OCD Recovery Podcast: "You Are Not Your OCD Thoughts"

Host: Ali Greymond
Date: September 28, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode centers on a core tenet of OCD recovery: intrusive thoughts do not define your character or worth. Ali Greymond, drawing on nearly two decades of experience as an OCD recovery coach and her own journey, reassures listeners that the presence of disturbing or unwanted thoughts is a normal human experience. She emphasizes the importance of choosing not to react to these thoughts and shares practical perspectives on how to dissociate one’s identity from them.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Nature of Intrusive Thoughts

• Everyone has disturbing thoughts: It's not unique or abnormal to have negative or bizarre ideas occur in your mind.
  • "Everybody gets bad thoughts. Everybody gets disturbing thoughts. So it's normal. This is part of being a human." (00:15)
• Intrusive thoughts do not reflect your character:
  • "These thoughts do not define you." (00:23)
  • "You're not a bad person. It doesn't matter what is going through your mind. Don't associate who you are with the thought that you're getting." (00:36)

The Futility of 'Sanitizing' Your Mind

• Comparing mental compulsion to physical compulsions (like washing hands):
  • "Just like some people with OCD sanitize their hands. What you're trying to do is sanitize your mind from these thoughts. And the more you try to sanitize, the more dirtier you will feel." (00:29)
• The focus should be on acceptance rather than control.

Choice in Reaction

• Recovery involves making a conscious choice, not seeking a certain feeling:
  • "It's a choice that you need to make. So it's not that you're trying to achieve a feeling of not associating yourself with these thoughts. It's that you're making a choice that whenever a thought comes in like this, I will not react the way I normally react." (00:45)
• Suggestion for how to respond:
  • "I'll just view it as a passing thought. Who cares? So it's a choice that you are making." (00:53)

Expert Reassurance

• Ali underscores her experience and the validity of this approach:
  • "I've been doing recovery work with clients for 20 years. It's the right choice. You are good. You are worthy. Who cares what thought went through your mind? It doesn't define who you are." (00:58)

Intrusive Thoughts Are Not Your Fault

• The thoughts are happening to you, not because of you being morally flawed:
  • "Stop treating yourself like you're a perpetrator. You've done nothing wrong. These thoughts are happening to you not because of you." (01:12)
  • Reacting to thoughts is what perpetuates OCD, not the presence of the thoughts themselves.
  • "They're not happening because you are a bad person. You're just triggering the mechanism kind of accidentally... out of not knowing." (01:23)

Shifting the Response

• Normalize the experience and disempower the thoughts:
  • "Try to act like you're making the choice that it doesn't matter. I got a disturbing thought. Sure, whatever. Am I going to get a million more? Probably. Who cares? That needs to be your reaction, not your usual of me have this thought. What does this mean? I'm a terrible, terrible person. No, doesn't matter." (01:34)
• Do not try to swap “bad” thoughts for “good” ones; resist labeling.
  • "Don't even label it as a bad thought. There's no such thing as thoughts... it's just a box, your brain sent you a box of content. It's... a neutral box. What you make out of it is... how you react to it, is how your brain starts to view it." (01:48)

The Paradox of OCD Thoughts

• OCD often targets one’s core values, bringing up the opposite of who you are:
  • "If anything, OCD goes for the opposite of who you really are. So if you're sweet, caring person, you're going to get very disturbing thought. It goes for the opposite. So try to view it like that. Don't take it seriously. Keep yourself moving forward." (02:41)

Notable Quotes

• "These thoughts do not define you. First of all, everybody gets bad thoughts. Everybody gets disturbing thoughts. So it's normal."
  — Ali Greymond (00:23)

• "You're not a bad person. It doesn't matter what is going through your mind. Don't associate who you are with the thought that you're getting."
  — Ali Greymond (00:36)

• "It's a choice that you need to make...whenever a thought comes in like this, I will not react the way I normally react. I'm not going to take it seriously. I'm not going to attribute it to myself. I'll just view it as a passing thought. Who cares?"
  — Ali Greymond (00:45)

• "Stop treating yourself like you're a perpetrator. You've done nothing wrong. These thoughts are happening to you, not because of you."
  — Ali Greymond (01:12)

• "If anything, OCD goes for the opposite of who you really are. So if you're sweet, caring person, you're going to get very disturbing thought. It goes for the opposite...Keep yourself moving forward."
  — Ali Greymond (02:41)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:14 – Introduction to the theme: Intrusive thoughts ≠ being a bad person
• 00:29 – Metaphor: Mental and physical compulsions
• 00:36 – Separating identity from thought content
• 00:45 – The importance of making a conscious choice in response
• 00:58 – Ali’s expert reassurance and validation
• 01:12 – Thoughts are not your fault; stop self-blame
• 01:34 – Normalizing recurring intrusive thoughts
• 01:48 – Advice on not labeling thoughts as “bad”
• 02:41 – OCD targets the opposite of your values; move forward

Episode Summary

Ali Greymond delivers an empowering and compassionate reminder: intrusive thoughts are a universal aspect of human experience, and suffering from them does not make you a bad person. Emphasizing that everyone—including those without OCD—encounters unwelcome thoughts, Ali explains that the urge to "sanitize" one's mind only makes things feel worse.

The core of recovery, she asserts, is the conscious choice to not ascribe meaning or significance to these thoughts, resisting the temptation to engage with or analyze them. Ali reassures listeners, grounded in her extensive experience, that these thoughts are not a reflection of one's true character—if anything, they typically target the opposite of your actual values.

Listeners are encouraged to abandon the self-blame cycle and instead adopt a stance of neutrality and acceptance towards their thoughts, viewing them as passing mental events rather than indictments of who they are. This episode serves as a direct, practical guide for anyone struggling to separate their identity from the noise of OCD.