You may have struggled with intrusive thoughts that cause significant distress and found yourself engaging in certain behaviours or rituals to try to reduce that distress.

Over time, these behaviours can become a bigger problem than the thoughts themselves. They can take up a great deal of time and energy, leave you feeling exhausted, and start to interfere with your work, relationships, family life, and the things that matter to you.

Unlike what popular culture often suggests, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is not simply a personality quirk or a preference for neatness and order. OCD is a serious and often debilitating mental health condition that affects people of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds.

Understanding OCD

Obsessions are unwanted intrusive thoughts, images, urges, or doubts that trigger intense anxiety, fear, disgust, or distress.

Compulsions are the behaviours you engage in to try to reduce that distress, gain certainty, prevent something bad from happening, or make the thoughts go away.

Unfortunately, while compulsions may provide temporary relief, they rarely solve the problem in the long term. In fact, they often strengthen the cycle and keep OCD going.

While intrusive thoughts are common and something most people experience from time to time, OCD is different. For a diagnosis of OCD to be made, the obsessions and compulsions must cause significant distress, take up considerable time, or interfere with important areas of life.

There are many different types of intrusive thoughts that can trigger anxiety, fear, doubt, or disgust, including:

Contamination obsessions

Violent obsessions

Responsibility obsessions

Sexual obsessions

Perfectionism obsessions

Moral or religious obsessions

Relationship obsessions

Identity obsessions

Existential obsessions

Common Compulsions

Compulsions may be directly related to the obsession, such as handwashing in response to contamination fears, checking behaviours due to doubt, or reassurance seeking.

Other compulsions may seem less obviously connected and can include:

Counting

Mental rituals

Repeating words or phrases

Avoidance behaviours

Reassurance seeking

Checking behaviours

Other rituals designed to reduce distress

Although these behaviours often make sense in the moment, they can gradually take over more and more of a person's life.

If you recognise yourself in any of these experiences, I encourage you to contact me for an assessment.

Not every intrusive thought is an obsession, and not every behaviour is a compulsion. Together, we can explore the function of these behaviours, the context in which they occur, and the impact they are having on your life.

My aim is to help you understand what is maintaining the cycle and support you to become less stuck in the constant struggle with intrusive thoughts, anxiety, and uncertainty.

Treatment for OCD

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is considered the gold-standard treatment for OCD.

There is also emerging research supporting Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (I-CBT) and the use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) alongside ERP.

For many people, medication can also be a helpful part of treatment.

When working with OCD, I draw on ERP, ACT, and other evidence-based approaches to help you develop a different relationship with intrusive thoughts, reduce compulsive behaviours, and build a life that is guided by what matters to you rather than by OCD.