Feeling gaslight by OCD? Defeat OCD-related doubt through exposure and response prevention (ERP), not logic!One of OCD's most diabolical tricks is its ability to sow seeds of doubt, even about beliefs we hold strongly. Think of it as a tiny, annoying heckler in your...
Overcoming OCD involves giving up the need to know for sure.These are difficult times. Lately, it seems, each week brings with it something truly horrifying. A shooting or an act of terrorism, a hate crime committed against an individual, a disease that affects the...
Obsessions focusing on pets and animals incorporate all the common themes: contamination, checking, harm, scrupulosity, and sex.In this 3-part blog series, I discuss some of the common ways obsessions may target our lovable, snuggable friends. This article, Part 1,...
I’m going to do this and ride the anxiety wave no matter what. Bring on the bad thoughts.It's ERP tip time. This series of posts focuses on tips to enhance the effectiveness of your exposure and response prevention (ERP). If you're interested in more ERP tips, click...
Don't mistake rituals for exposure and response prevention (ERP). Embrace your exposures with fear, and embrace opportunities for openness, defenselessness, and vulnerability.Starting today, I am going to start posting random ERP tips as they occur to me, as there are...
Use imaginal exposure to address OCD based around catastrophic feared outcomes.As I've talked about in numerous posts, overcoming OCD involves learning to co-exist with doubt and uncertainty. This idea can be a bit counter-intuitive at first, as many people initially...
Scary, unwanted thoughts sometimes masquerade as truths. Although these thoughts may have the appearance of danger, their form is intended to deceive.It's nearly Halloween, and kids around the country are digging through dusty closets and plundering the aisles of...
Suicide obsessions involve the fear of killing yourself, whereas self-harm obsessions focus on the fear of self-mutilation.Thoughts of death, dying, and suicide are an unfortunate reality for many individuals. In the U.S. alone between 2008 and 2009, approximately...
Some individuals with OCD fear accidentally harming others through carelessness or negligence.The fear of harming others can be a sign of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a neurobiological condition that is associated with repetitive, intrusive, distressing...
Aggressive obsessions involve the fear of intentionally harming or killing others.Aggressive obsessions go by many names. Harm obsessions, violent obsessions, morbid obsessions...the list goes on... These symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) involve the...
Harm obsessions involve unwanted thoughts, impulses, or images about hurting or killing yourself or others.Imagine that you're leaning down to kiss your young daughter goodnight, when BAM! You are jolted by an image of yourself stabbing her to death. Alternatively,...
