Introducing my new blog, FredTalks, where the goal is to help you tame OCD and reclaim your life! This blog is different from my Aha! Moments and Beyond the Doubt Psychology Today blogs, in that the posts are:
- Shorter so you can read them in a few minutes
- Action-focused on tips & tricks you can try to help you tame your OCD
- Categorized by before, during, and after treatment, as well as those focused on self-compassion and triumphing over fear, so you can find posts that are relevant to where you are in your recovery journey
- Based on stories from Is Fred in the Refrigerator? Taming OCD and Reclaiming My Life, and for each post, I’ll identify the pages in Fred where you can read a story illustrating the concept and/or where you can check out Dr. Reid Wilson’s expert guidance on the topic in Fred’s Afterword.
If you’d like to receive notifications of new FredTalks, sign up for my Shoulders Back! newsletter, and you’ll receive OCD-taming tips & resources delivered every few weeks to your inbox. All new subscribers to Shoulders Back! will receive my Top Five Tips for Taming OCD.
Here’s to taming OCD and reclaiming your life!
Shower Scripting
When life throws curveballs (as it’s been doing to all of us lately!), sometimes I need to either proactively or reactively remind my OCD that I can use scary content as a weapon just as easily as it can. This is when I do an exposure and response prevention (ERP) exercise I call shower scripting.
3 questions about impact of media on mental health
The pandemic has reinforced my OCD’s twisted, negative view of the world. As I've been working to identify what could help me strengthen the healthier worldview I gained through ERP, one activity has risen to the top: changing my intake of news and social media.
Don’t Give OCD Credit for Your Strengths
Giving OCD credit for your strengths is making a deal with the devil. Here's why.
We Don’t Need OCD Now … or Ever
In this era of COVID-19, OCD is being misused ever more frequently, such as “I wish I had a little OCD” or “we need OCD now,” as if having a mental illness is an adaptive benefit that can protect people from becoming infected with coronavirus.As a person who has obsessive compulsive disorder, I can tell you that nothing could be further from the truth.