10 Unexpected Effects of Finding the Right OCD Treatment

What does it take for someone to start specialized treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)? Speaking from my lived experience with OCD and the years I spent treating it as a therapist, I can say that sadly, it’s a decision that’s often made after we’ve hit rock bottom.

Maybe we’ve put treatment off for several years, thinking our symptoms will go away on their own. Maybe shame or embarrassment are leading us to avoid therapy. Or, as is the case for many people with OCD, maybe our previous healthcare providers didn’t specialize in OCD and tried treatments that just didn’t work—or made things worse.

Whatever reasons we might have for not getting effective OCD treatment, when we do finally get it, there can be benefits that we may not have expected. Not only can we see our symptoms start to improve and our fears lose their power, but we can start to see other things in a different light, too.

1. Improved quality of life

For so many years, like many people who suffer from OCD, I was just going through the motions. I was existing, but I wasn’t living. It’s hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t gone through it, but it felt like being frozen in time. I was stuck in a constant state of anxiety, feeling depressed and unsure of how to “get better.”

Activities that I once enjoyed, I no longer had the energy for. I couldn’t look past the OCD to see much of anything else. It had become my entire existence—or so it seemed. My life wasn’t fulfilling at that time and I remember wishing that I was older so that I would be closer to the end of my life. I just wanted the suffering to end.

When I finally figured out what I was dealing with and got the right treatment for my OCD, it was like a whole new world opened up. In this world, there were so many other things I could focus on besides OCD. As the obsessions and compulsions began to lose their power, I was able to engage with life again.

I no longer avoided things or people. I started to have more energy to pursue things that interested me, and to do the activities that I had long avoided. Even getting dressed each day had become a chore, but now I could look forward to it and even shop for clothing. It was as if I had been living in a fog for so many years that I had forgotten what sunshine looked like or felt like, until treatment helped me feel the warmth and joy of sunlight again.

2. Greater independence

In the throes of my battle with OCD, I felt like I needed to rely on others to take care of me, assure me, and help me get through the day. I couldn’t trust my own opinions, thoughts, or memories at times, and I didn’t want to be alone because I was terrified that I could have acted on some horrible intrusive thought without knowing it.

Even though I had always been someone who valued their alone time and independence, when my OCD was at its worst, I couldn’t stand to be alone. I needed to have a “safe” person nearby at all times, just in case I “went crazy.” I was also indecisive about the smallest things and unsure if any of my choices were the “right” decision, which made me constantly ask for reassurance.

OCD treatment helped me regain a sense of confidence in my ability to make decisions. I no longer needed to allow OCD to influence me as it had for all of those years. I could be alone again and enjoy it. I could accept uncertainty and trust in the unknown. I became more reliant on myself, and less dependent on those around me.

3. Healthier relationships

After all of those years of dealing with OCD, it had become my life. My primary relationship, sadly, was with OCD. I didn’t even fully recognize the impact it had on my relationships until I received treatment. My obsessions were all-consuming, so there was no time to worry about what was happening around me.

Fearing that I was a bad person, I secluded myself from others and had little to no interaction with friends or neighbors. I wasn’t the wife I wanted to be, the mother I wanted to be, the sister, the friend, the daughter…it was as if all of my energy was sucked away by OCD .

When my symptoms started to become manageable, it opened my eyes to how my relationships had suffered because of this disorder. Now that I was no longer a prisoner in my mind and had time and energy to invest in others again, I could immerse myself in other people’s experiences. I could give them the time and space they needed in our interactions, because it wasn’t all about my thoughts anymore.

My marriage improved tremendously because of this. I was no longer reliant on my husband to meet all of the demands that OCD put on me, or to reassure me constantly. I could even prepare my own meals—before treatment, I could never feel “clean enough” to do so. And because I could open up more about who I was instead of keeping everything I went through buried inside of me, I was even able to make new friends.

4. More creativity

I’ve always been a creative and imaginative person. As a child, I used to love writing books and entering my writing in contests. I even remember making a fake newspaper full of silly articles and trying to sell it. I was always coloring, too, and loved to play around with fine arts, acting in plays, and attending performances.

This all fell by the wayside as I became more and more immersed in OCD and its constant demands for my attention. It was as if my creativity had turned on me. Now it made up horrible stories and showed me threatening images. I no longer had time for writing or doing the things that I enjoyed—I was too tired and too anxious. Nothing could ease my mind or stop the thoughts.

I didn’t expect that treatment for OCD would impact this area of my life, and I was pleasantly surprised when I started to realize that I could do the creative activities that I once loved again. Now that I wasn’t being depleted by disturbing thoughts, there was more clarity in my thinking. I started to imagine good things, things that brought me joy.

5. Improved physical health

Physical health was never even on my radar when I was struggling with OCD, as generally speaking, my symptoms didn’t focus on this area of my life. Unfortunately, because of all of the other obsessions I experienced, I wasn’t able to focus on the real-life problems resulting from my OCD, or to notice that I wasn’t taking care of my physical health.

Growing up, I was always on the thinner side (my family had given me the nickname “Bones” because of it) and even after I had my first child, I was still able to lose weight quickly. But as OCD began taking over more and more of my life, I started to stay home more and it wasn’t long before I was struggling with overeating and stress eating. The strange thing is, I didn’t even realize it at the time. It was as if my mind blocked out everything but the OCD. I didn’t care about anything except getting through each day, and even that was becoming painfully hard.

Eventually, my obsessions turned to food and contamination. I began rapidly losing weight and my eating became extremely limited but still, I didn’t seem to notice or care. As the people around me began complimenting me and asking what I was doing to lose weight, I remained unphased. It wasn’t until my weight loss became dangerous that I realized just how bad the OCD had become. This realization was a huge turning point. It led me to finally seek treatment again, and to ensure that I stuck with it.

When I started to care about my health again, about how I felt, and how food was impacting me, it was an amazing experience. My energy started to return and I was able to do far more things without feeling winded. It didn’t matter to me if my body was larger or smaller. It was about how I felt, and about the energy that I gained from my OCD finally becoming manageable.

6. More productivity at home and work

When my OCD was at its most debilitating, I was unable to work. I was a stay-at-home mom during this time and all things considered, I think I was a good mom—especially considering the internal war with OCD raging within me for all those years.

That said, I would be lying if I said I was the most productive or social mom. Looking back, I can think of so many things that I could have done—and would have done—if my OCD hadn’t prevented me from doing them. There were missed field trips, school events, and things OCD didn’t like me to do that I just didn’t do.

And even if OCD didn’t get in the way of me doing something, my pervasive tiredness would. The exhaustion was so real. All I wanted to do was sleep—because when I slept, the thoughts weren’t there. I wasn’t anxious, I didn’t have doubts, I wasn’t me. I was peaceful. Sleep became my go-to method of avoidance.

When I started to feel better, I realized how much I had missed out on because of OCD. Wanting to make up for the time I’d lost, I started going places and doing things that I never would have before. It felt like a burst of potential had been awakened within me. I was able to go back to work and pursue my career again, and to be more present in everything I did. I was no longer just going through the motions. Instead, I was fully engaged and involved.

7. Increased self-esteem and self-worth

The loss of self-worth that can accompany OCD is truly incredible to me. OCD can call everything about who you are into question and make you doubt what you are capable of. It’s the most critical inner voice of all, your own personal bully who knows your every insecurity and weakness.

It is such a powerful thing to learn that you are not what you think. When you have OCD, especially when you’ve had it for your entire life, it can be confusing to differentiate between what is you and what is OCD. Treating my OCD helped me to see that there is a huge difference between the two. For the first time in my life, I learned how to separate OCD from my personality, my innermost being. The impact that this one distinction has made in my life cannot be overstated.

8. More clarity and concentration

Until I noticed my focus improving during treatment, I don’t think it ever occurred to me just how much OCD impacted my ability to concentrate. It was like my mind was an internet browser that constantly had millions of tabs open.

As the severity of my symptoms reduced, I noticed that I could actively engage in conversations without secretly performing mental compulsions. I was no longer tapping or hiding compulsions that could be visible to others—I wasn’t doing them at all. The specific colors, words, and all of the other things OCD had said I needed to avoid didn’t consume my attention anymore.

This feeling of being fully present in a moment was so freeing. I could think about a problem, a real-life problem, with clarity. I could utilize problem-solving skills to make more effective and meaningful decisions in every area of my life. And where I had once been paralyzed by indecision and fear, I could now take action.

9. A growing resilience

With treatment, I also became more flexible and more adaptable. I learned that I could tolerate anxiety and distress. I could get through hard things, knowing that there was light at the end of the tunnel.

Have you ever done something you thought was impossible and walked away with that “on top of the world” feeling? That’s how this process made me feel. If I faced OCD and went through it, then I could face anything and get through it. In fact, this has become my life’s motto.

That’s the empowering thing about hardships: They prepare you for anything and help you to recognize just how strong you actually are. Challenges don’t seem so challenging anymore.

10. Better overall mental health

Research shows that the overwhelming majority of people with OCD also struggle with at least one comorbid mental health condition, such as an anxiety disorder, depression, or PTSD. It is not uncommon for people who have received effective OCD treatment to also note significant improvements in these co-occurring mental health conditions, especially when the symptoms of these conditions were intensified by their OCD.

What will OCD treatment do for you?

All of this goes to show that the benefits of finding the right treatment for OCD can be far-reaching and long-lasting. Many times, treatment can also bring to the surface other things that need to be dealt with, as it’s not at all uncommon for other areas of one’s life to suffer the consequences of OCD. Sometimes, it’s only when we begin to recover that the full extent of how OCD has impacted us can come to light.

If you’re ready to take the first step in your own recovery journey, I would recommend looking into exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy. OCD requires specialized treatment, and ERP was created specifically to treat OCD. It’s helped thousands of people take their lives back from OCD and has decades of research confirming its effectiveness, which is why it’s considered the gold-standard treatment for OCD.

ERP is designed to break the cycle of obsessions and compulsions, helping OCD lose its power over time. When practiced regularly, it can help you learn that OCD’s anxiety and distress are false alarms, and that these uncomfortable feelings will eventually pass without you needing to do anything. For ERP to be successful, it’s important to work with an OCD specialist who’s received the necessary training to fully understand OCD.

At NOCD, every therapist is a qualified OCD specialist who can accurately identify and effectively treat OCD. NOCD Therapists complete rigorous training in OCD and ERP therapy before seeing our members, and receive ongoing training and support from leading OCD experts to ensure they’re always delivering a world-class treatment experience.

If you or someone you know is in need of OCD treatment, please don’t hesitate to book a free 15-minute call with our team. On your call, we can answer any questions you may have, share more information about NOCD Therapy, and help match you with a licensed OCD specialist.