OCD is taking over your life
You or your child have likely been struggling with anxiety for quite a while. The intrusive thoughts have been filling your mind so much of the time and nothing seems to be working to calm them down. Whether it’s images of something violent or worries about getting sick or being a bad person, something uncomfortable is often popping into your head. Your child may complain about scary thoughts that keep happening over and over. You may find yourself doing little rituals like cleaning or counting things to try to keep things under control. Or you may be asking your family and friends for more and more reassurance that it’s going to be okay, but it never quite seems like enough.
If this sounds like you or your child, then working with an OCD therapist may be the best choice for you and your family.
What is OCD?
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, or OCD for short, is an anxiety disorder that revolves around constantly feeling uncertain and doubtful.
People with OCD generally have at least one obsession, which is a thought that is intrusive and uncomfortable. Obsessions tend to repeat over and over and are often about uncomfortable or shameful topics. Common obsessions include things like being afraid of catching a disease, fears of being contaminated by chemicals, seeing images in your mind of hurting someone you love, or worrying that you may be an evil person. Some obsessions also involve feeling like things just don’t look or feel right and struggling to think of anything else until it’s fixed.
Most individuals with OCD also have at least one compulsion, which is something that you do to try and control the upsetting and intrusive obsessions. Compulsions include behaviors like cleaning things repeatedly, counting to a certain number, or asking people repeatedly for reassurance. The compulsion often doesn’t even really make sense to you, but you feel like you really have to do it anyway.
How we treat OCD
When we start working with a person with OCD, we use several different approaches to help manage the symptoms and find a life that feels worth living.
All OCD therapy with us begins with a thorough assessment of your symptoms or your child’s symptoms so we can best understand how your unique symptoms are impacting your life.
We love to do a LOT of education with our clients with OCD. A really important part of reducing symptoms and learning how to manage OCD is by learning why OCD happens and what we can do to stop OCD in its tracks.
A big part of what we do to actively treat OCD is called exposure and response prevention (or ERP for short). This is a very well established technique that can be really helpful for reducing the symptoms of OCD. In ERP, we work on identifying fears that you want to address, and then we come up with ways to practice facing those fears together. While this can sound daunting and scary at first glance, we work carefully with you to do this in small, manageable pieces that we take at whatever pace you set.
Besides ERP, we also have a number of other strategies that we can use to help you take a different perspective on your worries and find new ways to manage them. We work with you to try to find a solution that works for you and your life.
For all of our clients, we also focus on understanding your personal values and helping you work on incorporating those more fully into your day to day life. We believe that even when OCD is at it’s worst, it’s still possible to have a life that is worth living.
For children in particular, we find that involving the whole family in OCD treatment is really helpful. Sometimes the things you do as a parent can either help or hinder improvement, and we want to support you in finding better ways to support your child.
As OCD specialists, our goal is to help you break free from the traps that OCD creates and to reclaim your life. OCD may leave you feeling overwhelmed and helpless, but we can help you take back your life and find a new sense of peace.
If you are looking for an OCD therapist in the Santa Clarita, California area or if you are seeking a virtual OCD therapist anywhere in the state of California, please reach out to us for a free 15-minute consultation to see how we can help you or your child.