Media & Speaking

OCD and Pure O: How Do I Make It Stop?

Is it possible to make OCD thoughts stop?

If you have OCD, you are not alone. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) affects 2-3% of the population. In the US, approximately 7 to 10 million people suffer from OCD and experience significant distress in almost every aspect of their daily life.

Unwanted thoughts and images can pop into your head, something terrifying, and cause your sympathetic nervous system to activate, causing high anxiety, your fight-or-flight response. Maybe the thought was that you may harm your family member, or that you may have just run over someone, or left the stove on when you left your home. The fearful thought can be anything. But it sticks because it scares you. It horrifies you. You will do anything to not have that thought. You start to ruminate about that thought. Is it true? Perhaps you begin to avoid driving, you create safety plans and have family members hide the knives, you compulsively check the stove, over and over again.

Although you cannot stop your initial thought, you can stop the OCD cycle by changing how you respond to your thoughts. Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is the “gold-standard” treatment for OCD based on neuroscience research. ERP can be effectively used with or without medication and combined with other therapies like ACT and Mindfulness to treat OCD.

Questions you can ask me about OCD:

• What can someone do to get rid of their obsessive thoughts?
• Pure O OCD: Can our thoughts make us do something bad?
• Is OCD curable? How long does OCD ERP treatment take?
• How can we help a family member with OCD?

Health Anxiety: What is Real and What is Anxiety?

Health Anxiety is a chronic condition diagnosed as Illness Anxiety Disorder (hypochondriasis) or Somatic Symptom Disorder. These are conditions experienced with or without a real medical problem. The real issue is the obsessive worry and a preoccupation of having a life-threatening condition based on misinterpretations of bodily symptoms and sensations. Health anxiety behaves like OCD because the anxiety is reinforced by how a person responds to their worries. These physical behaviors and mental compulsions may include checking on body symptoms like taking their pulse or checking their blood pressure, ruminating, and worrying, reassurance-seeking, excessive doctor visits and medical testing, and avoiding activities altogether.

People with health anxiety are often misunderstood and told to “just stop" worrying. Doctors and family members alike mistreat the sufferers by giving them reassurance or unnecessary tests and appointments to calm their worries. Unfortunately, without recognizing the OCD pattern of Health Anxiety, medical providers, therapists, and family members alike routinely misunderstand and mistreat sufferers by fueling their compulsive cycle instead of using an effective treatment called Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) Therapy.

Questions you can ask me about Health Anxiety:

• Has the pandemic made some of us hypochondriacs?
• What are signs that someone may have Health Anxiety?
• If our partner has Health Anxiety, how do we help them?
• What options of treatment are available for Health Anxiety?

Agoraphobia and Panic Disorders: Being a Prisoner of Your Own Home

Agoraphobia and Panic Disorder symptoms when triggered can feel life-threatening, terrifying, or humiliating and yet diminish once a person has retreated to their safe place. In a sense, people with agoraphobia are prisoners to their brain and bodily symptoms. Agoraphobia is an anxiety condition that involves the fear of being in places or situations where escape may be difficult, embarrassing, or result in panic symptoms. Approximately 1-2% of adults in the US have been diagnosed with Agoraphobia. Agoraphobic fears may include being alone, being outside of one's home or safe places, traveling on public transportation, being in a crowd, being in open or closed spaces, being on a bridge, or waiting in line. Panic disorder can accompany agoraphobia and can produce symptoms like rapid heartbeat, palpitations, difficulty breathing, nausea, digestion problems, derealization, sweating, and dizziness.

However, with a desire and motivation to heal and effective mental health treatment and support, agoraphobia and panic disorder are treatable. Evidence-based treatment for Agoraphobia and Panic Disorder includes a combination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) using Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) including Interoceptive Exposures for Panic Disorder.

Questions you can ask me about Agoraphobia:

• Are Agoraphobia symptoms on the rise because of the pandemic?
• How can someone help a family member with Agoraphobia and Panic?
• Why or how does someone become agoraphobic?
• How can someone help a family member with agoraphobia to travel?