What is OCD?

Distressing and intrusive thoughts, images, or urges (obsessions) paired with repetitive mental or observable behaviors (compulsions) aimed at neutralizing a feared outcome or distress. OCD impairs daily life and/or consumes an excessive amount of time.

OCD can cause severe anxiety, discomfort, and guilt - often being misdiagnosed as generalized anxiety.

Identifying Obsessions

Obsessions can attach on to anything and everything. Doubt and fear around morality, right vs wrong, symmetry, pedophilia, sexual intrusive thoughts, sensorimotor, physical sensations, identity and orientation, causing harm to others or self, offending others, forgetting something, superstitions, and on and on.

Understanding Compulsions

Replaying conversations, researching the same questions, or asking others for reassurance - only to start doubting again. Checking, cleaning, organizing, or repeating tasks until things feel “just right” - but relief never lasts.

The silent sufferer: argues with thoughts, tries to push them away, goes over something repeatedly to convince themselves that everything is okay, counting repeatedly, mentally reviewing an experience for evidence or certainty

A constant seek for certainty and efforts to prevent catastrophic outcomes becomes exhausting and overpowering.

Over time, compulsions lead to avoidance of responsibilities and important activities.

Behaviors once aimed at protecting your values, distorts what’s really important to you.

Moral scrupulosity can attach onto any belief system - rooted in fear of doing the wrong thing

OCD can attach to taboo topics such as sexual obsessions or fear of being a pedophile (POCD)

Harm to is a common fear - this is often prevalent during post-partum period for new parents

Contamination OCD concerns can involve feeling disgusting, getting sick, or getting others sick

Your OCD is not special and you are not alone - Gender, sexuality, and LGBTQ+ concerns