Username: LavenderGreyhound

Date posted: 1y ago

Therapy

For those of you who have worked with a general therapist and a therapist that specializes in OCD, how did the 2 compare? I have only worked with a general therapist for the past year, but I am starting to wonder if I shouldn’t work with a therapist that specializes in OCD in order to make more progress. I do like my current therapist, but sometimes I feel they don’t necessarily understand how badly OCD impacts my everyday life and how hard OCD makes it for me to improve my overall mental health. Just curious what anyone has experienced with this.

Username: Trish1014Trish1014

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

Go with the therapist who specializes in ocd. I did not know I had ocd until last year. I had been in therapy for 11 years at that point & every single general therapist missed seeing the ocd in me. I have learned so much in the last year with a therapist here at nocd, & I have made more progress in a year here than I did in all 11 years with a general therapist.

Username: dorseela000dorseela000

Date posted: 1y ago

@Trish1014 AGREED!! It’s crazy. I’ve been in and out of therapy my whole life for what was diagnosed as “anxiety”. And not one diagnosed or even knew that I might have OCD. Looking back, I know they meant well, but their treatment only made things worse. Seeing an OCD specialist is so important. I highly recommend it. You may be able to do dual- therapy if you can afford it, but I recommend prioritizing the OCD specialist

Username: Tee10Tee10

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

@dorseela000 What’s also scary is, to my discovery, there are therapists who claim to know how to treat OCD but don’t even know what ERP is. I found a therapist who could treat trauma and claimed to treat OCD as well, but nope. She said “what’s ERP?” I knew it wasn’t going to be a good fit. It’s been a challenge for me trying to find someone who can treat both trauma and OCD.

Username: dorseela000dorseela000

Date posted: 1y ago

@Tee10 That’s crazy!! I don’t know how there’s not more support for OCD. I know therapists aren’t taught ERP in school but I think it should be required. There’s so many little signs for OCD that people miss because they aren’t the stereotypical symptoms.

Username: Tee10Tee10

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

@dorseela000 100%… OCD is actually common and becoming even more so.. it amazes me that people truly have OCD listed in their specialities yet ERP is not listed under forms of therapy. Blows my mind. Things seriously need to change.

Username: dorseela000dorseela000

Date posted: 1y ago

@Tee10 Seriously!! That shouldn’t be allowed. Jeez I don’t think any other kind of therapy would work for me.

Username: Erin PErin P

Date posted: 1y ago

I’ve been though general therapy and ERP (OCD) therapy- they are different. General therapy would be why are you doing these things/ having these thoughts- what happened in your childhood etc. Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) therapy is about challenging the OCD by facing the fears and uncertainty that OCD causes. Often the thoughts are the opposite or one’s personality. The thoughts and fears may or may not have any relevance to childhood experiences. OCD is about an anxiety response that includes fear/doubt/uncertainty . Confronting those with ERP tools / therapy allows you to manage how you respond to the OCD.

Username: Tee10Tee10

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

@Erin P I feel like my obsessions are specifically around the trauma I experienced which sucks. You know how they say trauma changes the brain? And changes the way you see the world and people? Well.. that’s exactly what happened to me. Literally. Except my OCD latched into that. OCD principles make me want to invalidate those thoughts and feelings and just label them as OCD. It makes me tempted to tackle the trauma and figure out why I have those thoughts to better understand them. Makes me feel uncomfortable thinking about ERP making me just accept them for what they are and not get to the bottom of them/figure them out…

Username: Tee10Tee10

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

@Tee10 onto*

Username: AnonymousAnonymous

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

@Tee10 I think some of the nocd therapists do specific trauma based ocd work. Inquire about it!

Username: Tee10Tee10

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

@Anonymous Had nooo idea. That would be fabulous. Thanks!

Username: Erin PErin P

Date posted: 1y ago

@Tee10 I think Nica has the best advice. An ERP therapist can help you not have the thoughts take all of your time without invalidating them.

Username: AnonymousAnonymous

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

If you have OCD, I 100% recommend choosing a therapist who specializes in OCD over a general therapist. For me at least, ERP has been so, so much more effective than general talk therapy.

Username: blazedblazed

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

Definitely work with a specialist for OCD. In talk therapy (CBT) we spoke about my fears and tried to figure it out, and she actually did mention OCD, but that wasn’t the main focus (loved her tho lol). When I went to an ERP therapist, she knew I was struggling with OCD almost right away. I have spoken with other professionals but they couldn’t understand my pov and I regretted opening up bc I felt embarrassed 😵‍💫 but all in all, a specialist is the one you should be going to treat OCD

Username: AnonymousAnonymous

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

I currently work with both a general therapist for emotional abuse/trauma and see a NOCD counselor for ocd. Even though they are both able to cross reference what the other one might be working on with me, it is absolutely different to have a specialized ocd therapist that sees a lot of people in our world. Hope that helps.

Username: Jesse M.Jesse M.

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

Same setup here. If I had to pick only one I would go with my OCD specialist. Psychodynamic talk therapy is amazing and has helped me loads, but if I hadn't had guidance from an OCD specialist, my talk therapist definitely would've engaged in compulsions with me

Username: JadeSFHJadeSFH

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

Specializes in OCD all the way! Been there done both, never made so much progress as when working with someone who really understands the nuances of OCD

Username: Tee10Tee10

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

I know it’s difficult to want that support from someone outside of OCD because that’s been the case for me. Aside from the OCD, I’ve had some major trauma take place in my life. Therapists have validated that for me and have agreed that I could definitely use trauma informed therapy for everything I’ve been through as it would be a lot for anyone to handle, but throwing the OCD into the mix makes things difficult. I almost feel like treating the OCD first is important because that’s what’s impacting our mental health and overall well being the most. And the only way to do that is with ERP. Without ERP, traditional therapy can make us worse.

Username: NicaNica

Date posted: 1y ago

Go you the OCD specialist. You’ll actually get help for your OCD. If you then need another therapist, tack that on.

Username: BlueGemini

Date posted: 3y ago

When and how did you first discover you may have OCD? I'm beginning to think OCD is one of the most understudied, misunderstood mental health issues ever. I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder about 6 years ago after I started suffering from panic attacks, but only just recently discovered my condition could be much more specific than that. I've been suffering from intrusive thoughts and complusions since I was a teenager with a variety of themes. And honestly this app and amazing community has opened my eyes to it. I'm curious if anyone else has had an experience like mine where they were just thrown into the general diagnosis category of just having anxiety and/or depression and is only just now coming to terms with having OCD? What has been your experience with the therapists on this app? I'm using another popular, pricey app for talk therapy at the moment, but so far 4 therapists have ghosted me on it so my confidence is feeling pretty shot. Has talk therapy and working with a therapist on here been successful for you?

Username: Gimli_23

Date posted: 2y ago

Therapists

I'm currently visiting my third therapist in the last three years and none of them have helped me so far. None of them have given me any type of diagnosis so I'm not even sure if I actually have OCD, and it's driving me mad. The last session I had, I even felt like it made things worse rather that it helped. I wanna feel that trust to my therapist that you should feel to be able to share your emotions but I don't. I feel like its not going anywhere, like it's useless. Lately I've been thinking about finding a therapist here at NOCD, I've even looked up some specific people and they all seem really nice and sweet.

Username: K-M

Date posted: 1y ago

Confused

So I saw my NOCD therapist for 9 months and we made SO much progress. Just loved her to pieces. She really helped me out and taught me so much, I miss her terribly. I started with my new therapist and we’ve met twice. My OCD is focused on my insecurity of being married and not wanting to have kids. I told my new therapist today that if I got divorced, I don’t think my OCD would be so latched onto it (since I wouldn’t be married or engaging in sex etc.) Anyway, after I said that she said she wasn’t sure it was OCD because OCD isn’t usually dependent on a circumstance. Does anyone get where I’m coming from? Just kinda confused now.

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