The Allowing app · £37 a month
It feels like you don't have a choice.
That battle, fighting your own mind, from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep.
I'm David Laing. I lost fifteen years to it. Not now.
Allowing is for when you're about to do the compulsion, whatever it is. So you can come back to trusting in Self, knowing the compulsion's not what's keeping you safe.
Subscribe: £37 a month ↓30 days on your first month. If it isn't for you, email me within 30 days of subscribing and I'll refund that month in full.
What's in it
It's an app. You open it when the pull is there: 2am, or the car before you go in. It's two taps from that moment, wherever you are in it. It opens into a conversation rather than a form, and it closes when you are done.
You say what's going on, or, if the words won't come, tap one of the four lines it offers.
It's a conversation with an AI, not with me. It isn't therapy. It won't tell you you're fine, and it won't ask you back. That's on purpose.
Reassurance is a verbal form of handwashing.
What you type to it is kept in your account. Only I read it, never live, and it isn't used to train the AI. The privacy page says how, and for how long.
The home screen has the allowing experiment. You write down what the pull predicts will happen and what you'll do, or not do, then mark the days and write about what happened. It's kept in your own words.
It never performs, congratulates or urges. There are no streaks, no scores, no badges, and nothing asks you to rate how that went.
Subscribe: £37 a month ↓What it's for
When you stop the compulsion, you are faced with the feeling itself. A compulsion is trying to change that feeling. It's only when you stop trying to change it that it can actually change.
But the part of you that keeps doing it feels very strong, and you've got the feeling, the fear, going.
Your capacity for this is far higher than that part believes.
Why I built it
I used to spend up to six hours a day trapped in front of a mirror.
I was on medication. I was doing ERP, and I was managing. I felt like I wasn't living. I was just putting up with this.
I hit rock bottom in my life, and I knew in my soul that it was possible to be free of OCD. I don't have OCD anymore.
My book, OCD: Conditions for Allowing, came out of getting free of it. But a book sits on a shelf, and the pull doesn't come to the shelf. It comes at the door, in the car, at night.
What people say
Two people in my programme have now met their definition of complete recovery, the one they wrote themselves before we started.
The app is new, so none of these is about it. Kit and Celeste read the book. Joanna is in the community.
"I have had the best month in terms of much reduced compulsive thinking that I have had in perhaps 30 years."
— Kit F. (UK), OCD for 30+ years
"Not all the way there yet, but have made so much progress, and see the light that was missing from view. I'm able to "allow" and have compassion on myself that I never had before."
— Celeste C. (US), Trustpilot review, July 2026
"Staying with it ( allowing) “ feels” like something bad will happen.. feels scary but if I DO stay, the warmth shows up and I know I’m ok. That feeling of safety is present."
— Joanna, on what happens when she stays with it instead of leaving
If you're in my Skool community, having the app also puts you in the weekly draw there. Post at least once in a week and you can win a one-to-one hour with me. One person can win each week, and the week closes on Saturday at 3pm UK. You need to be 18 or over, and the full rules are in the Classroom.
Subscribe: £37 a month ↓Who it isn't for
It isn't for you if what you want is to be told it's fine. A monthly charge for being told no is a bad deal.
If you haven't read the book, the short version is on this page, and the book has all of it.
It is for you if you know exactly what I mean by the gap between the pull and your hand.
If it works, you open it less.
Subscribe: £37 a month ↓30 days on your first month. If it isn't for you, email me within 30 days of subscribing and I'll refund that month in full.
Allowing — £37 a month
If my email told you your price is £27, use the link in that email. If you haven't got it, reply to any email from me and I'll send it.
If you're in the Implementation Programme or Bespoke, or you bought the Starter Kit before Allowing went live, you don't need this page. The app is part of both. Starter Kit: your first 30 days are free from launch day, and there's nothing for you to do yet.
It's a subscription because it has to be there on the night it happens, which might be tonight or might be in March.
It renews automatically until you cancel. To cancel, reply to any email from me, or use the cancel page. I do it by hand, within one working day.
After you pay: install Allowing from Google Play or the App Store and sign in with the email address you paid with. It can take a few minutes to reach the app. If it doesn't, reply to any email from me and I'll sort it.
David Laing, a sole trader trading as OCD: Conditions for Allowing, Eastbourne, East Sussex, United Kingdom. Questions: [email protected]
Allowing is not a medical device and does not diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any medical condition. For medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, consult a healthcare professional.