What is the treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) involves obsessions (thoughts, intrusive images, urges) that result in anxiety. To reduce this anxiety, people engage in compulsions. These compulsions can be physical (tapping; checking; avoiding) or mental (prayers; counting).

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is more than being neat or loving things being clean. It can be a debilitating disorder where you fear things like contamination, fear that you may hurt someone or fear you’re a bad person.

There are two treatments for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Medication in some situations can also be very helpful.

Exposure and Response Prevention:

This is a behavioural therapy that gradually exposes people to situations designed to provoke a person’s obsessions in a safe environment. For instance, for contamination OCD it could be shaking someone’s hand and not washing your hand afterwards. This is the current gold standard treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder .

Interference Based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (I-CBT):

Note, this is different to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Interference Based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy states obsessive doubts arise based on an over-reliance on the imagination (often very strong in people with OCD) and a distrust of their own senses (what’s happening in the present moment). It helps people to understand their doubts, and also to trust themselves more through practical strategies.

I enjoy working with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and I understand how debilitating it can be. If you would like support and feel we could be a good fit, please get in touch today.

Photo by Michael Heise on Unsplash