Found this in a very interesting and helpful article on ocd:

"We all need to understand what is going on in our lives, as has been discussed previously. It is a species trait. And the obsessive thinker tries more than most to make sense of his or her world: anything that reduces anxiety is grasped like the proverbial straw. In such a situation, it is common for a sufferer to find (and cling too) a coping technique, or therapeutic suggestion, that works once or twice, something along the lines of accepting the thought as ‘just a thought’ not a reflection of one’s life style or value as a person.

The problem is, if this is taken on in response to an outsider’s urging, much of the ‘power’ liberated might be that of the outsider. That is, the sufferer might be carried away by this outsider’s conviction or silver tongue on only a temporary basis.

‘…it may be comforting (not therapeutic) to know that the content of one’s obsessions does not characterize one’s true identity.’
(Phillipson)

Then often occurs the problem that relief is experienced without inner conviction that this is the way forward. The mantra, ‘It’s just a thought, it means nothing’, or whatever is used, becomes just more noise with no real belief behind it. Then a double problem is in place for the person does not experience much further relief, because the words are not really believed, and this person begins to search wildly for some other combination of thought and/or outside person to repeat the earlier ‘success’.

In this way, meaningless mantras are voiced, ‘proving’, by their failure, that accepting the anxiety is not the right approach and that some other outside force or power-person is needed to take the pain away. This stands alongside the willingness to give up responsibility for the problem as in the mantra: ‘It is not me, it is my OCD!’

While the latter may be useful as in the sufferer realising that he or she is experiencing erroneous responses on the basis of false perceptions of anxiety-borne information, it is more often used by people who are dissociating themselves from their thoughts. That is: ‘these are not my thoughts, they belong to the disease OCD which is inhabiting my brain.’

This frequently brings comfort but it is not therapeutically sound. All thoughts have to be accepted by the obsessive thinker if recovery is going to happen. These thoughts belong to this person. They are the result of a lifetime’s thinking, together with perceptions that have involved little thought. They are the result of every single external and internal action that has ever been processed by this body’s five senses. If they are distanced, if they are viewed as some malevolent invasion that has no part of the person they are ‘preying on’, then they can truly be seen as having power of their own. In such a case it is then one short step to believing that obsessional thoughts will lead to anti-social or illegal actions. Why shouldn’t they if they are not part of the reasonable and rational OC person and are taken on face value?"

http://www.anxietycare.org.uk/docs/o...kingonline.asp