by Cloudways | Jul 29, 2011 | OCD, OCD - General
What is OCD? Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating mental illness that affects nearly 2.5% of the population (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). The primary features of the disorder include obsessions, which are recurrent and persistent...
by Cloudways | Jul 19, 2011 | OCD, OCD - General, OCD - Treatment
Many excellent parents struggle with how to appropriately parent their child/teen with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Unfortunately, this process is rarely straightforward and is often counter-intuitive, which leaves many parents feeling anxious and confused. As...
by Cloudways | May 19, 2011 | ERP, OCD, OCD - General
Here’s a question for you: Is exposure and response prevention (ERP) fundamentally a destructive or constructive process? I think that many people naturally conceptualize it as more of the former than the latter. They conceive of ERP as being the process by...
by Cloudways | May 16, 2011 | OCD, OCD - General
Psychiatrists and psychologists continue to debate the fundamental nature of OCD, trying to decide whether or not OCD should continue to be classified as an “anxiety disorder.” In some ways, OCD overlaps with other anxiety-related conditions, such as...
by Cloudways | May 14, 2011 | ERP, OCD, OCD - General
OCD isn’t just about anxiety. Although anxiety is certainly a prominent feature of the disorder, clinicians who only attend to anxious symptoms can easily overlook some of its other core features. As a psychologist in Palm Beach, Florida, I work closely with...
by Cloudways | May 12, 2011 | “Pure-O” Symptoms, ERP, OCD, OCD - General
Many individuals with OCD hunger for certainty. It’s a craving that often can’t be easily sated. Early conceptions of OCD from the 19th century acknowledged this issue directly, in that OCD was often termed the “doubting disease.” It is this...