OCD Treatment (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder)
Living with obsessions, compulsions, and significant fear can be exhausting and debilitating. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is often misunderstood or mistaken for general anxiety, but the way OCD manifests is distinct. Many individuals experiencing severe intrusive and unwanted thoughts don’t realize these are symptoms of OCD, which can lead to shame and hesitation about seeking help, whether in therapy or in everyday conversations. It’s common to feel deeply distressed by unwanted thoughts, disturbing images, or taboo, fleeting ideas.
Understanding OCD and Anxiety
Everyone experiences intrusive or disturbing thoughts from time to time; they’re automatic and involuntary. For individuals experiencing significant rumination, understanding the relationship between anxiety and obsessions is often the turning point in treatment. Managing OCD isn’t about reframing or replacing a single thought, it’s about changing your relationship with anxiety itself. Recognizing that an obsession is a form of anxiety, and understanding how compulsions reinforce the obsessive cycle, are key early steps in treatment.
Treatment Approach
With greater education and understanding of the disorder, clients are guided through Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), widely considered the gold-standard treatment for OCD. Because every individual’s circumstances are unique, treatment planning also considers family mental health history, trauma history, and co-occurring conditions such as depression or autism.
Common OCD Subtypes We Treat
- Harm OCD
- Contamination OCD
- Suicidal OCD
- Pedophilia OCD (POCD)
- Scrupulosity (religious/moral) OCD
- “Just right” (perfectionism) OCD
- Relationship OCD
- Sexual orientation/identity OCD
- Checking OCD
- False memory OCD
- Magical thinking OCD
- Postpartum OCD
- Perinatal OCD
- Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder