Obsessive-compulsive Disorder - OCD Treatment
Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition that is characterized by obsessive thoughts and behaviors, as well as compulsions that interfere with someone’s daily life. It is a serious disorder that affects around 2.3% of people in the course of their lifetime. While it affects people of all ages, beginning in childhood, it is often first recognized and diagnosed in late adolescents and early adulthood years. Symptoms of OCD can begin in early childhood, but often go misdiagnosed, overlooked and untreated until later.
While OCD is serious and extremely difficult, it is treatable. There is a remarkably high success rate in the treatments available for OCD, and it is absolutely possible to live a high-functioning life with OCD. With the proper course of treatment, your symptoms of OCD can be managed and even resolved.
Symptoms of OCD
There are a multitude of symptoms that can be present in someone with OCD and it’s important to recognize that each individual is unique. While the symptoms are disruptive and can make it incredibly difficult to function “normally” in adult life, there are several effective ways to manage the symptoms through mental health treatment.
The two types of symptoms that categorize OCD are obsessions and compulsions. Not everyone who suffers from OCD will experience each symptom listed here, but in order to be diagnosed with OCD they will present with at least some of the “classic” symptoms.
Obsessions
Obsessions are the first trademark symptom of OCD. They present as intrusive, unwanted and unrelenting thoughts, feelings or images. Because of their disturbing nature, they are extremely distressing and upsetting and often create even more anxiety. Often these obsessive thoughts tend to intrude in moments when you are trying to focus on a different topic or task. Those with OCD tend to try to distract from them or “get rid” of them by completing a compulsive behavior or ritual.
These obsessive thoughts and ideas vary greatly from person to person, but some of the most common obsession symptoms are:
Fear of being contamination or germs
Extreme distress if things are not aligned/facing a certain way or in uniform
Worry that you left a door open or unlocked
Intrusive thoughts of harming yourself or others
Disturbing unpleasant sexual images and thoughts
Compulsions
Compulsions are the other primary symptom of OCD. They are the behaviors or rituals that a person with OCD feels that they need to complete in order to “satisfy” or alleviate their obsessive thoughts. Often a person with OCD will perform these compulsions or rituals in hopes that they will prevent something bad from happening or to relieve their obsessions and anxiety, but usually they will provide only temporary relief if any at all. The compulsions rarely ever have any realistic solution related to the “problem” or obsession that the person is trying to fix.
Examples of this compulsive behavior are:
Hand-washing and cleaning yourself and surfaces
Checking doors
Counting an object or action
Repeating words or phrases silently or out-loud
Checking stove-top or other surfaces
Rearranging objects to face the same direction
These symptoms range in severity for each individual. They can be managed in a way that is only disturbing to the individual in a minor way, or they can be so severe that they impose on the person’s ability to function in life or their job.
Diagnosis
If you haven’t already, the first step to receiving proper treatment for your OCD, is to receive an accurate diagnosis. This can be done through Psychological Testing and Evaluation (at our Portland, Oregon location) or even through an appointment with our licensed therapists and psychiatric nurse practitioners. Psychological testing can be incredibly useful in receiving a detailed and accurate diagnosis, but in the case of OCD it isn’t always necessary.
If you are seeking a diagnosis or are ready to meet with a mental health professional about your symptoms, book a consultation with us today and we’ll get started.
Treatment for OCD
Obsessive-compulsive Disorder is a serious and incredibly difficult condition to face. Depending on the severity of the symptoms, it can make life significantly more challenging and harder to manage. However, there are many positive treatment options that exist today that have shown great success in the treatment and management of OCD. Seeking the help of a healthcare professional to support you in finding the right treatment plan for you is the most important and helpful thing you can do for yourself.
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When addressing OCD treatment, the correct course of treatment will depend on the severity of your symptoms. Often-times, a provider will begin treatment with psychotherapy or talk-therapy. While there are many different types of psychotherapy used in individual counseling practices, the two that have been found most successful in the treatment of OCD are Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP).
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy that is commonly used to help adjust people’s behavior and emotions, through the process of identifying and changing their negative thoughts and destructive behavioral patterns.
CBT is often a short-term course of treatment to help individuals adjust their habits and patterns and offer them a better way to cope with their life in the future. It is a widely-used and highly-successful type of talk therapy and is used to treat a variety of mental health conditions and circumstances.
Some common mental health challenges that CBT can help with include:
Addiction or Substance Use Disorders
Anger management issues
Depression
Anxiety Disorders
Bipolar Disorders
Personality Disorders
Panic Attacks
PTSD
Eating Disorders
Body Dysmorphic Disorder
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Social Anxiety
The practice of CBT therapy targets negative thoughts and helps the person to reconceptualize their thinking, leading to a more healthy, productive and positive way of functioning. Our thinking has a powerful bearing on our ability to function; more-so than many realize. Through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, you can harness your thoughts and utilize them to live a more fulfilling life. For OCD, CBT is a highly-successful treatment option. Because OCD is built around intrusive and obsessive thoughts, using CBT to target them, reconceptualize and control them has been proven to really work.
In CBT, a therapist will encourage the patient to see the flaws in their thinking. They will try to help the patient recognize that the powerful thoughts and obsessions filling their brain aren’t completely based in truth and are actually “error messages”. CBT focuses on changing the narrative of the way our brain interprets thoughts and will use techniques to help the patient to be able to recognize their thoughts, impulses and obsessions and reconceptualize them – handling them in a much healthier way.
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ERP is a form of psychotherapy that works to manage and alleviate symptoms, by safely and intentionally exposing the patient to their triggers. Controlled exposure, with the direction and support of a licensed therapist, to the obsessions that are causing distress will desensitize them to their fears, therefore eventually helping them rationalize them and no longer experience such distress.
This process of exposure should be very much at the pace most comfortable to the patient. If done poorly or in a forced manner, it can cause more damage than good.
The process of ERP, while different for each patient, typically follows this series of steps:
Listing and describe each obsession and compulsion
Order the list from the things that affect you the least to the obsessions that are most crippling
Your therapist will guide you through the list of exposures gradually
After each exposure your therapist will encourage you to resist completely the compulsive ritual for longer periods of time, until eventually you no longer need to complete the ritual at all. Through this process, your brain inevitably learns that nothing catastrophic happened as a result of you not completing your compulsions and that there is no real threat to your well-being from the obsession itself. Once your obsessions and compulsions have been lessened or eliminated completely, your therapist will then guide you through psychotherapy to build skills and confidence to fight and manage compulsions as they happen.
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In the treatment of OCD, psychotherapy tends to be incredibly successful by itself. But there are times when the person has such severe symptoms or simply just needs a treatment method outside of talk therapy to support them. In those cases, a medical professional can treat the OCD with mental health medications.
The most commonly used medication for OCD treatment are Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs). SSRIs, more commonly known as antidepressants, are used to treat depression and anxiety. Because of the nature of OCD being so closely related to anxiety and panic disorders, antidepressant medications have shown to be successful in reducing the severity of the symptoms.
It is also common for a provider to supplement the psychotherapy treatment with SSRI medication as well, also known as augmentation therapy. Often, the use of both forms of therapy can work most effectively for a person suffering with OCD.
Start Your OCD Treatment Today
At Insight Northwest Counseling, we have psychiatric practitioners on staff as well as our team of licensed therapists, and we are confident that we can give you the full spectrum of treatment that you need. From the moment you first walk in our door, we strive to make you feel heard, comfortable, safe and supported. Navigating mental health conditions such as OCD can be overwhelming, scary and difficult for many reasons. We want to make the whole experience as smooth and positive as possible. With our full-range of services, we are ready to help you from the moment of diagnosis and every step of treatment after.
To learn more about OCD and your treatment options, book a consultation or request an appointment with us today!