Do you need a diagnosis for OCD therapy?
Do you need a formal OCD diagnosis to have specific therapy for it, either on this app or for in person/other online therapy? Can NOCD give you a diagnosis or do you need to go to a doctor?
My first time seeing a therapist was through NOCD and I was never diagnosed before! You don’t need a formal diagnosis for NOCD, not sure about other kinds of therapy. These therapists are licensed and are able to diagnose you but you have to make that 15 minute call first so they can set you up with a therapist
Hope that makes sense, but NOCD therapists do give a diagnosis and it’s not required to be diagnosed beforehand, they’ll assess whether you have it or not in the session
@ck99 Thank you ❤️ Do they assess you in the 15 minute call or in your first full therapy session?
@itsquietuptown They diagnose in the full therapy session! The 15 minute call is when they ask what ur struggling with and talk a little about how the therapist would handle ur OCD struggle (ERP) and then you give ur personal info on the phone and the appointment is set up
having a formal ocd diagnosis can be helpful in ensuring that you're getting the right kind of therapy tailored to your needs, whether it's through an app or in-person/online therapy. while it's not always necessary to have a diagnosis before starting therapy, it can be beneficial. therapists, including those on platforms like nocd, are trained to assess and diagnose conditions like ocd, but it's always a good idea to start with a thorough evaluation by a healthcare professional who can consider all aspects of your mental health. if you're considering nocd, they offer access to specialists who can help determine whether you're dealing with ocd and can guide you toward the most appropriate treatment. nocd's therapy approach is centered on exposure and response prevention (erp), which is the gold standard for ocd treatment. but regardless of the platform or service, a proper diagnosis is key for effective treatment because it helps ensure you're addressing the right issues with the right strategies. if you're unsure or if you don't have a diagnosis yet, reaching out to your doctor or a mental health professional is a solid first step to understanding what you're dealing with and how to approach it.
So the fact that i haven’t been officially diagnosed kind of makes my ocd worse. I’ve kind of become positive that I have it. Thinking back now, I can think of a few rituals I did as a child that could be seen as warning signs for OCD, but the debilitating stuff happened about 5 months ago in October. I saw a therapist for about a month and a half but she never gave me an official diagnosis and even though I asked, she just said it hasn’t been long enough to tell. It seemed like she wasn’t helping at all and wasn’t doing anything for me I couldn’t hear off of a forum such as this or an informative YouTube video so I quit going. I had problems this entire time but just this past week it has spiked up to the severity it was when it first started and is once again making me desperate for help! I think I want meds this time so I want to go to my regular doctor and ask. I guess my general question is how should I go about seeking help and can I say I have OCD even if it wasn’t officially told to me? This week has been very debilitating and the fact that I’ve been suffering for 5 months makes me believe this isn’t going to just go away.
I've been with my current therapist for 4 years. In that time, she has helped me so much and become so important to me— even was the one who helped me discover I have OCD. Within the past year, though, my OCD has returned so much worse than ever, and I feel she has done all she can for me. I want to keep seeing her, but if my insurance won't cover a second therapist, I'm prepared to part ways. Within the past month and a half specifically, i've gotten even worse than I've been. I feel like i'm losing more of myself every day. It hit me last week that it's time to get the right help. I always hear so many good things from everyone on here and other pages that OCD therapists change your life, and I'm going to try and take the steps to get started on this. I'm not sure where to begin, though. I have looked at the feature here on the app, but am not sure who to pick or how to pick. Does anyone have any advice on how to get started? Should you take your subtypes into account? Should you take anything else into account?
Is it wrong to be here if I don't have an OCD diagnosis? I know for a fact I have really horrible intrusive thoughts I can't deal with and I don't feel comfortable talking about it with a regular therapist because they may not be equipped to deal with it and I already feel like a bad person. So I thought using an app where the diagnosis directly works with that would be a lot more comfortable for me.
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