One day, an unsettling thought occurs: What if I become aware of my breathing forever? The thought frightens you, and suddenly you can’t stop noticing your breathing. You try to distract yourself, stop paying attention to it, or make the awareness disappear. But the harder you try, the more you notice it. Your breathing, something […]
Relationship Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (ROCD) can wreak havoc on romantic relationships. If your partner lives with ROCD, you may hear them vocalize repeated doubts about the relationship. This can be very taxing to you, and you may take it personally. They perform constant reassurance-seeking, and often withdraw from you. How can you stay in the relationship […]
Relationship OCD (ROCD) is a form of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder that centers on romantic relationships. Individuals with ROCD experience intrusive, unwanted doubts and fears about their partner or the relationship itself despite often being in loving, healthy partnerships. These obsessions can lead to intense anxiety, compulsive reassurance-seeking, emotional numbness, and chronic uncertainty that interferes with daily […]
Your body feels like it’s on fire with anxiety. You can’t sleep, and you can barely keep food down. You’re constantly ruminating, replaying worries and worst-case scenarios in your mind, and you may be withdrawing from friends and family. You might feel nauseated, experience headaches, heartburn, chest tightness, or a constant sense of dread. Some […]
What it is: POCD is a subtype of obsessive‑compulsive disorder, a condition where intrusive thoughts about being sexually attracted to children plague the sufferer and cause intense anxiety and depression, leading to repetitive mental or physical actions (compulsions) to relieve anxiety. In POCD, obsessions focus on FEARS of being a pedophile and causing harm to […]
For some people overthinking is not a brief or isolated event. For some people overthinking is actually a symptom of OCD. For some, thinking about something that’s bothering them can last for weeks, or even months. It may cause insomnia, substance abuse, panic attacks, frustration, losing hours and hours of time a day, and the […]
Is What I have OCD? OCD takes many shapes, and it takes a skilled therapist to properly diagnose OCD. Clients come to me who have OCD symptoms that don’t fit into the types of OCD people recognize; namely hand washing, or “being very neat”. In reality OCD is much more complex and multifaceted. […]
It’s the middle of the night, and everyone is asleep but you. The later it gets, the more taboo your thoughts become, taking you to a place only accessible in this late, quiet hour. You begin to think about death. You might, at first, fear the death of your parents, pre-grieving them. You might even […]
Hello dearest Panic Disorder sufferers! Today I wanted to talk to you about an interesting kind of phobia. We all know about common phobias such as spiders, dogs, germs, etc. Now let’s talk about a fear that most of us with panic attacks know well; the fear of body sensations. You may not know this, […]
Today I’d like to tell you a story of therapy. The story started three years ago when I met Gerald who found me online and came to me in tears. (All names and details of this story have been changed to protect confidentiality.) Gerald was a single 32 year old man living in Los Angeles. […]