement: If you consistently cut down on rumination and avoid responding to thoughts, recovery is inevitable.
- “As long as you reduce the numbers, you will recover. Now, it’s just the speed of it… but you’re already on that road from point A, where you are now, to point B, full recovery.” (07:32, 12:15)
Inspiration: “You can recover from this. You just have to put the work in.” (12:52)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“Imagine that the thought is your next door neighbor… you hear him, but you are living your own life on the other side of that wall.” (00:32)
“Don’t fall into the trap of, if I just solve this one thought, it will all be okay. It will not.” (07:14)
“The motor being your compulsions… Now you stop the motor, but the wheel is spinning from that past energy.” (08:24)
“People without OCD get the same thoughts as people with OCD… it’s just the reaction.” (09:30)
“If you always keep looking over your shoulder… now your OCD from whatever the theme was before has now become, ‘Am I recovered?’” (10:55)
“You can recover from this. You just have to put the work in.” (12:52)

Timestamps for Important Segments

00:32 – Living parallel to your thoughts analogy
01:24 – Feeling bad during exposures is normal
03:12 – Coping with stress and OCD spikes
05:03 – Refusing or delaying rumination
05:47 – Practical delay example
07:14 – Dispelling the “just solve one thought” myth
08:24 – The brain/wheel analogy
09:30 – Everyone gets intrusive thoughts
10:55 – The “Am I recovered?” trap
12:15 – Consistency and patience in recovery
12:52 – Affirmation: You can recover

Final Thoughts

Ali Greymond’s approach in this episode is rooted in lived experience, empathy, and practical strategies, emphasizing that Pure-O recovery is both possible and gradual. Her clear, encouraging tone and analogies make ERP accessible for anyone struggling with obsessive thoughts, highlighting that consistent practice—not perfection—leads to true freedom from OCD.

Transcript

A (0:00)

Hi, everyone, I'm Allie Greymond. I have a lot of questions coming in about how to properly do exposures to thoughts. And this is kind of a more complicated topic, I guess, than physical type of ocd, so I wanted to discuss that today in this video. So how to properly do exposures to pure O type of ocd, which is only thoughts. Every time a thought comes in, you have a choice. You can run with the thought, Google, ask, think, analyze, or you can live parallel to the thought. How do you live parallel to the thought? Imagine that the thought is your next door neighbor, your neighbor screaming something across through the wall. You hear him. Okay, you hear him, but you are living your own life on the other side of that wall. You, you're getting up in the morning, getting out of bed, doing things, going outside, doing all of daily life stuff, regardless of if the neighbor is active and screaming today or not active and screaming today. You're just living your life. That's what we're talking about, living parallel to the thoughts, living with uncertainty. So thought comes in, uncertainty comes in. We're like, yep, nice, nice try. Very creative brain. I'm going on with my day. And when you're going on with your day, it's important to understand that you will not feel good in this moment. Because a lot of the times people will say, well, I've started to do recovery work, but I just don't feel good doing these things. And that's absolutely normal. You shouldn't even really look at the, the feelings that much throughout the day. So kind of take the feelings as a symptom that, yeah, I feel, say today you've had a good day with OCD or a little bit better day, let's say, okay, I had a really, like a slightly better day. Fine, good, all right, whatever, right? Or I had a really bad day. Okay, well, you know, I gotta keep going. So don't pay a lot of attention to them because the feelings, the way they are right now is kind of the brain's response of how you've been taking OCD thoughts for the last, say at least last two weeks. There's also like this, you know, with a long term previous baggage. Right. But, but the last two weeks, I would say, is probably the most important. So if in the last two weeks you were reacting a lot, that is why you feel worse right now, this week. If you, in the last two weeks you've been doing much better, you've been disregarding all of that you're setting yourself up for. Obviously you're recovering you're setting yourself up to feel better. Now, there's always variations with that because say you have been doing good, but say there's a holiday or an important trip or some sort of an event or something, you know, happened that stressed you out or just, just maybe going through stress, all of that can also make OCD worse and bring you out extra thoughts. Again, it's your reaction is the most important. But just kind of be mindful that you know, if you're doing good, but there's also a lot of pressure. It's almost like you have to be doing even better because you have to make up for that extra pressure because more thoughts are coming in when you're stressed out. So just being mindful of that. But what I'm saying is that you, right now, what you are doing in terms of action, when you are talking about OCD recovery, especially with puro, your action is what is the most important. And with pure row, it's mental action, meaning how are you reacting to the thought? When the thought comes into your mind, what are you doing? Are you paying attention? Are you running with the thought? Are you analyzing, Are you asking, are you checking, are you confessing? What are you doing? And if you're doing any of those things, those are steps back. So if you can't refuse, because in the beginning it's very, very difficult to refuse because the thoughts feel so real, but at least try to delay. So, okay, so say, for example, it's 9am right now. If I start to ruminate at 9am, I'm going to be terrible by noon and I'm going to be even worse by the evening. And my numbers again, because I always talk about tracking the time of rumination, right? Especially with piro, it's important that I'm gonna be really bad. So I'm not gonna ruminate at 9 o'. Clock. No, 9am, no, thank you. I'm gonna at least wait until 1 o'. Clock. Nothing will change between now and 1 o'. Clock. I can push it off until then and really give it my full attention then. So now what you've done is even in the state of high, really high anxiety, you've cut out, you know, quite a few hours of rumination. And that is very, very important. So at least start with that and then work your way up to more time and more time. And then, you know, I'm gonna think about it, but I'll think about it tomorrow or something like that, right? Where you're delaying as much as you possibly can because you Gotta gain some ground back. OCD is trying to push on you to think about these thoughts 24, 7, to take them seriously. And the more you do, don't fall into the trap of if I just so solve this one thought, it will all be okay. It will not. You will just go on to the next thought. You will just go on to the next situation. Don't solve the thought. Try to refuse, try to delay. Your job right now is to reduce the numbers as much as possible. As long as you reduce the numbers, you will recover. Now, it's just the speed of it, how much you're reducing each day, but really you're already on that road from going from point A, where you are now, to point B, full recovery, right? So it's just a matter of time. Because if you're not allowing yourself any rumination, if you're not doing any physical compulsions where, you know, where's the ocd? Why would your brain send you thoughts if you're not doing anything? Right? There's kind of a loophole with that, because your brain can send you thoughts. Two things. First of all, I kind of give a visual example of this. Imagine if you have a wheel spinning by the motor. So the motor spinning the wheel, the motor being your compulsions, meaning the rumination and all of that. Now you stop the motor, but the wheel is spinning from that past energy. So it's like a habit almost with the brain, right, that it starts to, it continues to send you thoughts every once in a while until it fully stops. So there's kind of this residual spinning that happens after, after you, you've turned off the motor, right? That's one thing. And then another thing is I just want you to understand that these thoughts are, are normal thoughts that anybody can get. Potentially. People without OCD get the same thoughts as people with ocd. So it's just the reaction of them. So if you are aware that you know, thoughts, 50,000 thoughts a day, anybody can get a weird thought. People without OCD also get weird thoughts from time to time that you are reacting correctly all the time, right? So you don't fall into it. Because a lot of the times the person will get better, better, better. They kind of stop paying attention and then slowly start to go back to. Into thinking. And then also one more thing is that if you always keep looking over your shoulder, am I recovered yet? Am I, Am I feeling better? Is it over? Is it over? Like that OCD doesn't go away like the flu, where it's just like you were Sick. And now you're not, you know, it's, it's kind of let's go little bit by little bit. So it will let gold and come back, then let go, then come back. And then as it does that, every time it comes back, it comes back weaker and with less energy, with less anxiety. It doesn't last as long until it stops coming back altogether. So it's kind of this, it's kind of like, just like I was saying with the wheel, it slowly stops spinning like that. Because the brain, on the physical level, the brain heals. But if you always look over your shoulder, am I recovered yet? Now your OCD from wherever, whatever the theme was before has now become, am I recovered? That becomes your main theme. And then, and then you're spinning this now and because if you're worried, am I recovered? You're kind of stuck in that cycle, right? And you can worry about it for a decade if you're recovered. And the thoughts of I will never recover. I feel so anxious. You're now anxious about being anxious, so don't fall into that trap. I see a lot of people fall into it towards the end of the recovery, you know, I'm so afraid that the thoughts will come back and that becomes a thing. So that's just a warning there. But generally, if you know all these things, if you follow everything I'm saying, there's no reason for you not to recover. I'm, you know that. That's why I'm doing the videos. I can't believe I've done over 600 videos. That is kind of, kind of crazy, right? But, but it's because you can recover from this. You just have to put the work in. Thank you for watching. I hope you find my videos helpful. If you would like to do one on one recovery program with me, if you need my help, all information is on. You have OCD.com you can sign up from there. You can book a session from there as well. If you haven't subscribed to the channel, please subscribe. I'll see you tomorrow.