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...
Compulsions associated with ROCD include analyzing, checking, and comparing.Although ROCD is often characterized by intrusive worries about your relationship, relationship OCD treatment often specifically targets the compulsions and avoidance behaviors related to ROCD...
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...
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...
There is strength in numbers. Join us for our first OCD treatment group on Saturday, 8/10/13.OCD Treatment Group! I am pleased to announce the availability of our new exposure and response prevention (ERP)-based treatment group. The intent of this group is to provide...
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...
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...
If you insist on being symptom-free, “normal” body- and thought-noise become potential threats. This is because they are perceived as unwanted and dangerous.In my post about the treatment of sensorimotor OCD, a reader asked about the ultimate goal of treatment. Should...
A penguin obsessed with flying is an unhappy penguin. Resist efforts to suppress unwanted thoughts.OCD & Thought Control Can I learn to eliminate my OCD thoughts? I hear this question all the time from new patients who are searching for ways to suppress their...
The fear of coughing or choking on your own saliva can be effectively treated through exposure and response prevention (ERP). However, treatment will fail if it does not target your specific feared outcomes.Question: I have sensorimotor OCD, and I’m suffering from...
Although contamination-related OCD and washing rituals often go hand-in-hand, many rituals in this domain do not actually involve cleaning or disinfecting. Reassurance seeking is a subtle ritual that involves asking questions or seeking out information regarding the...
OCD symptoms, such as acting on an unwanted impulse, can best be addressed through exposure and response prevention (ERP). Useful exposures will involve embracing your own vulnerability by intentionally entering uncomfortable situations that trigger your OCD...
Exposure and response prevention (ERP) for OCD involves willingly habituating to your triggers. When spontaneous triggers occur, don't ritualize; be strategic.Question: I know about ERP, and I understand that OCD symptoms can be reduced by resisting rituals and then...
Sometimes the symptoms of social anxiety and OCD can overlap. Because avoidance maintains fear, consider high level exposures that involve "broadcasting" your symptoms in order to address anxiety-related cognitions. This is a CBT technique called intentional mistake...
Treatment for body-focused OCD is paradoxical and involves intentionally leaning into your symptoms rather than away from them.This post is the last in a series of posts discussing body-focused obsessions and compulsions (aka, sensorimotor, somatosensory, or somatic...
