Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
OCD
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a complicated set of distressing thoughts, actions, and mental strategies that individuals feel powerless to control.
At its worst, it creates a vicious cycle of unwanted, troubling thoughts and compulsive responses that exacerbate anxiety, perpetuate the cycle itself, and disrupt life. In its mildest form, the OCD cycle still creates a challenging set of thoughts and actions that makes living life hard. At Restorative Counseling Services, we deeply understand the potentially debilitating experience that is OCD and how this impacts the individual and the lives of those around them. We make it our mission to come alongside the sufferer to create new ways of thinking and acting so that the cycle is broken.
Reach Out to Us: Book now in Atlanta or Roswell
If you find yourself having uncontrollable and distressing thoughts or urges, or if you notice that you have developed elaborate rituals to ease your mind about your concerns, please contact us today. Together, we can determine if you have OCD and if so we can help you regain control of your thoughts, behaviors, and life.
Treatment for OCD
Treatment for OCD is multifaceted in that it can include medication, cognitive behavioral strategies, and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). OCD can be overwhelming, so we utilize as many avenues of treatment as possible to offer comprehensive client care. We cover all the bases from finding medication providers if necessary, orchestrating collaborative treatment teams, offering family skills and support sessions, and utilizing evidence-based treatment protocols.
Assessment
When working with individuals with OCD, we take great care to explore the unique facets of the client’s lived experience by utilizing effective assessment measures such as the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale. We may ask clients to track daily obsessions and compulsions, in order to gain a more complete picture of their OCD.
Together as a client and therapist team, we start to uncover the unique processes of OCD and develop treatment goals that address the client’s main concerns. We then begin the work of devising a take-back plan to help the client regain a life without the challenges of OCD by utilizing the most successful evidence-based treatments.
Exposure and Response Prevention
At Restorative Counseling Services, we utilize Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy, which is the most effective therapeutic treatment for OCD. We begin ERP treatment with psychoeducation, stemming from our core belief that knowledge is power. We help our clients become OCD experts so they can clearly understand how OCD operates in their minds, emotions, and bodies. Specifically, we explore the neuroscience behind OCD, the nuances of OCD thought patterns and neutralizing strategies, and the OCD cycle. We help individuals reappraise and challenge faulty beliefs about obsessions and create strategies to withstand the compulsive or neutralizing urges. Next, we explore the ways in which OCD has robbed the client of the life they want to live. Then we help them build up the necessary nerve and bravery to take the paradoxical approach of facing OCD head on.
Once clients have a thorough understanding of how OCD operates, they develop a hierarchy of fears connected to their OCD starting from least to most distressing. We gently introduce exposures by facing the not-so-scary obsessions and easier to eliminate compulsions. Once confidence is gained and we squash the safety seeking behaviors that perpetuate OCD, we take on more challenging exposure tasks. While ERP can sound scary to some clients at first, we find that the freedom from OCD that ERP brings excites clients and motivates them to engage in even higher levels of exposure.
All the while, we stay present and grounded in the process and explore the ways to continue to give clients their life back. Our therapeutic goal is to utilize evidence-based methods, including exposure to fears and learning more effective responses, to give clients back the control they desire.
Description of OCD
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, although complex, is classified by two main features: obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are unwanted, uncontrollable intrusive thoughts, urges, or images that are personally distressing or functionally impairing. Obsessions go beyond typical worries. Instead, they are louder, harder to ignore experiences that are usually uncharacteristic to the individual that seemingly must be stopped or controlled.
Compulsions are repeated responses to neutralize, reduce, or prevent the obsession, a feared outcome, or the distress the obsession caused. Not only do the unwanted intrusive thoughts, urges, or images create distress, the repetitive patterns that result can create a level of shame or feelings of “losing it” and may coincide with experiences of depression or generalized anxiety.
Symptoms of OCD
The hallmarks of OCD are obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors which rob the individual of healthy functioning, and these symptoms can range from mild to severe in intensity. For individuals with OCD, an unwanted thought or urge gets “stuck” as something the individual thinks or feels repeatedly, usually causing a high degree of fear, confusion, and stress.
Symptoms of Obsessions
Obsessions are typically distressing thoughts that fall into connected clusters such as these:
• Fear of harming self or others
• Fear of losing control
• Fear of losing important items
• Excessive focus on morality and “rightness”
• Intrusive sexually explicit or violent thoughts or images
• Concern for things being “just right”
Symptoms of Compulsions
Ritualized or repetitive responses to obsessions are called compulsions. They are efforts to reduce feelings of fear and to increase perceived safety. Compulsive responses may be supported by beliefs that finding “just right” feelings or completing a specific number of rituals will provide safety. Most often, compulsive actions develop from obsessive thoughts in somewhat predictable patterns. For example, an individual fearful of getting sick may develop strict cleaning rituals and avoid specific locations such as a public restroom. Unfortunately, the compulsions themselves are time-consuming and demanding and usually cause more anxiety in the long run.
Compulsions take many forms and can be grouped as follows:
Behavioral strategies
• Checking
• Cleaning/Washing
• Avoidance
• Repeating rituals
• Other protective actions
Mental strategies
• Repeating words or phrases
• Mental counting
• List making
• Thought replacement
• Excessively seeking reassurance
• Withdrawal and avoidance
The Obsessive-Compulsive Cycle
OCD sufferers can fall into a cycle that is difficult to break without therapy. The cycle is as follows: an initial trigger sparks an intrusive distressing thought, image, or urge (obsession) that leads to increased anxiety and tension.
The anxiety is followed by a repetitive, ritualistic behavior or thought (compulsion) that is intended to lower anxiety and/or provide certainty. As a result, the sufferer experiences temporary relief. Unfortunately, this temporary relief may confirm the individual’s belief that compulsions provided some sense of safety or reprieve and confirm the obsession was something to fear, thus perpetuating the cycle. The next time a trigger sparks an intrusive thought, the cycle begins again, but with more intensity. Therapy helps OCD sufferers exit this painful cycle.
Reach Out to Us: Book now in Atlanta or Roswell
If you find yourself having uncontrollable and distressing thoughts or urges, or if you notice that you have developed elaborate rituals to ease your mind about your concerns, please contact us today. Together, we can determine if you have OCD and if so we can help you regain control of your thoughts, behaviors, and life.