Loading…
Track OCD episodes — intrusions, appraisals, rituals, distress, and duration — to identify patterns and measure progress.
Record each significant OCD episode as close to the time as possible. Note the intrusive thought or urge, what it meant to you (the appraisal), what you did in response (ritual, avoidance, or resisting), how distressed you felt, and how long the episode lasted. Over time, this reveals your most common triggers and whether distress is reducing.
Use in the early assessment and formulation phase to establish a baseline of OCD symptoms, triggers, and compulsive responses. Also useful mid-treatment to track change and identify residual symptoms.
Present as a way to spot patterns in when and where OCD shows up during the week. Normalise that monitoring often initially increases awareness of symptoms, which is a sign of engagement rather than deterioration.
For clients with extensive rituals, focus monitoring on the primary OCD theme to avoid the diary itself becoming overwhelming. For clients with poor insight, add a column for 'what someone without OCD might think' to begin building perspective.
Avoid if the client is likely to use detailed monitoring as a form of mental reviewing or checking. If monitoring significantly increases distress without therapeutic benefit after two weeks, simplify or discontinue.
Use the completed diary to identify the most distressing intrusions and most time-consuming compulsions, which can directly inform the ERP hierarchy. Track time spent on compulsions as a concrete outcome metric throughout treatment.
Suitable for clients working with ocd, monitoring diary, cbt, salkovskis, intrusions, rituals, compulsions. This tool can be used as a standalone worksheet or as part of a structured homework plan.
Create a free account to access 10 worksheets per month.
Build a graded exposure hierarchy for Exposure and Response Prevention therapy. List anxiety-provoking situations, rate them, and plan structured exposures.
Log exposure and response prevention practice sessions with SUDS ratings, urge strength, and whether you resisted the compulsion.
Challenge inflated responsibility beliefs that drive OCD by examining the appraisal and generating realistic alternatives.
Track covert / mental compulsions — mental reviewing, counting, praying, reassuring self — which are often missed because they're invisible.