Thought Control Techniques

Thought control techniques are useful if you have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or attention deficit disorder (ADD). Children and adults can have either OCD or ADD and while doctors can prescribe medications for these conditions, there are some nondrug thought control techniques that may help. EMDR is also a specialized way to treat these kinds of behaviors.

If you are unable to function and perform normal daily activities, such as getting dressed for school or work, or driving, because of OCD or ADD, see your doctor.

Why Do We Need Thought Control?

• Thought control techniques are useful if you have a relatively minor problem such as OCD or ADD. While these conditions can be treated with drug therapy, not everyone is comfortable taking that course. Instead, by practicing different methods of focusing attention and acting to curtail OCD or ADD behaviors, some people are able to greatly reduce their anxiety.

  For example, rather than suppress the need to go back to your car to see if you have locked all the doors, perhaps allow yourself to check two times and say a phrase such as "That's complete now" as a way to demarcate that action and as a prompt to do something else, like walk into your home or go into the store. The thought control technique in this case is to say a phrase to offset obsessive behaviors.

Using Mindfulness Meditation

• A variation on mindfulness meditation, for which one can take 10 days or longer at a silent retreat to literally watch each breath rise and fall, can help serve as a means to control thoughts.

  By noticing if you allow your thoughts to distract you into a reverie --- which you find disconcerting rather than relaxing or enjoyable --- use moment-to-moment awareness to bring you back. If you wish to break a habit of compulsive hand-washing, for example, you might notice you had washed your hands three times in a row, pause, and create an intentional break in action to notice your compulsion and determine if you can do something else, such as walk to a different room, thereby breaking that ritual.

  Just as during a vipassana silent sitting meditation it is counterproductive to force thoughts out of your mind, instead notice them and do not allow them to overwhelm or control you. Observe them, pause, and move your attention and action in a new direction.

EMDR

• Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) enables a specially trained health practitioner (often a psychologist or psychiatrist) to remove memories of trauma by moving her hand in front of your eyes in a way that removes the brain's patterning that keeps certain behaviors "installed" in your thinking. By undergoing EMDR some people have been able to reduce anxiety and to control thoughts that bring about OCD, ADD, or depression.

  Currently EMDR is generally available only from trained health professionals. It is different from subliminal suggestion and it is not hypnotism. See your doctor for a referral to a qualified medical professional.