Dear NOCD Community,  I hope all of you are well and enjoying the start to your summer!  As NOCD has grown over the past few years, my team and I have spent considerable time searching the internet for feedback about NOCD Therapy, our OCD-specific telehealth service, in the hopes of continuously learning how it’s impacting people in the community.  While going through this process, we also continuously noticed the number of prospective NOCD Therapy members doing the same: people are searching the internet high and low to find information about NOCD Therapy, to see if they should sign up or not. It felt like a pretty cumbersome experience for such an important decision.  For many products and services today, you can easily go to places like Google, Amazon, or Yelp to read reviews about their quality; whereas for virtual-first mental health services (including ours), you have to sift through company marketing materials and seemingly dozens of sites just to see what people really have to say about them.  We need to change that. We need to give people seeking help an easy way to see a completely transparent snapshot of what virtual therapy services are like in one central location. Then, people seeking help should be empowered to sign up or not based on real feedback, company responses to feedback, and peer-reviewed clinical research. This will allow people needing help to make completely informed decisions about treatment before starting, and will allow virtual therapy service providers to get comprehensive feedback about the care they are offering much faster. Sometimes the feedback will be productive, and other times it will give us an opportunity to respond and address misunderstandings or inaccurate information. With feedback, companies like NOCD can learn quickly to “pivot or persevere” accordingly, creating a dynamic that ultimately benefits the people who are seeking care long-term.  To take action, given our company’s member-first and extreme ownership values, NOCD has taken a stance to put all unfiltered feedback that we receive on our website in our reviews section. Our hope is that people in the OCD community can get a transparent view of NOCD Therapy in one location, and we also hope to learn from feedback more quickly and easily. Knowing what does and doesn’t work is the only way for us to ensure that we can drive high-quality outcomes long-term. Our team is in it for the long haul, since we are composed of people with OCD, numerous providers who have served the OCD community for decades, and friends and supporters of both groups.  You can see all NOCD Therapy reviews here: https://learn.nocd.com/community_reviews  If you are a NOCD Therapy member, we encourage you to share your experience with the rest of the community, and we welcome all reviews.  If you have questions or feedback that you’d like to share with me personally, please feel free to contact me directly at stephen@nocdhelp.com. I try to answer all emails.  Sincerely, Stephen Smith Co-founder and CEO

Hi everyone! My name is Tara, I’m a therapist here at NOCD. Before becoming a therapist, I worked various jobs in arts, textiles, prop styling, I worked in restaurants... I basically did what I could do with an undergrad in art living in Brooklyn, with a secret hope that I might someday pursue a career in mental health. Fun fact, I held onto that hope for 10 whole years before I decided to take a risk and apply to grad school! I wanted to become a therapist because I just knew that this was a field where my mind could work at its best and do the most good. Anyone else here with ADHD may understand. I simply cannot retain long term focus on something if I don’t absolutely love it, and I absolutely love this work. Having a job where my sole purpose is to connect with others and help them tap into their inner strength is an actual dream come true. I specifically love working with Exposure and Response Prevention and treating OCD, since the whole point of ERP is to show you you’re braver than you think you are. And it works so, so well. If you have a fear, and you think you “can’t” approach it, know that you most likely can. It might take some time to prove that to yourself, but with time and a steady dose of discomfort, you’ll get there. I’m sure that “discomfort” part didn’t sound appealing but let me ask you this - does OCD make you feel uncomfortable? Why not put some of that discomfort to work, in your favor? If you’re struggling with OCD, or you think you might be, know that you probably already have what it takes to thrive in ERP. You’re here. You recognized that you were struggling, you decided to find help, you downloaded the app, and you started reading through posts. I’m sure somewhere along the line, you felt at least a little uncomfortable, and you decided to take the next step anyway. That’s ERP in a nutshell :) Please ask me anything about OCD, your current symptoms or ERP. I’ll be responding over the next 2 days to questions.

Hi there, I’m new to NOCD and just want to say that I’ve been depressed and feel as though this opportunity could potentially connect me to people who struggle with similar issues. We’re not certain I have ocd, but I do exhibit symptoms that do seem to fall under ocd’s general category. So I’d like to ask whoever reads this: what are some good ways to engage with this community that might benefit me the most? I’ve been seeing that people struggle with many different intrusive thoughts and some of them (for example dating related or jealousy) I’ve definitely experienced. Is there a way for me to possibly filter based on subtype, and for that matter also how can I best stay safe on this platform? I see there are trigger warnings but do people sometimes post triggering content without them? How about if I receive rude or abusive comments, things like that. I do struggle with many different intrusive thoughts and so may run into darker threads if I filter for those subtypes. Also, I tagged the subtypes that seem to apply to me the most here. Thank you!

As the Chief Clinical Officer at NOCD, I like to check in with our community when we enter a new season, especially knowing how OCD responds to change. The arrival of spring can bring many changes—longer days, increased activity, and breaks from school or work. These shifts from the pace of winter can be refreshing, but they can also affect our energy, emotions, and stress levels. As a result, OCD symptoms tend to ebb and flow during this season, just as they can during any time of change. I encourage you to pause and check in with yourself in these early days of spring. If you're noticing OCD feeling more intense, know that you're not alone. Instead of judging these feelings, try to focus on how you respond to them—because no matter how OCD is showing up, there are tools and support to help you through it. Here in the NOCD Community, you're surrounded by people who relate, who care, and who are rooting for you. I hope you'll lean on your support system and seek care if you're feeling stuck or overwhelmed. Therapy can be a powerful way to gain skills for navigating life's changes, and our team is always here when you're ready to take the next step. Have you noticed any changes in your OCD as we enter spring? How are you managing them?