Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

When anxiety becomes too great, you or your child may experience obsessive thoughts or worries that intrude into your daily life, whether you agree with them or not.  Some obsessions include: “I will get dirty or sick by germs” or “something bad will happen to someone I love.” Occasionally, these obsessions may compel you to do a specific action unrelated to the worried consequence in order to avoid the outcome, such as washing your hands a certain way or re-checking to make sure you saved a document, but in a greater intensity, frequency, or other manner that takes up time or interferes with your life. All Mind Health therapists can treat such an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder by using the gold standard treatment: Exposure and Response Prevention (ExRP). Through ExRP, you and your therapist will rank your fears from lowest to highest and systematically train your brain to disconnect the obsessive worry from the compulsive behavior so that you naturally get bored of the worry.  Each worry is faced in a similar way until you have a confident grasp over your anxieties and how to reduce them without compulsion.