INNER SPACE Clinical Psychology

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) can impact people of all ages and circumstances. People with OCD experience intrusive and distressing thoughts, urges, or images. This often drives them to do things to try to prevent negative consequences or relieve the distress. People with OCD generally find these experiences extremely uncomfortable and/or disruptive, which is one of the things that differentiates OCD from, for example, helpful routines or pride in being detail oriented. The obsessions can take many forms, from preoccupation about contamination, perfection, violence, and sexuality, to gender identity, offending God, perfectionism, responsibility or one's relationship and partner. The compulsions may or may not be logically linked to the obsessions. For example, someone obsessed with ordering things with perfectly but the underlying fear may be that if they don't keep everything perfect they will be seen as flawed or it may be that a loved one may come to harm. OCD usually targets something you value deeply, like your morality, health or safety. Psychological treatment for OCD typically involves a type of CBT called Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). Treating OCD can be so rewarding because once people start start having a few wins it makes space for a whole lot of positive changes. You may like to check out the International Foundation for OCD for further information. https://iocdf.org/ and get in touch if you're considering treatment.