7 Hidden Tricks OCD Uses to Keep You Stuck in Doubt (and How to Break Free)
OCD is a master manipulator. It doesn’t just shout worst-case scenarios into your ear; it whispers just enough truth to make you question yourself. One minute you’re sure you’ve got it figured out, and the next you’re spiraling into another round of “what ifs.”
In this week’s post, we’re pulling back the curtain on the tricks, cheats, and mental loopholes OCD uses to keep you stuck. More importantly, you’ll learn how to spot them—so you can pull yourself back into the land of the here and now.
Because here’s the thing: OCD doesn’t play fair. It lies, cheats, bends the rules, and thrives on confusion. And if OCD were a person? It would be that toxic friend who twists your words, makes you second-guess yourself, and convinces you that you can’t trust your own instincts.
Even if you’re doing the work—exposures, journaling, therapy exercises—OCD still feels like it has the upper hand. Why? Because it’s tricking you in ways you may not have identified yet. Let’s break them down.
Trick #1: Mismatching
Mismatching happens when OCD borrows a story from somewhere else and convinces you it applies to your situation.
For example: “My neighbor left his garage door open and got robbed. That means I’ll probably get robbed too if I forget mine.”
It sounds valid, right? But it’s not your reality. That was your neighbor’s experience—not yours. OCD mismatches other people’s situations to fuel your doubt, even when the two aren’t connected at all.
When you spot mismatching, remind yourself: That’s not my story. That’s not my present reality.
Trick #2: Reverse Reasoning
Normally, reasoning starts with an observation and then leads to a conclusion. Reverse reasoning flips this around. OCD feeds you a conclusion first, then pressures you to dig up evidence to support it.
Take the doorknob example: OCD whispers, “That doorknob is dirty.” Suddenly, you find yourself searching for reasons why. “Lots of sick people must touch it… it’s probably crawling with germs.”
There’s no real evidence, but OCD makes the conclusion feel airtight. It’s backwards logic—and it keeps you hooked.
Trick #3: Out of Context Facts
Another favorite strategy of OCD is tossing out random facts that don’t belong to the moment you’re actually living in.
For example: “Meteors have hit the earth before.” Technically true. But does that mean you need to live in fear of a meteor today? Of course not. That fact is out of context.
OCD thrives on dragging irrelevant information into your present reality, making you act as if those facts are urgent and dangerous right now—even when they’re not.
Trick #4: Double Jeopardy
This is OCD’s “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” trap.
Imagine you’re worried you left your hair straightener on. You give in to the urge to check, thinking it will bring relief.
But as soon as you leave the bathroom, another thought creeps in: “Wait—what if I turned it back on while checking?”
So, you end up stuck. You obeyed OCD, but now you’re even less certain than before. That is double jeopardy.
Trick #5: Going Deep
OCD loves rabbit holes. Going deep means you keep digging into your obsession, trying to solve it—when really, every step takes you further from reality.
Maybe you wonder: “What if my water is contaminated?” You go deeper: “If I sent this to a lab, they’d definitely find bacteria. What if I just can’t see what’s really there?”
The deeper you go, the less clarity you have. Instead of solving anything, you’re buried in endless analysis.
Trick #6: Living the Fear
Sometimes OCD tricks you by pulling your body into the panic. You get so anxious that your physical symptoms—nausea, headaches, chest tightness—start to convince you the fear is real.
“What if I’m having a heart attack?”
“What if this headache means I have a brain tumor?”
Your body’s stress response fuels the cycle, tricking you into believing your worst fears are happening right now.
Trick #7: Testing It Out
This one shows up all the time in relationship OCD and sexual orientation OCD. OCD convinces you to run little “tests” to get certainty about your feelings. For example:
“I doubt my orientation, so I’ll look at someone to see if I feel attracted.”
“How do I know I’m with the right partner? Let me imagine life with someone else and compare.”
“Do I feel excited when I picture marrying my partner? If not, maybe it’s wrong.”
But no matter what the test shows, OCD always finds a loophole. If you feel turned on, it questions what that means. If you feel numb, it says it’s a sign you’re in the wrong relationship. Testing only strengthens OCD’s grip.
The Big Picture: OCD’s Loopholes Are Endless
Mismatching. Reverse reasoning. Out of context facts. Double jeopardy. Going deep. Living the fear. Testing it out.
These tricks all serve the same purpose: keeping you stuck in doubt. OCD convinces you that you can’t trust yourself, that there’s always one more question to answer, one more test to run. And every time you follow it, your confidence shrinks a little more.
How to Break Free
Here’s the good news: once you learn to recognize these tricks, you take away OCD’s power. Awareness is the first step in breaking the cycle.
Instead of chasing reassurance, you can pause and say:
“That’s mismatching.”
“That’s reverse reasoning.”
“That’s OCD—not me.”
You don’t need to take more tests, read more articles, or overanalyze another thought. You need your life back. And spotting these mental loopholes is the doorway to reclaiming it.
Moving Forward
If any of these tricks sound familiar, you’re not alone. OCD thrives on making you believe you’re the only one stuck in this cycle—but the truth is, millions of people experience these same patterns.
And here’s the even better truth: you don’t need years of therapy to start breaking free. With the right tools and support, you can step back into your own reality, trust yourself again, and finally feel that sense of peace you’ve been chasing. Because OCD will always try to convince you you’re wrong. But you’re not. You’re capable. You’re resilient. And you’re more than the doubts OCD throws at you.
Ready to stop falling for OCD’s tricks? DM me on Instagram @ErinDavisCoaching with the word “me”, and I’ll send you something to help you take the next step toward real peace.
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OCD is a master manipulator. It doesn’t just yell at you about worst-case scenarios—it whispers just enough truth to make you doubt everything. Today I’m going to be talking about the tricks, cheats, and mental loopholes OCD uses to keep you stuck. Not only are you going to hear how it keeps you stuck, but you’re also going to learn how to spot these things so that you can pull yourself back into the land of the here and now.
As you know, OCD doesn’t play fair. It lies, cheats, and bends the rules—all to make you feel like you have to listen to it.
OCD thrives on confusion, and if OCD were a person, it’d be one of the most toxic friends out there. It twists your words and makes you second-guess yourself. You could be doing all the hard work—the exposures, the journaling, the worksheets, the awareness—and somehow OCD still has the upper hand.
Why? Because it’s tricking you in ways you haven’t identified yet.
So today I’m pulling back the curtain on how OCD tricks you. Because the thing is, you already know it’s OCD—and yet you still feel the urge to fix it, to prove something, to figure it out. It’s not a weakness. It’s just an illusion that OCD creates.
The first thing OCD does in tricking you is what’s called mismatching. In mismatching, OCD presents information that happened to someone else to give credibility to your doubt, trying to apply it to your current situation.
For example: “My neighbor once left their garage door open and he was robbed, so I could easily leave mine open.”
Seems valid, but it’s a mismatch. That was your neighbor. This is not you. This is not your present reality.
The next way it tries to trick you is reverse reasoning. This is when you’ve already come to an assumption or conclusion, but it’s false—or there’s no valid evidence for it. It kind of reminds me of confirmation bias, where you’ve already got a conclusion and you’re trying to find evidence to justify it.
Typical reasoning starts with an observation in reality and then leads to a conclusion. But in reverse reasoning, it starts with a false idea and builds backward.
Example: You assume the doorknob is dirty, so you decide it must be because a lot of sick people touched it. There’s no evidence for that, but you’re convinced. It’s backwards.
Next is out-of-context facts. OCD presents facts that may or may not be true—but they have nothing to do with your reality right now.
For example: Meteors hit the earth. That’s true. But that’s not what’s happening in this moment. If there were a meteor on its way, we’d act differently. But right now, we go about our lives because there’s no meteor coming. OCD loves to pull facts out of context like that.
Then there’s double jeopardy. This is the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” trick. OCD convinces you to obey it, but then creates a new doubt because something bad might happen since you obeyed it.
Example: You worry you left your hair straightener on, so you go back to check. But while checking, you think, “What if I accidentally turned it back on?” That’s double jeopardy.
Next is going deep. This is when you fall into rabbit holes, going deeper and deeper into the fears and obsessions in an attempt to solve them. But the deeper you go, the further you get from reality.
Example: “What if my water is contaminated?” Then you think, “If I sent it to a lab, they’d probably find germs.” You convince yourself there’s something wrong even though you can’t see it. That’s going deep.
Another trick is living the fear. We’ve all been there—so nervous and worked up that you actually feel physical symptoms: headache, nausea, chest tightness. Those feelings then trick you into believing your health fears are real.
“What if I’m having a heart attack? What if I have a brain tumor? What if I actually get sick and vomit?”
Your body reacts, and OCD convinces you the fear is true.
The last one is testing it out. This shows up in things like sexual orientation OCD or relationship OCD. OCD convinces you to “test” your behavior to prove or disprove a doubt.
Example: “I doubt my sexual orientation, so I’ll look at other women to see if I’m turned on.” Then you feel confused by your reaction. How do you even know what it means?
Or with relationship OCD: “How do I know I’m with the one?” So you imagine yourself with someone else, or you test how you feel imagining marriage. If you feel happy, great. If you feel numb, then panic—it must be wrong. But no matter what the result is, OCD finds a loophole.
So really, OCD uses a lot of tricks to keep you stuck: mismatching, reverse reasoning, out-of-context facts, double jeopardy, going deep, living the fear, and testing it out.
OCD will always try to convince you you’ve got things wrong. It undermines your confidence constantly.
But here’s the thing: to stop giving in to OCD doubts and uncertainty, you don’t need years of therapy. You don’t need to take more tests. You don’t need to read more articles. You just need your life back.
If this post called out one of the tricks your OCD is playing on you, and you’re ready to stop falling for it, DM me on Instagram and just say “me”. I’ll send you something to help you take the next step toward real peace. My handle is @ErinDavisCoaching.
Alright y’all, thanks for listening—and stay blessed by the best.
