OCD Awareness Week 2016
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 find information about local and online programs and events designed to help increase the general public’s understanding of OCD. When I started this blog a few years ago, the internet was awash in misinformation about the nature of OCD. OCD was (more often than not) described in oversimplified terms, and the popular media largely mischaracterized OCD as a disorder defined primarily on the basis of excessive washing or checking behaviors. If you didn’t fit this mold, it was implied that you didn’t have OCD. I was hoping that, through my writing, I might be able to address some of these...
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Group Therapy for OCD: Power in Numbers
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 reminded anew how group therapy for OCD is so different than individual therapy. OCD wants to separate us from others, to shame us, to make us feel hopeless, defective, and guilty… It wants us to define ourselves on the basis of things we can’t control and forget that we are not our thoughts. After all, that’s how it maintains its power over us. Although there is great vulnerability in putting your thoughts out there and saying them aloud in front of others, by doing so, we defy our OCD. OCD lost a few battles yesterday. Let’s keep this war going. For those...
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OCD Treatment Group Using ERP
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 a supportive environment for completing ERPs. Participants wishing to attend are required to register using the links at the bottom of this post. This group will first meet on Saturday (8/10/13), 1pm-3pm. The fees for attending this group are $75/session or $50/session if you pay in advance and commit to a 4-week group treatment sequence. Insurance will not be accepted; however, if you have out-of-network benefits, you may be eligible to submit your bill for reimbursement by your insurance company. Subsequent 2-hour sessions will be held on 8/17, 8/24, and 8/31 @ 1pm. You are free to participate in any or all of these sessions; however, individuals are most likely to...
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Scrupulosity & OCD: Religious/Moral Symptoms
Question: I have scrupulosity (religious/moral obsessive-compulsive disorder), and I am triggered by religious posts on Facebook. When I see a religious post, I feel like I have to repost it or God will be mad at me. I also worry about what other people think about these reposts, which then leads me to fear that God will judge me for worrying. Any suggestions for treating scrupulosity (religious OCD)? Religious Scrupulosity/OCD For many people with OCD/scrupulosity, treatment can be especially confusing at first. Every action or inaction can feel potentially dangerous, which is why scrupulosity often goes untreated for so long. The very fact that you recognize that this is related to obsessive-compulsive disorder is excellent. It also sounds like you have insight about your OCD symptoms and the OCD positive feedback loop. Many people with religious obsessions don’t realize...
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Exposure and Response Prevention: An Analogy
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is just like a fitness program for your brain. However, instead of shaking up your fitness level, it’s designed to shake up stubborn OCD symptoms. Let’s expand on this analogy. Reasons for Doing Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) People don’t adopt fitness routines for no reason at all; physical exercise is not a random activity. We don’t accidentally buy gym memberships or wake up on treadmills. Exercise is always purpose-driven and typically is intended to improve one’s quality of life in some quantifiable way. Common goals for exercising are related to health, aesthetics, or the feelings it evokes. Treatments like exposure and response prevention (ERP) are also intended to enhance your life in a meaningful way. Just like with exercise, your ERP efforts will be driven by your own...
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Starting Exposure Therapy: What’s it Like?
For anyone new to exposure-based therapy, such as exposure and response prevention (ERP), there is often much anticipatory anxiety about starting treatment. “What is it? What will it be like? How bad will it be? Can I handle it? Will I be forced to do things I’m unwilling to do?” These uncertainties are typical for most people beginning the process. They’re also understandable. When you begin treatment, it often feels like you’re putting your fate in someone else’s hands. Because that someone is typically a stranger (i.e., your therapist), it would be a bit odd if you didn’t feel that way. Moreover, if you know the basics of exposure therapy, you understand that eventually you’ll be confronting the very things you fear. Some people accept this prospect with dread but others feel a sort of nervous anticipation. Although they...
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Dr. Steven Seay is a licensed psychologist in Florida & Missouri. He is the Director of the Center for Psychological & Behavioral Science and provides treatment & therapy throughout South Florida, including Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Fort Lauderdale, & Miami.
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