Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Experts Mona Potter, MD and Kathryn Boger, PhD, ABPP recently partnered with ADAA to host an insightful Q&A webinar addressing strategies for parenting children with anxiety and OCD. This blog to addresses the most common themes that emerged from the questions asked during the webinar.

The processes driving worry will vary for every individual.  Chances are good that it will not be one or another, but a proprietary blend of several processes which shape each person’s presentation of worry.  Our job as clinicians is to explore these processes and work with our clients to curate a blend of interventions uniquely suited to their experience.

How do I know if I have self-harm OCD or if I actually want to kill myself? This is a significant differentiation to make because it can have treatment-impacting and even life-threatening consequences.

Thinking, and even overthinking, is normal but when it becomes a mental health disorder, known as hyperawareness OCD, the person feels completely distracted and out of control.

The normal reasoning process is what we use throughout our day. It guides us to make inferences about possibility based on trust in our senses and selves. We don’t reason that the microwave is failing and causing a fire unless we smell smoke or see sparks or flames.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is often misunderstood in our shared culture. Some people think of people with OCD as someone risky, potentially dangerous, or as someone with quirky personality traits.

Whether we hear the term from a client, another provider, or our own classification of someone’s symptoms, “compulsions” tend carry with them some level of assumption – that this might just be OCD.