Practical Techniques to Manage OCD Symptoms Effectively
What is OCD?
Obsessive-compulsive disorder also known as OCD is a kind of anxiety disorder that impairs the functioning of an individual where they keep repeating similar thoughts or actions again and again. This repetition of patterns of thought and behaviour can be classified into obsessions and compulsions.
Obsessions are the repetitive patterns that are found at the thought level, i.e., they only work as repeated thoughts. However, when these thoughts are transformed into behaviour they are known as compulsions.
The combination of these obsessions and compulsions and significantly distress an individual, where the client may spend the majority of their time fulfilling these obsessions and compulsions, only in the hopes of reducing their anxiety.
How severe is OCD?
While many of us know OCD as a disorder only in terms of germophobia, it can take many forms that may include repetitive and compulsive tapping, skin-picking, hair-tearing, repetitive counting, repetition of illogical and aggravating thoughts, and so on. Even obsessing over cleanliness and washing hands until the skin comes off is a severe sign of OCD.
Like many other psychological disorders, OCD is also commonly used as a slang term for people who just seem to care about cleanliness and discipline. However, at its core OCD is a highly impairing disorder that needs treatment.
Face Your Fear to Overcome Them: ERP
What is ERP therapy?
Exposure and Relapse Prevention therapy, also known as ERP therapy, is the gold standard treatment for OCD.
As the name suggests the stimulus that is most feared by the OCD patient is slowly introduced to them in order to get used to the stimulus and get over anxiety.
One major method used in ERP involves a process called Systematic Desensitization. This process involved slowly engaging the patient with the object or situation that they fear. It is also commonly used in the treatment of specific phobias.
Systematic desensitization typically involves-
- asking the patient to list the objects are items are situations that they fear – which causes major anxiety in OCD.
- Then they are asked to rank them from the least fearful to the most fearful one.
- Treatment starts with the least fearful stimulus, which is slowly presented to the client in order to get them acquainted with the fear-inducing entity and eventually overcome anxiety.
- The presentation of anxiety-provoking stimuli can cause a lot of distress in the patient. Hence, anxiety-reducing techniques and a toolkit are provided to the clients by the therapist, so that they can practice desensitizing themselves even at home and use these tips whenever they feel anxious.
Is ERP Treatment effective for OCD?
Yes. ERP treatment is known as the best kind of therapy for treating OCD symptoms.
ERP is known to treat phobias and fear-related distress. However, it has been research and found that OCD can be easily treated through ERP.
Make sure to contact a professional organization like CoachForMind, where there are experienced ERP therapists who can help you overcome your OCD symptoms. However make sure that before starting any kind of treatment, an accurate diagnosis of the disorder needs to be done.
Advantages of ERP treatment for OCD
There are many benefits to receiving ERP therapy.
- Facing your fears: Even people with mild symptoms of OCD or phobia can opt for ERP therapy and get rid of the things that are making them anxious.
- Building strength: People without OCD symptoms can opt for ERP to overcome their fears and get over their impairments to live a normal and healthy life again, with renewed perspectives on fear and empowerment.
- Having an anxiety toolkit: ERP treatment for OCD also provides an anti-anxiety toolkit that can help lines overcome anxiety-provoking situations even when there is no professional help immediately available. This is to make sure that the client is empowered enough to take care of themselves even after therapy has ended.
Why CoachForMind?
- Experienced Psychologists: We are a team of licensed RCI-registered clinical psychologists. Our team is well-experienced in various forms of therapy such as CBT, ERP, DBT, and Narrative Therapy, both – offline and online.
- Personalized Approach: We are dedicated to treating our clients in the best-suited way, carefully curated as per the client’s needs, and adhering to one-on-one, client-centered therapy.
- Scientific Techniques: Our treatment plans and therapeutic methods are based on highly researched scientific findings such as CBT, ERP, DBT, and Narrative Therapy among many other therapeutic techniques.
- Quality service: We at CoachForMind ensure quality services in our treatment regime and therapeutic approaches. Our clients hold most value to us, so we ground our techniques in empathy while maintaining professionalism.
For more information, please visit our website or contact us directly at coachformind@gmail.com
