Living with OCD

Sometimes, all you want is for the people closest to you to understand how your brain works, especially when it comes to obsessive compulsive disorder

The smartphones, smartwatches, and tablets we spend significant time on are powerful tools that can give us deeper insights into our mental health and

Journaling, or writing down your thoughts and feelings, has been recognized as a way to minimize stress and reduce depression and anxiety. Also, if you

Self-confidence is key to having the resilience, motivation, and positive attitude necessary to face life’s challenges. However, mental health conditions

If Blake Lively, the lead actress of one of the biggest movies this year, It Ends With Us, is all smiles, telling people “grab your friends, wear your

Social media plays a huge role in our everyday lives, helping us connect with friends and family, learn new things, and stay up-to-date with the latest

When you have OCD, managing everyday can be overwhelming. You might be feeling drained by symptoms like cleaning rituals or seeking reassurance, or

Everyone wants to feel heard and understood. It’s just human nature. It's also the reason why we often turn to the people in our lives for validation,

Finding out your child has a mental health condition like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can weigh heavily on the heart of any parent or caregiver.

Disorganized attachment—which is sometimes called fearful-avoidant attachment style—is characterized by inconsistent behavior in relationships. If you

I knew ERP worked, after all, it helped me so much in the past. I knew I just needed to put the difficult work in and keep forging ahead.

I always thought that if I didn’t feel like I wanted to do something, leave the house, or do something that I had maybe previously enjoyed doing, it was me making that choice. Now I can clearly decipher the difference between me wanting or not wanting to do something versus the OCD telling me I shouldn’t do something. I don’t need to let OCD run my life...

Seemingly overnight, these thoughts became more and more intense. I was consumed with guilt over them. It snowballed into experiencing unwanted thoughts about harming my family; the people that I loved the most in the world. I knew I had to tell my wife. I needed to seek help.

My family was surprised when they learned of my OCD diagnosis, I didn’t have the stereotypical signs of OCD. I didn’t wash my hands for countless hours, I wasn’t someone who was super organized. To look at me, you would not suspect all of the turmoil that went on in my mind. This is one of the most frustrating parts of this disorder, people do not often understand the mental compulsions. Many people just see the physical compulsions and don’t really understand the “why” behind the compulsions. I didn’t even know that there was such a thing as mental compulsions.

The uncertainty I’d spent my whole life running from now feels exciting and liberating. I don’t need to know “for sure” before I move my feet. I GET TO MAKE MISTAKES. And that’s horrible and amazing all at the same time.

Something that has helped me along the way is no matter the content of the intrusive thought/feeling, I will ask myself “and then what”....you see, the story must go on. Play it out. Play out the worst case scenario. And then what happens… it always comes back to I just don’t like how it feels, and we know that life will go on.

I don’t remember a life before my OCD showed up, as some of my earliest memories involve (what I now know are) obsessions and compulsions. I remember being early school-age and feeling different from everyone else around me.

My life was going great. I was an award-winning college quarterback with a bright future ahead of me. But then OCD came out of nowhere and derailed everything.