Support for a patient with obsessive-compulsive disorder

The correct starting point for helping a patient with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is for the family to understand the nature of this illness, and specifically to understand the following:

The thoughts that invade the mind of an OCD patient come against their will.

The patient knows that these thoughts are wrong, trivial, and strange.

The patient tries to get rid of these thoughts and free themselves from their control.

The patient is unable to resist and completely fails to expel the silly idea that occupies the center of their thinking and awareness; the patient resists, fails, becomes anxious, and then depressed.