Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD):

• A specific type of anxiety disorder involving patterns of obsessive thinking and compulsive behaviors.

• Caused by unprocessed emotions which are habitually managed through short-term avoidance strategies (obsessions/compulsions)

• Triggered by events or relationships

• Leads to symptoms and impairments in functioning.

• Cured by blocking short-term avoidance strategies and processing the emotions underlying the obsessions and compulsions. 

Imagine you are afraid of the dark.

Each time you have the opportunity to face your fear, you instead turn on the light.

Now, this helps ease your fears in the moment, but in the long term, as you learn to rely on the light to deal with your fears, are you likely to become less afraid or more afraid of the dark?

Most likely, you will become more afraid of the dark. And actually, two things will likely increase: both your reliance on the light, and your fear of the dark.

This is similar in anxiety and OCD. 

The dark is our unprocessed feelings and the lights are our strategies of defending ourselves against the anxiety caused by those feelings.

The more we use our strategies (the lights) in order to deal with our anxiety (caused by our underlying feelings) in the short term, the more our reliance on the strategies grows, and the more our fear of our unprocessed feelings (anxiety) grows too.

These strategies were once really helpful, but now come to actually hurt us.

OCD symptoms can include:

• Obsessions

  • Repeated, persistent and unwanted thoughts, urges or images that feel intrusive and cause distress or anxiety

    • Needing things or one’s environment to be orderly and symmetrical

    • Fear of contamination, uncleanliness, or dirt

    • Doubting oneself or others and having difficulty tolerating uncertainty

    • Aggressive or extreme thoughts about losing control and harming oneself or others

    • Unwanted thoughts, including aggression, or sexual or religious preoccupations

• Compulsions

  • Repetitive behaviors that one feels driven to perform

    • Checking

    • Counting

    • Orderliness

    • Washing and cleaning

    • Following a strict routine or schedule

    • Needing or demanding reassurance

Common associated diagnoses: 

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

• Hoarding Disorder

• Excoriation (Skin-Picking) Disorder

• Trichotillomania (Hair-Pulling Disorder)

• Body Dysmorphic Disorder

• Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcal Infection (PANDAS)

• Olfactory Reference Syndrome

Why conventional treatment can fail:

The ‘gold standard’ for OCD treatment is called exposure & response prevention (ERP). If you are stuck in the debilitating cycle of OCD, which is impairing your functioning, ERP can be helpful to get you over the hump, and give you back a sense of agency in your life.

If this is you, we encourage you to check out Rogers Behavioral Health, our community partners who have been treating OCD in this way for over 40 years. They offer a higher-level of care than traditional outpatient psychotherapy through their partial hospitalization programs (PHP; 4-5 days per week) and intensive outpatient programs (IOP; 2-3 days per week).

However, while ERP is helpful for stabilization and early recovery, it often does not get at the underlying emotional triggers and memories that are causing the anxiety in the first place. In this way, it can become another form of avoiding the root cause of the OCD symptoms.

And to be fair this is not it’s goal. It’s focus is on overcoming the immediate behaviors. But in order to have a full and lasting cure, deeper emotional work is needed.

So what can we do?

At EmotionFit, we are committed to getting to the root of your anxiety efficiently, accurately, and compassionately.

We target the root of the issue: the underlying feelings causing your anxiety, which in turn is causing your obsessive compulsive symptoms.

We help you go beyond just learning new strategies to deal with your anxiety when it is triggered; we help you eliminate your anxiety at its core.

We’ll help you become more aware of your emotions, process them, and be able to better engage with yourself, and those you love in a more fulfilling way.

End the cycle of distress today.

Contact a therapist and let us help you get free.