Do You Often Feel Stuck Navigating Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts? 

Do you feel like you're constantly battling intrusive thoughts that you can’t control? Do certain patterns keep you from living the life you want with your family or friends? Are you worried that you might lose control or feel riddled with uncertainty? 

Maybe life feels overwhelming at the moment. Feeling guilt, shame, and anxiety while trying to navigate work and home life. OCD might be affecting your relationships or limiting your ability to get out of the house. Maybe as a new mother your postpartum OCD is heightening your worries about your new baby.  

You might struggle to find relief outside your compulsions, because that does provide a temporary fix. Discomfort and shame can also keep someone from reaching out to an OCD specialist, because they think they are the only ones who are navigating these irrational thoughts.  

Shame Might Be Holding You Back 

OCD involves having obsessive thinking patterns that can include unwanted thoughts, images or urges that make a person feel anxious, distressed or panicked.  

Individuals who have OCD are often in a pattern of unsuccessfully attempting to control their thoughts. Many individuals feel embarrassed of their thoughts and behaviors, leading to shame over their perceived lack of control. To gain back a sense of control, those with obsessive compulsive disorder also have ritualistic behaviors which are an attempt to undo the obsessive thoughts or urges. 

One cannot simply use their will to push away unwanted thoughts or images; OCD treatment is about learning to cope with distress and increasing your tolerance of uncertainty. With OCD therapy, you’ll learn how to tolerate the discomfort of your distressing thoughts or behaviors, which will in turn make them have less power in your life. 

Common signs of OCD are: 

• Intrusive thoughts 

• Constant checking or counting 

• The repeated cleaning of one or more items 

• Fear of contamination 

• Hoarding 

• Thoughts that you might be harmed 

• Thoughts that you might cause others harm  

OCD Leads You To Feel Trapped and Question Who You Are 

OCD impacts between 1-3% of the population. In simpler terms, OCD impacts 1 in 100 American Adults and 1 in 200 children. Many individuals with OCD also experience other mental health disorders, such as anxiety disorders, depression, and tic disorders. Comorbidity rates can be as high as 76%. 

Our OCD psychologists understand the constant sense of worry and fear related to obsessions, which can be overwhelming and isolating. OCD can often lead to loneliness and leads people to feel mistrustful of the world around them. 

Another difficult factor is that while the obsessive-compulsive mind feels trapped, the rational mind is still online but cannot overpower the urge to find immediate relief.

In Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, it is not a belief that our intrusions are true but rather a fear, “What if they are?” People with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder place a high investment in their thoughts, which in turns increases their threat response.

OCD Often Attacks What You Care About 

There are many different variations and subtypes of OCD, and typically it will bombard you in an area that you value dearly. If you care deeply about your close relationships, then it might make you doubt if someone is the “right” person for you. Maybe you value health, so your mind leans towards intrusive thoughts about germs, or you value safety, and you constantly wonder if you locked the door.  

Other Examples of Obsessive and Intrusive Thoughts:

• What if I touch something dirty and get sick? 

  

  
  

• Maybe I should confess this intrusive thought to my roommate and check to see if she thinks I am a bad person. 

• What if I accidentally hurt someone while driving? 

• Did I really turn off the oven, or am I just imagining it? 

• If this isn’t perfect, something terrible will happen. 

• What if I think something blasphemous -am I a bad person? 

• If I don’t count to 10, something bad will happen. 

ERP Therapy Can Help Provide Relief From Unwanted Thoughts and Compulsions 

Our team is equipped with the skills and experience to effectively treat OCD as well as unwanted behaviors, such as hair pulling, tics, and excoriation (skin picking).  

Our therapists utilize  Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP).  ERP therapy is the gold standard for OCD treatment. It is designed to help those with OCD face their fears in a gradual way. The goal is to tolerate more and more discomfort without acting on compulsions. By doing this, not only do people learn to rewire their physical reactions to stress, but it also increases their tolerance and sense of capability. 

The therapists at Nobile Psychology are equipped to help you develop strategies to confront intrusive thoughts and compulsions, so that you can live a more satisfying life.   

Misdiagnosed with Anxiety

While obsessions and anxiety have a great deal of crossover, they are different processes and therefore respond to treatments differently. Here are a few key differences between OCD and anxiety. 

OCD involves obsessions, which are intrusive, unwanted, and often distressing thoughts, images, or urges. These thoughts are typically specific (e.g., contamination fears, fear of harm, or thoughts of something being imperfect). To alleviate the distress from obsessions, individuals engage in compulsions, which are repetitive behaviors or mental acts (e.g., checking, cleaning, counting). 

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterized by excessive worry that is often more generalized (e.g., concerns about relationships, work, health). The worry in GAD tends to focus on everyday events and is difficult to control. It is less about specific intrusive thoughts and more about persistent worrying. 

Behavioral Differences 

The compulsions in OCD are aimed at reducing the anxiety or distress caused by obsessions. For example, someone with OCD may repeatedly wash their hands to reduce fear of contamination. Compulsions can become ritualized and time-consuming.

The behavioral responses in GAD are not typically ritualistic. Individuals may seek reassurance or avoid certain situations, but the anxiety is more about managing general stressors rather than specific rituals. 

While both disorders involve anxiety, OCD is marked by the cycle of obsessions and compulsions, while GAD is characterized by broader, excessive worry and tension.  

If you’d like to learn more about GAD and OCD, read more here. 

What To Expect In Sessions

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder treatment is specialized. Finding an OCD therapist near you may be difficult due to this.  

We get feeling frustrated by the inability to stop the cycle of obsessions and compulsions. Many people feel alone in their struggles, as they may fear judgment or misunderstanding from others.  

ERP therapy is a highly effective treatment for reducing the symptoms of OCD. At Nobile Psychology we offer 1:1 individual therapy, as well as OCD support groups in order to foster a safe environment to navigate exposures together. For children struggling with OCD, we work with the child to tackle their fears, as well as with parents to reduce family accommodation and increase overall support. 

We Provide Evidence-Based Therapy For OCD Tailored To Your Needs

We incorporate evidence-based second and third wave behavioral therapies to address obsessive compulsive processes. 

CBT for OCD is implemented through Exposure and Response Prevention and can help reduce psychological suffering by identifying and tolerating unhelpful intrusive thoughts or images. Additionally, we may prescribe mindfulness exercises to help you disengage from ineffective thoughts and feelings. To address unhelpful beliefs, we assist you in exposure therapy. This intervention will help you increase your distress tolerance and give you alternative strategies for dealing with discomfort.  

Does your OCD impact your relationship? Our therapists at Nobile Psychology have specialties in both couples therapy and OCD. This allows us to target and discern family accommodation behaviors impacting the OCD from healthy organic emotional bids for affection. In couples therapy for OCD you will learn to kick OCD out of the driver’s seat and re-establish connection and healthy communication with your partner. 

Addressing Concerns About OCD Treatment...

I’m not sure I can afford to work with an OCD therapist.  

Although our practice is considered an out-of-network provider, most insurance companies provide 50-80 percent reimbursement regarding treatment for ocd. To expedite this process, we've partnered with Mentaya, a service that allows you to check your out of network benefits, to see how much you’ll be reimbursed for your ocd therapy sessions through out-of-network benefits. You can also use your HSA/FSA card for treatment.  

What if ERP therapy doesn’t work for me? 

While Exposure and Response Prevention is the gold standard of treatment, evidence also suggests that third wave behavioral therapies (e.g., Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, RO-DBT) can mitigate symptoms of OCD and symptoms of over-control. Our therapists have expertise in a variety of different modalities and spend time tailoring our evidence-based treatment regimen to best meet your unique situation. 

My OCD is really severe, how long until I start to feel better?

The average length of therapy for OCD is 12-24 sessions, or 3-6 months. Most people tend to experience gains by session four. Evidence suggests that 75% of people who engage in therapy for OCD feel better after treatment and maintain those gains over time.  

Allow Us To Help You Find Freedom And Hope

It’s true that temporary relief may come after completing compulsive behaviors, but this is often short-lived, leading to a return of anxiety. We are interested in long term gains and relief when it comes to OCD treatment. 

We have OCD therapists on our team who specialize in helping people navigate their OCD. Together we will create a strategy that works specifically for you. We provide online OCD therapy and ERP therapy for OCD. Contact us today for a free consultation. There is hope for change.