Your productivity does not equal your worth! Learn about optimization OCD and how to use ERP, exposure and response prevention therapy, to overcome this mix of OCD, feelings of unworthiness, and workaholism.
I'm joined by Dr. Caitlin Pinciotti of Baylor College of Medicine for this blog post about post-traumatic OCD: what it is, current research about it, how it's treated, things to know for your recovery journey, and where to find treatment.
Five OCD-taming tips in celebration of the five-year anniversary of my memoir, Is Fred in the Refrigerator? Taming OCD and Reclaiming My Life!
Chasing the 4Cs of OCD is like being in the desert and chasing the mirage of an oasis that's not really there.
The what, where, why, when, how of how I use ERP scripting (imaginal exposure) for OCD.
Kimberley Quinlan, LMFT, and I discuss how to manage mental compulsions as part of her 6-part Your Anxiety Toolkit podcast series on managing mental compulsions.
If you’ve ever felt like you have trauma from having untreated OCD, you’re not alone...and here are some ways to fight back.
7 tools for managing health anxiety/OCD with exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy. (And p.s. OCD doesn't have a medical degree!)
Learn how to use self-compassion to manage regret when it's riding on the coattails of shame.
Now is the time for the courage to hold space for the pain in the world, to look it in the eye, to say I am here—with you—and I won't turn away.
Kimberley Quinlan, LMFT, has graciously given me permission to publish an excerpt from one of my favorite parts of her amazing new book, The Self-Compassion Workbook for OCD: Lean into Your Fear, Manage Difficult Emotions & Focus On Recovery.
A recent study reported that “individuals with OCD demonstrate resilience to large-scale crises.” So if you have OCD, you're more resilient than you think!
OCD and your smartphone both send you notifications when they want you to so something, but marrying your attention to your intentions can keep you from getting lost in either the digital world or OCD hell.
So how exactly do I approach ERP (exposure and response prevention therapy) for OCD? I share the process and steps I use as well as the difference between proactive and reactive ERP.
Your younger self may have lessons to teach you about how NOT to get caught in the OCD cycle.
It's unfortunately all too easy to create our own suffering using the tried and true formula of Pain x Resistance = Suffering.
Because of the toll the current coronavirus situation could take on people with OCD, Reid Wilson, PhD; Kimberley Quinlan, LMFT; and I have developed the following tips for managing OCD fears about coronavirus. We hope they will help you feel empowered and supported, so that even in this uncertain time, you can keep OCD from running your life.
What's wrong with saying, "I'm so OCD"? The hypothesis is that when people who have untreated OCD hear other people misuse the name of their disorder, it discourages them from seeking treatment.
In an effort to stop rushing around the way Emmy Rossum elegantly captures in her song “Slow Me Down," a little over a month ago I took both The Focus Course and The Margin Course. I wanted to learn how to make better progress on important projects with less racing around and more breathing room. Assignments in both courses asked me to identify distractions that interfered with my ability to focus. I came up with a list of 11 types, including email, my phone, my Fitbit, social media and even OCD...
Here are the questions submitted about my blog Interrupt OCD’s Mental Rituals with “May or May Not” (MOMN) and my answers.
If you have trouble using Shoulders Back/Man in the Park because you keep transacting with your OCD in your mind, otherwise known as “mentally ritualizing” or what some call “pure-O,” read about an ERP technique that’s a bridge tool to help you develop the strength to do Shoulders Back/Man in the Park effectively.
Here are the questions submitted about my blog post Shoulders Back! The Man in the Park and my answers.
The man in the park metaphor is one I use all the time with clients to explain how to most effectively handle OCD.
I'm not going to say which magazine put "Be a little OCD" in print because this is not about shaming them; that would be doing the very thing that I'm advocating against. Instead, this is about education.
On Monday, as I was boarding a flight from Baltimore to Atlanta, I asked the flight attendant standing by the cockpit door [...]
When you have OCD and/or anxiety, your life can be dominated by attempts to attain the BIG Cs: CONTROL and [...]
Why do I have a dog toy with a tissue taped to it sitting on my desk? And how [...]
I read the following paragraph from Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World by Mark Williams [...]
"You can do this," I said as I held Lily's hand, the scene before me becoming blurry as my [...]
As I sit here thinking about what an amazing time I had at the 2015 IOCDF Conference—the fun I [...]
We're less than one week away from one of my favorite events of the year: the International OCD Foundation Annual Conference. [...]
One of the most basic human desires is to be understood. To be heard fully and deeply by another [...]
Let's talk about something seemingly unrelated to OCD: the Stockholm syndrome. Named after a situation in the early 1970s where [...]
When I was a little girl, I used to daydream that I had fantastic, magical powers. I would imagine myself [...]
When I attended my first International OCD Foundation conference in 2010, the whole thing was one huge Aha! Moment [...]
Watching Amy Cuddy's TED Talk, "Your body language shapes who you are," gave me an aha! moment about a new way [...]
It was an auspicious coincidence that I decided to read Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl and Unbroken: A World War [...]
I love the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I have read the books and watched the movies countless times. [...]
One of the things I love most about Freedom from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder by Jonathan Grayson, PhD is Dr. Grayson's [...]
For as long as I can remember, I have personified my OCD and thought of it as an entity [...]
I grew up in the 80s, and with the exception of the "big hair" phenomenon, nothing defines that decade for [...]
My parents saw one of the authors of The Emotional Life of Your Brain, Richard Davidson, Ph.D., interviewed on Charlie [...]
During Brene Brown's ecourse, The Gifts of Imperfection, she once said, "Vulnerability is uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. Showing up [...]
The pills Several days after Abby's passing, I was driving to work listening to Still Alice. Alice's memory was failing [...]
I don't mean to be overly dramatic, but there are two things I've learned in the past few years [...]
The Imp of the Mind: Exploring the Silent Epidemic of Obsessive Bad Thoughts, by Lee Baer, PhD, is a [...]
OCD can be a little overwhelming at times. You can feel like your whole life is defined by OCD [...]
In November of 2012 on a flight home from a training given by the International OCD Foundation in Boston, I [...]
On no page of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail will you find any mention of OCD. [...]
The basic premise of The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz, is how to live a life free from [...]