This is my interview on a mental health podcast "The SOS Show with Suchita Bhhatia" in which I talk about my personal story and about how OCD needs to be dealt with....
Podcast – The SOS Show with Suchita Bhhatia
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What is Pure-O OCD?
Some people with OCD have visible compulsions. Like in contamination OCD, compulsions include washing hands repeatedly. Or ‘just right’ OCD will have the person repeating an activity till it feels...
Distraction – compulsion or technique?
Distraction is very poorly understood in the context of OCD or other anxiety disorders. Most books or literature on anxiety disorders tout distraction as a way of getting past intrusive thoughts....
How do I stop overthinking?
One of the most damning symptoms of mental disorders like anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD, etc is overthinking. While on the surface it seems like overthinking may help arrive at solutions on how to...
How do I handle OCD without drugs?
This question gets asked repeatedly on Quora, a place where I answer questions on OCD. I thought it was worthwhile converting it into a blog. So here is my answer to it: Firstly, do ascertain if it...
Reassurance
One of the important reasons why getting over OCD is so difficult despite every effort on part of the sufferer and the therapist is that there are some hidden compulsions that may not get...
Modeling
During the course of ERP, a sufferer is asked to manage his anxieties, specifically by doing something that he has been avoiding or by not doing something that he has been don't repeatedly. For...
What is OCD?
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an insidious mental disorder characterised by the occurrence of highly intrusive and disturbing obsessions (thoughts) that make the sufferer extremely anxious...
Anxiety Graph
What happens to a sufferer when anxiety hits him? When anxiety hits a sufferer, he feels incapacitated. There are various physical and mental manifestations that may indicate anxiety. Some of these...
What is ERP?
ERP stands for Exposure and Response Prevention. ERP aims at desensitizing the OCD sufferer to his anxieties. This is done by systematically exposing him to these anxiety inducing stimuli and...
Rewiring the brain
Depending upon what we have been doing all our lives, which actions we have been repeating, which actions we have stayed away from, our brain gets wired. The things we do often, become easy for us....
Starting Small
OCD requires ERP for effective uprooting of the compulsions, but as explained in the ERP blog, it requires back breaking effort from the sufferer. And the sufferer often finds himself less than...