I've been working with OCD for many years now. I know what works and what does not work. as you can see on my channel I have hundreds of videos going through various tips for OCD. it can all seem so confusing.

So in this video, I'm going to share with you exactly how to treat your OCD and what not to do. As simple as possible.

Let's not waste any time. so why won't you right now to think about your OCD theme topic or fear. do you feel like you need treatment for that fear? let me tell you that you do not. I get emails every single day with people that say, can you do a treatment video for harm ocd, religious OCD, for contamination ocd, etc.

but here's the thing. when recovering from OCD it's important to know that OCD is ocd. you matter as a person but your OCD topic does not. so whether you've started treatment or you're doing it right now for the first time. it is important to separate yourself from your ocd. also to know that you are treating ocd. not harm ocd, not relationship ocd or whatever your topic is.

so now that we're treating ocd. the treatment that I've seen work over the years is not talk therapy, it's not meditation, it's not microdosing, it's not challenging thoughts. it's exposure and response prevention.

At this point most people run. nope. that's not for me. let me go do everything else first to see if it works and then I'll try exposures. I've seen it time and time again. do you know what ultimately happens? most people try everything else and at the end of the day they've wasted time, energy, and life. they end up doing the exposures. Let me know in the comments if that has been your experience.

You know why. because they work. they have to work. it is literally retraining your brain stop seeing the threat it's provided as real danger.

If you are not too sure what exposures are just yet. It’s like a game plan for tackling worries. Imagine you're worried about accidentally hurting someone. ERP helps you face that fear step by step.

For example, if you're scared of touching a doorknob because you think it might hurt someone by spreading what you have to them, ERP might have you touch it on purpose. That's the exposure part. It's facing your fear not knowing if it’s actually going to happen or not. You might be going around touching lots of things.

Response prevention for OCD

Then comes the response prevention. Instead of giving in to the urge to do something to make the worry go away, like washing the doorknob, you resist it. You respond in such a way to where you’re saying you don’t really know what’s going to happen, but you’re willing to take the risk. You’re really facing uncertainty. Maybe, maybe not tends to be a popular phrase to tell the brain you really don’t know. Or some choose to agree with a threat. Which means that they're just throwing it right back. Almost say, ohhhh, i’m so scared. I hope someone gets sick because of me. What a wonderful experience that would be.

The anxiety is supposed to go up, you're supposed to resist the urge to do the compulsion. and you're giving all of these responses. some people do this until the anxiety reduces by half. but if it doesn't reduce, that is okay as well.

By doing this over and over, your brain learns that the things you were worried about aren't as scary as you thought.
You take your specific fear and worry and think about ways that you could face this. we typically create some smaller steps and build up to some bigger ones. we stick with one step until that becomes really really boring. so maybe I'm touching door knobs for a while. then I'm touching silverware. and I'm touching all the sinks. then I'm touching my family's things. all while saying, I may or may not get you all sick. I may or may not be doing something wrong. maybe I am maybe I'm not. and I'm not going to do any safety behaviors to make sure that people aren't touching the things that I touched. I'm not trying to make sense of it. I'm not even going to ask questions to others if they are feeling sick or if they touch the thing that you touched.

a simple way to think about it is that you're only going to react to the things you know for sure. if there's a problem place right in front of you you will take care of it.

If your brain is telling you that this won't work for you. it's because it knows that if you do it it has to go away. remember that OCD is ocd. so if yours is not contamination based, and it's something else. something that seems way more serious. exposures work just the same.

Exposures with a combination of medications can be really helpful as well. ssris to be specific. a higher doses often necessary when it comes to ocd. obviously, it's important to talk to your prescriber before you try anything even treatment.

not saying that other things like meditation can't help you, but it's typically not the first line treatment. some people incorporate meditation as well as mindfulness into their life. sometimes they need some Act therapy. to accept the things that they cannot change. to accept themselves as they are. But in my opinion, doing these things in conjunction with exposure therapy.

let me tell you the things not to do. don't wait for these fears and thoughts to go away. waiting game doesn't work with ocd. it tends to just find another fear or topic to latch to.
don't just try and exposure once and then quit. you can feel pretty horrible. and your brain's going to tell you that it didn't work for you. that's like me going to the gym and lifting a bunch of weights. looking at myself in the mirror and saying, well my muscles aren't big enough. it must not have worked. it can take a lot of effort and time to see some results.
don't get stuck in the rabbit hole in finding all these other alternatives that might work for ocd. If a therapist is not an option for you. individuals can do exposure therapy all on their own. you don't have to wait. in fact, I do have my online OCD course that teaches you all of this step-by-step. everything I teach my own clients in my office. I will link that down below.

don't think that you're not capable of doing something because you don't feel it. If you want to get married, you can get married. if you want to have kids you can have kids, if you want to get a high level job, you can get that job. OCD does not have to hold you back from anything.

So I'm going to break it down. the top things I would want someone to do with OCD to recover is this.
- learn how to do exposure and response prevention and make it a lifestyle choice.
- start medication if you find the exposures or not helping you as well as you'd like.
- use mindfulness to help you live more in the moment.
- use behavioral activation to help you with depression. it helps you get out of it your normal routine.
- do some ACT therapy to help you accept things as they are.
- go live the life you want to live. exactly how you want to live it. even if you don't feel ready for it.

To make sure you get all of these other little nuances not mentioned in this video, go watch some of the other videos on my channel. there's is one here on the screen that you can start watching.