With obsessions and compulsions, the more you do it, the more you want to do it; the less you do it, the less you want to do it. Schwartz has found it essential to understand that it is not what you feel while applying the technique that counts, it is what you do. “The struggle is not to make the feeling go away; the struggle is not to give in to the feeling”—by acting out a compulsion, or thinking about the obsession. This technique won’t give immediate relief because lasting neuroplastic change takes time, but it does lay the groundwork for change by exercising the brain in a new way.
