Are Grandma's homemade chocolate chip cookies giving you a conniption fit? You might have OCD.Alcohol OCD: Conquering Fears of Accidental Ingestion & Contamination with ERP Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) has long been dubbed the "doubting disease" for its...
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...
Let's talk about the elephant in the room (or the bedroom... or the laundry basket...). OCD loves taboo topics, and as such, it can easily infiltrate topics related to semen, sperm, vaginal secretions, and other various sexual fluids...Alright, let's dive into the...
Please help us complete this exposure for scrupulosity (religious OCD).So this post is a bit different than my regular posts... Rather than discussing a specific aspect about OCD or anxiety, this post is a request for your assistance in completing an exposure. Here's...
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...
OCD is predicated on the formation of faulty beliefs that are maintained through negative reinforcement.In previous posts, I have discussed various aspects of the "OCD Cycle," but it never hurts to have a quick refresher. After all, understanding how OCD works can...
Just like other types of OCD, rOCD can involve unwanted, intrusive impulses and images.This multi-part series of posts will focus primarily on rOCD, also known as "relationship OCD." Part 1 focused on obsessive thoughts that are common in rOCD. This part discusses...
Symptoms of relationship OCD (ROCD) include pervasive doubt and uncertainty about interpersonal relationships.In a previous post on mental checking, I talked briefly about ROCD (Relationship OCD), a form of OCD that involves pervasive doubt and uncertainty about...
Driving fears and avoidance in teens may reflect normal development or possibly an emerging anxiety disorder.Reader Question: My daughter just turned 15, and no matter what I say, I can't seem to convince her to practice her driving. It's strange, because in the past,...
Hit-and-run OCD can be distinguished from other driving-related fears on the basis of a person's core fear and his/her response to it.What is hit-and-run OCD? Hit-and-run OCD (sometimes called MVA-OCD) is a subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder that involves...
OCD tends to target what we care about the most. In this case, our pets.Obsessions focusing on pets and animals incorporate all the common themes: contamination, checking, harm, scrupulosity, and sex. In this 3-part blog series, I'll discuss some of the common ways...
"Who could ever hurt a face this adorable? If you listen to OCD, you’ll start to think it’s possible."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...
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,...
Anger can be a mobilizing emotion, but too much anger directed at OCD can give it unnecessary power.“I hate having OCD! Why can’t these thoughts just stop?!?! How can I be the person I was before?!?!” Many people with OCD are extremely familiar with the...
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...
Long shower times because of contamination OCD? Use our ERP shower exposure room to shorten your shower times!Long shower times? Just a quick announcement... I'm pleased to announce that with our recent office renovations, we now have a spa-like therapeutic shower...
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...
It's #OCDWEEK! Help raise awareness and understanding about obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and related disorders.Welcome to #OCDWEEK 2016, a week organized by IOCDF to help raise awareness about OCD and related conditions! If you visit IOCDF’s website, you’ll...
Thanks to all who came our for our first OCD treatment group.Group Therapy for OCD Wow. Our first OCD treatment group met yesterday, and IMHO, it was an incredible experience. Thank you to all who attended and showed such courage in standing up to their OCD. I was...
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...
Emetophobia is the fear of vomiting. Although vomit phobia may appear to be a simple phobia, it may actually be a symptom of OCD, social anxiety, or agoraphobia.Flu season will be quickly upon us and with it comes an unfortunate increase in the likelihood of...
Postpartum OCD is a form of acute-onset OCD that develops after the arrival of a new baby. Parents with postpartum OCD often experience unwanted aggressive or sexual thoughts about their infant.Parents brace themselves for many changes when a new baby comes home. As...
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,...
Mental checking can involve mentally analyzing whether or not a behavior was completed properly.Behavioral Checking (Overt Checking) Many examples of compulsive checking rituals in OCD involve direct inspection of a target stimulus by sight, sound, or feel. Common OCD...
Checking-related OCD takes innumerable forms, and includes checks for safety, understanding, and mistakes.Compulsive checking often begins innocently enough. One check here, two checks there... But OCD's greed knows no bounds. What starts out as a simple check "just...
Sexual orientiation OCD (SO-OCD), previously referred to as "Homosexual OCD (HOCD)" involves obsessions related to one's sexual orientation. Straight people with HOCD fear they may become gay (or are secretly gay); gay people may fear becoming straight.Fear of Being...
