Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a disorder characterized by repetitive cycles of obsessions and compulsions.

Obsessions are unwanted and intrusive thoughts, images, or urges that trigger distressing feelings. Obsessions sometimes do not feel like they fit your personality, but return over and over. Examples can include excessive and irrational worries about health, safety, relationships, cleanliness, right and wrong/morality, bathroom routines, health of family members, certain illnesses, needing things to be “just right” or exactly a certain way, or doubting something about yourself or your personality. However, OCD can “latch onto” anything, therefore obsessive thoughts vary, and these examples are just a handful of the thousands of “OCD worries” our therapists have heard and treated.

Compulsions are behaviors, actions, rituals, or mental acts that an individual engages in or with in an attempt to get rid of the obsessions and/or decrease the intense distress. Examples include excessive or ritualized routines, checking behaviors, cleaning/washing self or items, counting or number rules, ordering/arranging, confessing, superstitions, feeling as if things need to be “even” or symmetrical, redoing things, and asking others (like a family figure) for reassurance or to answer specific questions. Another very common compulsion is avoidance of fears and things that an individuals thinks might cause them distress.

At MBH, we often call OCD the “doubting disease”, as it tends to create a vicious cycle of needing certainty about possible bad outcomes, difficulty dealing with not knowing, not having complete certainty about the things we fear, and/or dealing with the unknown.

There are many misconceptions about OCD. The phrase, “I’m so OCD” can be used in conversations as if OCD were a small personality quirk or only related to mild cleanliness. In reality, OCD is a debilitating disorder that often does not remit without adequate, evidence-based treatment, such as Exposure-Response prevention, or Exposure Therapy.

Exposure-response prevention is the gold standard treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, phobias and related disorders. Our process begins with completing a thorough assessment by our OCD experts, that includes research-based symptom severity measures to determine the best course and frequency of treatment.

Please view our Treatment Programs page to learn more about the treatment programs offered at our clinic, including our Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP), as well as our Team page to learn more about our background, practice, and core therapy values.