Counseling for obsessive compulsive disorder online across California and Maryland
Discover the many sneaky ways that OCD gets in the way of you living your fullest and best life.
Thoughts that are not aligned with the values that you have, and the person that you and your loved ones know you to be? The thoughts that you have may send you compulsively down an AI or Google rabbithole, or they may have you seeking reassurance from people around you. You may struggle with believing and trusting yourself, wondering whether your own mind can be relied upon or if you need certainty from somewhere else.
Do you have upsetting and obsessive thoughts that frequently intrude in your life?
does this sound like you?
While some people have the types that we commonly hear about on TV, not everyone’s OCD looks like the Checking OCD where we need to check that the door is locked a number of times, or Contamination OCD, that we washed our hands or wiped a certain number of times. These are the more known types of OCD. The “Pure O” subtype accounts for more than half of OCD cases and it’s much tougher to spot because the compulsions are primarily mental.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) exists with many, many subtypes
There are many, many subtypes of OCD
these are a few more common subtypes
relationship/friendship OCD (ROCD)
We have OCD stories that tell us that our partner, friend, or someone we care about doesn’t actually truly love us, care about us, or value us the way they say they do (or that we don’t love them enough), despite their being devoted and providing us with reassurance, to the point that they may feel frustrated and wonder why we don’t believe them. This can wreak havoc on relationships and friendships, but the obsessional doubts take control over us, and as much as we try to stop them, the intrusive thoughts keep doing their thing.
symmetry or perfectionism OCD
There is also the very common subtype of “Just right OCD” symmetry or perfectionism OCD, where we feel compelled to refluff or replace that couch pillow, or perfectly organize the refrigerator or toiletries in the shower. This is where that perfectly clean countertop, floor, and/or sink (not a single dish!) fit in.
Harm ocd
There is also harm OCD where we have obsessive thoughts of harm coming to a loved one or to ourselves. Maybe sometimes we have fears that we could accidentally or involuntarily hurt someone else. Even though the thought of that terrifies us, we have these intrusive thoughts.
Sensorimotor/somatic OCD
There is also Sensorimotor/somatic OCD where we develop a hyper awareness of our bodily sensations and experiences which leads to obsessive doubts about what is happening to our bodies.
Contamination OCD
Contamination OCD is another common subtype where we feel the need to constantly wash our hands way too many times in a day, or we feel confident after we have that certain thought, that our salad will inevitably cause a severe case of food-poisoning…without any proof from our senses. Or maybe we feel dirty or contaminated, or that food is, or that we must wipe, or wash, or many things to decontaminate.
Prenatal/Postpartum OCD
Prenatal/Postpartum OCD is also common with obsessional doubts about the baby, even though everything continues to be relatively normal. This involves a lot of triple and quadruple checking things, like the baby's breathing in utero and postpartum.
Moral/Religious/Scrupulosity OCD
There is also Moral/Religious/Scrupulosity OCD where we engage in obsessional doubts that we are not practicing our faith well enough, not a good enough follower, that we or our loved ones are not recycling enough, that we are “not a good person OCD.” This is especially common for people who deeply value being a good, kind, empathetic human. OCD often goes to the areas we care about most, where we cannot gain 100% certainty, and so it has us doubting that we are a good person, when most likely, cognitively we do know that we are…but the OCD keeps haunting us with thoughts like “but what if I'm not?"
We have obsessive thoughts questioning our reality as to whether something did in fact happen or not. We doubt our senses and that our reality occurred. Sometimes this occurs with existential OCD, where our obsessive thoughts focus on death, the meaning of life, and other areas of uncertainty.
sexual orientation OCD
Where we have intrusive and unwanted doubts about our sexual orientation, questioning our own sexual orientation, even when there's no real desire or attraction driving that.
false memory/real event OCD
Having untreated OCD can cause a tremendous toll on your mental health, and the wellbeing of people you love. OCD feels like it controls you, but you do try to control it by following numerous different compulsions, and the amount of time that you spend each day going back and rereading emails, checking things, counting, trying to get thoughts out of your head, organizing things, avoiding things, has you so exhausted and second guessing yourself and your reality far too much. You want to learn more about OCD, if it’s true for you, and the subtleties of it, without judgement and with understanding so that you can rebuild trust in yourself, your senses and the reality around you. You know that it will be tough, but things already are with OCD so you are ready to rid yourself of the tight grasp that OCD has in your life.
OCD can get better and you do not have to feel like this forever.
OCD can be sneaky and hard for clinicians to spot, and many therapists are not trained in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Inference-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT), which are the current go-to treatment modalities for OCD.
Many people have lived with OCD most of their lives, and so it can be tough to unpack it and see all of the sneaky ways it shows up. Things can get better.
I’ve found that OCD is commonly missed, because many people with OCD do not share symptoms for a variety of reasons, or even because we were often not trained about OCD and its tricky subtypes.
- Identify how OCD is getting in the way of living your full life
- Increase your self-trust, knowing that you can once again trust yourself by trusting your senses and your experiences
- Reduce unwanted obsessive and intrusive thoughts that occupy your thinking
- Create more space to be present, calm and peaceful
- Know what is and isn’t rooted in reality and regain confidence and trust in your experiences
- Decrease feelings of guilt, shame, embarrassment or self-judgment related to the intrusive thinking patterns that your OCD happens to have settled into
- Learn strategies using evidence-based practices of I-CBT or ERP for OCD
