Parents interfering with therapy. Hi all. My mom does not know much about OCD. She wants me to stop using my NOCD therapist and see a different therapist that does not do ERP. She thinks that doing exposures is wromg and makes me worse.

Listen, I totally get it. It’s hard to hear a loved one obsessing over small, insignificant things. My mom tries to be supportive, but she gets so mad when I tell her what’s on my mind, and she just yells at me and says I’m crazy for thinking like this. So, I just sent her this, and I hope it helps: Mom, I know it’s really hard, but when I’m suffering with OCD thoughts, all I need is sympathy. Getting mad at someone for having OCD is like getting mad at someone for having a head injury. Please understand that I can’t help it, or else I would stop it. I need someone to say, “I’m so sorry that’s bothering you this much. It must be so overwhelming. It must be so hard to cope with this.” You could even ask me questions, like “What does it feel like? How much are you thinking about this? What helps you feel better?” I just need someone to validate my experience and sympathize, not tell me that I’m crazy or say my problems aren’t real. I’m aware these thoughts are crazy — that’s why I feel so alone and sad and scared. When you tell me my thoughts are crazy, it makes me feel even more like a freak. Sometimes, I just need someone to hold my hand and tell me I’m not alone.

So I’ve been going to an ocd therapist for abt 2-3 months now and she’s starting to make me feel very nervous and anxious I even started crying, she wanted me to do exposures that were to much for me and I got rlly upset and Burt out into tears and she just didn’t say anything and just sat there for a good 10 seconds doing nothing this is starting to repeat nearly every session and I’m very frustrated should I get a new therapist or do I just be nice and tough it out?

I have contamination ocd, and one of my compulsions is avoiding eating non-cooked food prepared by other people. I had a session with my family to plan accommodation reduction two months ago, and this compulsion was on there but we decided to focus on other accommodations first. Tonight my mom made fresh food (totally fine), but acted very offended and angry when I couldn’t eat it. I get where she’s coming from, she worked hard on the meal and it sucks that I couldn’t make myself eat it. But it also sucks that she knows this is a compulsion and can’t be understanding. Maybe I need to explain this compulsion to her better? In the family session we talked about the compulsion but not about the specific underlying obsessive thought (today my mom specifically said that I had to explain why I wasn’t eating and I didn’t). I’m really sad that OCD is affecting my relationship with her in this way.