Free Attention Training resource
Attention training techniques are associated with Metacognitive Therapy*, a type of psychotherapy which focusses on how you relate to your thoughts. This model is based on the idea that psychological distress is worsened by unhelpful mental habits - like repetitive thinking, monitoring for threats, and trying to control unwanted thoughts.
Metacognitive Therapy encourages mindful noticing of thoughts without analysing or reacting to them. I’m wary of bringing up the term ‘mindful’, based on my own attempts at mindfulness meditation during acute periods of REOCD. Trying to follow the principle of letting thoughts gently sail through you, when those thoughts are so charged with anxiety, was a major challenge. Add on a strong layer of meta-rumination (“Did I let that thought go properly?”; “Why is my mind so busy?”) and often mindfulness meditation just left me feeling frustrated and defeated.
If silent meditation feels like jumping too far into the deep end for you, I can suggest this set of Attention Training Technique videos on YouTube as a more manageable tool. They were recommended to me by a qualified therapist (who lives with OCD himself), and I found them a particularly helpful source of grounding and managing compulsive urges when I first came into OCD recovery.
Essentially, you are invited to spend a few minutes sitting in a comfortable position and listening without effort to a bunch of overlapping sounds. All that is asked of you is to practise shifting your attention from one sound (like birdsong) to another (e.g. a stream) to another (church bells).
The goal isn’t to do this expertly. You might be pulled into some thinking during the practice. But that doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you’re spending a little time – ideally each day – re-learning how to shift your attention more flexibly. Think of it as a short daily visit to the ‘mental gym’.
By adopting small practices like these alongside other treatments and tools, you demonstrate to yourself that you are invested in REOCD recovery - and you begin to make space for a new way of relating to your thoughts.
Some gentle caveats for my fellow OCDers:
· This is not presented as a solution to any anxiety you’re feeling today – it’s just a small tool you might add to your daily recovery repertoire.
· Busy soundscapes might not fit well with your individual sensitivities. Feel free to let this tool go, if it doesn’t support you.
· Unsurprisingly, we can become obsessive-compulsive about how we use our recovery tools. If you notice yourself tensing up about doing this practice ‘perfectly’ or militantly, gently recognise that some compulsivity might be kicking in.
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* Metacognitive Therapy is not currently recognised as a front-line treatment for OCD – nor do I claim it to be. This is just a tool borrowed from that approach. Exposure and Response Prevention therapy is considered the gold standard therapy approach.
