I'm a little bit confused as to what your question is.

Have you heard of 'neutralizing'? It is a term that refers to really any sort of behavior or thought that one uses to reduce their anxiety. For a long time, I thought that my OCD was purely mental. I would think "bad" thoughts and that was what triggered me. But I didn't *do* anything about after I had the thoughts. It wasn't until I was in residential treatment that I first heard of neutralizing. It turned out that what I took for progress was actually making my situation worse.

For example: I knew someone that worried obsessively about killing her sister by driving off the road when she was in the car. While she knew that was an irrational fear, because the chances of driving off a flat road were very slim and of course she loved her sister very much, she would go over and over the awful scenario in her head. Without really realizing it, she was having a conversation with herself in which she would justify her worries - it's raining and the roads are slick, it's New Years Eve and there are more drunk drivers on the road than normal, etc. The justification of her fear as a rational fear, given the circumstance, gave her the reassurance she needed to go out and do her errands or whatnot. That is an example of neutralizing. You might be able to go about your day without becoming completely hung up with your anxiety because you shrug off that one thought by somehow justifying the thought in that one particular instance.

There is a fine line between combating the thoughts and getting caught in the web of OCD thoughts. Neutralizing is basically avoiding, although it doesn't feel like it, because you are essentially dismissing the fear as rational, as opposed to facing exactly how irrational the fear was to begin with.

Another thing that you might be doing (and is something that I was quite guilty of) is recognizing the fear and then simply saying, "that will never happen'. The goal isn't to verbalize how irrational the fear is. You already know that, deep down inside, that the thoughts don't make any logical sense. For me, I obsessed about germs. I would keep thinking over and over 'it might be dirty', 'what if it's dirty', 'what if i am dirty now', etc. Instead of saying to myself that of course I'm not dirty and that clean surface hasn't contaminated me, the goal would be to say, 'Ok. I am dirty. So what?' And then sit with that feeling.

One more thing- A technique that is often suggested is distraction. When you feel anxious, distract yourself. This works in the short term and definitely has it's place in one's toolbox but it is not a long-term solution for OCD and will not, on it's own, by any means cure OCD. Distraction is also in essence, avoiding the direct confrontation of one's fears.

Does this help at all?