Hi everyone. I know you all have your problems, but please don’t take my ask for help as a selfish act. I’m oppening myself just because some months ago OCD reached to a level that I’m just unable to do anything productive in my life. I’m from Brazil and have been diagnosed when I was 12 (39 today), and since then I’ve tried all known in the market with almost no sucess. My OCD mainly consists in 24/7 intrusive toughts, 99% of those are related to my family health and safety (absolutely not related with COVID-19). Today I’m struggling to keep my job, ‘cause I cannot produce 30% of what I did three years ago, cannot study or even properly take care of my child without assistance. And this is because I developed an insane list of acts to nonsensely “cancell“ those toughts and prevent them from happening, like I had the most ridiculous super power. Well, now that I’ve introduced myself (lol), I’ll ask some advice: 1- have anyone ever heard/read about therapy by e-mail? (because I just cannot open myself face to face to anyone); 2- have anyone tried and had any sucess with cannabidiol?; 3- have anyone had sucess with meditation and would recommend any technic? Thanks for the space and for the patience.

Sure. So I’m not quite sure what therapies you’ve attempted, or with whom. It’s also difficult to know that even if you were exposed to the right treatment, if it was implemented appropriately or not. Generally speaking, the standards for OCD treatment fall under the category Reyof Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy or CBT for short. CBT can encompass different approaches or techniques. But the primary ones for OCD are Exposure-Reponse Prevention, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and mindfulness. To answer some of your question: 1) I haven’t heard about therapy via email. I will say that there’s a lot of teletherapy providers in the states. I don’t know what the circumstances might be like in Brazil. But you can search for apps or online for someone that offers this service. I typically see someone in-person, but with COVID-19 our appointments have been relegated to strictly online. 2) I haven’t tried CBD. As far as I understand it, the research about the efficacy for CBD is very much in its infancy. Someone else may know more about this, but I don’t think there’s a well-established causal link between CBD and an improvement in OCD symptoms. 3) Meditation is a great way to cultivate mindfulness. I’ve found it effective for OCD because it isn’t about altering or changing the thoughts, but simply developing awareness of them so that the pull or allure of them isn’t so strong. There’s an excellent book about this topic called Mindfulness for OCD by Jon Hershfield. For meditation, there’s several apps out there, but I personally prefer the 10% Happier app, primarily because it has a greater focus on educating you about the principles of meditation.

Thanks a lot for the interest and the very quick response. I’ve tried ERP here in Brazil, but I could not handle the exposure. My doctor is trying CBD for other disorders, with sucess. I asked her about the results with OCD pacients, but she has no data. I’ll look for the book you mentioned. I’m sure it’s going to help. Congratulation for the work you are doing.

I’ll look for another professional. Perhaps I can have a good result if I try without the expectations I had in the first time. Thanks a lot.