CBT for OCD
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Do you experience disturbing or distressing thoughts that keep popping into your mind, even when you don't want them to? Are you worried about things that might happen that don't seem to bother other people? Are you repeatedly doing things to make sure the troubling thoughts don't come true? Or are you ruminating, lost in your own thoughts trying to be certain about something that worries you?
This website is a resource for people who want to better understand Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and other related other disorders.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Viktor Frankl
What does Therapy Look Like?
Therapy for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder often revolves around exposure. The patient and therapist work together to identify what things trigger their anxiety. Then the patient will practice approaching the things that trigger the anxiety. This is called exposure. After repeated exposures, the triggers produce less and less anxiety until they produce no anxiety at all.
Therapy also often entails how to respond to thoughts themselves in ways that are more helpful and adaptive. Emotions themselves cannot be directly controlled. But the way we interpret things, even our own thoughts, is in our control. By changing the way we look at things we can change our emotional reactions to them.
By changing our perspectives, we can change how we experience the world around us.