“Breaking free from OCD, one step at a time.”

Do you get repetitive thoughts or words in your head?

Do you constantly clean, check or count?

Do you worry a lot about contamination, or locking a door, or turning off the stove?

Do you follow a specific order or routine and seek reassurance?

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders (OCD) involve experiences of obsessions and/or compulsions. Obsessions are intrusive thoughts that can cause a lot of anxiety.

For example: Worry about contamination, inappropriate and/or unwanted sexual thoughts, imagined violent and horrific behavior having urges to harm oneself or someone else, worry about doing something wrong morally.

Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or mental acts that we may be compelled to do to experience relief from the obsessions, prevent the feared event, and reduce anxiety.

Typical behaviors can include:

• excessive handwashing or showering
• cleaning
• ordering or arranging
• repeating behaviours or mental acts (like praying or counting)
• obsessive ritualistic checking of things (like locks, stoves, & light switches)

These behaviors can be time-consuming and interfere with our social and occupational functioning. Other related disorders can include hoarding, hair pulling, skin picking, and preoccupation with imagined defects or flaws of the body. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) can effectively treat Obsessive Compulsive Disorders.

CBT is an evidence-based psychotherapeutic treatment where a client and a therapist work collaboratively to understand problems regarding the relationship between one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.