Five Tools to Respond to OCD Flare-Ups During the Holidays!

The holidays bring joy, connection, and celebration—but they can also magnify OCD. Routines shift, stress rises, and suddenly the thoughts and urges you managed all year feel louder and stickier.

Take Hannah, for example. As a teen, she struggled with OCD. Treatment helped her reconnect with what mattered most, and she learned skills to navigate future stress. But as life got busy, those skills faded into the background. When holiday pressures hit, she slipped back into old patterns without realizing it—sometimes even turning her coping tools into compulsions.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Holiday stress can make OCD symptoms spike, and it’s not always easy to see your therapist during the busiest time of year. Thankfully, there are practical strategies you can begin right now.

Below are five tools to help you reconnect with flexibility, presence, and what matters most—without fighting your mind.

1. Walk Every Day

A short daily walk can create meaningful mental shifts. Start with 10 minutes, and gradually increase to 20 if you can. Afterward, jot down a few notes about your experience—how you felt, what you noticed, and any unexpected benefits.

Research repeatedly shows the power of walking:

• Boosts mood and increases endorphins – Harvard Health
• Lowers cortisol and reduces stress in just 20 minutes – ScienceDirect
• Improves sleep quality – NCBI
• Elevates energy and reduces irritability more than sugary snacks – MedExpress
• Enhances overall mental well-being – MentalHealthFoundation

2. Engage Your Senses While You Walk

Turn your walk into a grounding exercise by tuning into:

• What you see
• What you smell
• What you feel on your skin
• What you taste as you sip water

Notice when your mind drifts to worries or unhelpful thoughts. Gently acknowledge it and return your attention to your senses. This simple act—redirecting without a fight—mirrors the core of psychological flexibility.

Before you know it, 20 minutes pass and you receive both movement and mindfulness benefits.

3. Choose Your Focus

We often cling to habits that feel logical but aren’t helpful, especially when anxious. Research shows that, as people age, they naturally focus more on what matters and let go of what doesn’t. According to Dr. Waldinger from Harvard, this shift is linked to increased happiness.

You can practice this skill now:

• What activities used to bring you joy?
• What values matter most during the holidays?
• What small pleasure did you love as a child that you can reintroduce today?

Refocusing on meaning—even in small ways—reduces the grip of OCD.

4. Drop the Struggle

Living with OCD can feel like playing tug-of-war with a monster across a fiery pit. You pull harder, it pulls back just as forcefully, and you end up exhausted.

What would happen if you stopped pulling?

Dropping the rope doesn’t make the monster disappear—but it changes your relationship with it. You move from fighting unwanted and unhelpful thoughts to making space for them and directing your energy toward what matters.

Next time you feel the urge to fight anxiety, check in:

• Am I pulling on the rope?
• How hard is OCD and anxiety pulling back?
• What might happen if I stopped struggling?

Often, relief begins the moment resistance ends.

5. Get Back to BASE

BASE helps you reconnect with the present moment when OCD pulls you off course.

B – Breathe
Slow your inhale. Lengthen your exhale. Notice the rhythm.

A – Acknowledge
Name your thoughts and feelings:
“I’m noticing the thought that I did something wrong.”
“I’m noticing anxiety and uncertainty.”

S – Scan
Check your body sensations—temperature, tension, warmth, cold. Imagine lightly turning on a flashlight to observe, not judge.

E – Engage
Return to what you were doing before your mind hooked you. Focus gently and fully.

Practicing BASE during calm moments strengthens your ability to apply it in stress.

Final Thoughts

During the holidays, it’s easy to get caught in the pull of OCD, stress, and perfectionism. But you can choose flexibility over struggle. Pause, breathe, walk, refocus, and reconnect with what matters most.

You don’t need to wait for therapy sessions to begin changing your experience. You can start right now—with small, compassionate steps toward presence and freedom.

By Annabella Hagen, LCSW

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash