Podcast Summary: OCD Recovery with Ali Greymond

Episode: OCD Training – Wanting Unwanted Thoughts
Date: September 3, 2025

Overview

In this episode, Ali Greymond tackles a common but deeply distressing challenge for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): the sensation or fear that they actually want or enjoy their unwanted thoughts. Drawing on her years of coaching and personal recovery experience, Ali reassures listeners that these feelings are simply another trick of OCD, intended to provoke reaction and prolong the cycle of rumination and compulsion. The episode is both practical and compassionate, offering clear strategies and mindset shifts to help listeners disengage from OCD’s “show.”

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. OCD’s Ability to Create Distressing Feelings and Sensations

• Ali emphasizes that OCD’s main goal is to make intrusive thoughts feel urgent and real, pushing sufferers to ruminate and perform compulsions.
  • [00:22] "It's very common for you to get a feeling that you want the thoughts. OCD's goal is to get you to ruminate, to do compulsions, right? In order for that to happen, it needs to make it very real so it can easily create any kind of feeling within you." – Ali Greymond
• She explains that OCD can manufacture not just thoughts, but also feelings of enjoyment, disgust, attraction, or any physical/emotional response.
  • [00:44] "It's just how the disorder works. It can make you feel like anything. Love, hate, whatever, attraction, anything. It can. Physical stuff. It can make you feel like anything." – Ali Greymond

2. Interpreting Unwanted Feelings

• Ali addresses the nuanced situation where sufferers feel distressed by the sensation that they are enjoying or wanting the thoughts, even if part of them knows they do not.
  • [01:01] "You could say, well, I feel like I enjoy it, so I don't feel like I'm bothered, right? But you're bothered by the feeling that you feel like you enjoy, right?" – Ali Greymond
• She reassures listeners that this, too, is just another OCD symptom—not a reflection of who they are or what they truly want.

3. The OCD “Show” and Reactivity

• Ali encourages listeners to view OCD’s tricks as a staged show, designed to provoke a reaction.
  • [01:32] "You need to see this whole thing that OCD puts up as a show with feelings, emotions, whatever. It's a show. OCD put on a show to get me into a reaction. I will not choose to get into a reaction." – Ali Greymond
• She frames the OCD cycle as a train:
  • The first “stop” is the intrusive thought or feeling (the “production”).
  • The next stop is the reaction—rumination or compulsion—which is what OCD wants.

4. Practical Recovery Advice: Simple Non-Engagement

• Ali offers a clear and empowering approach:
  • Don’t interpret or analyze what the thoughts or feelings mean about you.
  • Don’t give these experiences any special significance—treat them with indifference.
  • [02:07] "If you treat it very simply, like this, like a mathematical equation and don't let yourself go into, ‘I had a thought, I had a feeling. Why does it feel like this? What does this mean?’ ... Who cares if you feel like you want the thoughts or you don’t want the thoughts or you like them? ... Ignore. Ignore. Your only job is to not ruminate. That is your only job." – Ali Greymond

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “OCD is capable of producing that. It produces it in order to get me to react and to ruminate.”
  – Ali Greymond [00:57]
• “OCD put on a show to get me into a reaction. I will not choose to get into a reaction.”
  – Ali Greymond [01:32]
• “Your only job is to not ruminate. That is your only job. So do the job.”
  – Ali Greymond [02:25]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:22] Explanation of OCD creating any sensation or emotion to provoke rumination
• [01:01] Addressing the nuance of feeling enjoyment or wanting the thoughts
• [01:32] Visualizing OCD as a staged show and the importance of not reacting
• [02:07] Treating the process as a “mathematical equation” and refusing rumination
• [02:25] Core message: “Your only job is to not ruminate.”

Tone & Takeaways

Ali’s tone throughout remains compassionate, direct, and empowering. She demystifies a frightening OCD symptom by explaining its purpose and mechanism, and arms listeners with clear instructions: dismiss, ignore, and refuse to ruminate, no matter what feelings OCD might produce.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone struggling with the fear that unwanted thoughts signal desire or enjoyment—Ali’s reassurances and strategies offer both understanding and actionable relief.