Mindfulness OCD Workbook: Effective Mindfulness Strategies to Help You Manage Intrusive Thoughts by Robin Taylor

So as you may or may not know, I actually do struggle with OCD and I got myself this workbook to hopefully work through some of my obsessions and compulsions. I think OCD is one of those disorders that a lot of people think they understand but don't. Like, they think that it means you want all of your papers neat and get all flustered and angry when picture frames aren't straight, and not what is much more commonly manifested: endless worrying about whether the staple you just saw fly off a desk and can't find somehow got in your mouth and is on its way to rip up your internal organs, or whether a minor earthquake could be enough to knock a pot off its rack and whether that could land on the burner and somehow turn off the stove and burn your whole house down? I'm exaggerating a little bit but only slightly because this really is the anxiety-driven logic of the chronically OCD lol. I was once late to class in college because I walked back three times to make sure that I actually locked my dorm door.

This workbook is okay. I like the exercises (some of them are a little silly) but the focus seems to be more on meditation and thought exercises and less on things like goals and planning and data. I know the "new age" approach is trendy and comforting for a lot of people, but I've never liked it all that much. One of the exercises in here is literally to visualize a lemon when you experience a trigger, which I did try, and actually it was sort of calming, but it made me feel REALLY silly. There are also places to write about your thoughts and some of your goals, but this is less like a roadmap than it is like an inspirational photo of a fantasy landscape. It doesn't exactly tell you how to get where you need to be, but it sparks your imagination and makes you think about some interesting things.

I'm going to use this workbook and I think people who respond well to meditation and brain storming might really enjoy this book a lot more than I did, but it's still a great place to start.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 to 4 out of stars