Drinking Tea with Monsters: OCD, Mental Health, Pop Culture & Ghost Stories

What if trying to manage your life more efficiently is actually the problem? This week, Leela and Pri dive into optimization OCD, the subtype that hides in plain sight because it looks, from the outside, like just being very organized. The relentless need to do everything perfectly and efficiently, the hours lost researching the "best" way to complete an ordinary task, the paralysis when a system...

Do you know how to advocate for yourself as a patient? Most of us were never taught. This week, Leela and Pri get into one of the most underrated skills in managing your mental and physical health: knowing how to advocate for yourself in a medical setting. How do you get doctors to actually listen? What do you say when you feel dismissed? How do you walk into an appointment knowing what you need a...

Is accepting OCD the answer? It might be the bravest thing you can do! This week, Leela and Pri get into acceptance. What does it actually mean to accept living with OCD and other mental health conditions? Why is acceptance so often given a negative spin and classified as giving up or "just dealing with it,"? We deep dive into whether genuine acceptance can actually be one of the most powerful too...

This is a fan favourite episode, back by popular demand. OCD triggers are everywhere, and knowing what they are is half the battle. This week, Pri talks about her experience supporting Leela's OCD journey and some strategies she's learned along the way on how to support a loved one with OCD, how to avoid falling into the reassurance trap, and what you can do to help if someone you love is going th...

The octopuses are organizing. The IOCDF can help. Coincidence? Probably. This week on  Drinking Tea with Monsters , the podcast about OCD and other less scary monsters, we open by diving deep, literally into the ocean to ask the question keeping us up at night: are octopuses plotting world domination? We investigate the evidence. It's not great. Then we're back with  Erika McCoy , IOCDF...

OCD doesn't care that you loved Boy Meets World. This week on  Drinking Tea with Monsters , the podcast about OCD and other less scary monsters, we open with the drama nobody asked for but everyone's talking about: Why did Ben Savage (Cory Matthews himself) ghost Danielle Fishel (Topanga), Rider Strong (Shawn), and Will Friedle (Eric)? We break down the Pod Meets World fallout, what it might...

This is a fan favourite episode, back by popular demand. OCD and uncertainty are a brutal combination, and this week we get into why. Leela unpacks what it actually feels like when your brain locks onto a thought and won't release it, how uncertainty fuels the OCD cycle, and the real strategies that help break it. Then things get chaotic in the best way. We investigate the viral theory that Garth...

Dissociation: what it is, how it connects to OCD and anxiety, and what it feels like from the inside. Taking a page from Lena Dunham's  Famesick , this week Pri walks Leela and the listeners through dissociation: what it actually is, how it shows up, and how it connects to OCD and anxiety. Both Pri and Leela share their personal experiences honestly. Plus:  The Devil Wears Prada 2  ...

What happens when ambition, OCD, perfectionism, and the desperate need to be seen all collide? In the first official DTWM OCD Book Club episode, Leela and Pri read  Famesick  by Lena Dunham and find it's far more than a celebrity memoir. It's a deep, uncomfortable look at what happens when OCD-adjacent thinking meets the machinery of fame: perfectionism, intrusive thoughts, the need for...

Traveling with OCD. When OCD doesn't win! OCD and travel are not natural companions. But this week, Leela shares a surprisingly positive experience navigating a trip with OCD, where the uncertainty didn't spiral for once. What shifted? What helped? An honest, hopeful update from the middle of the journey. Plus: a proper catch-up.  Big Mistakes  on Netflix is genuinely great, Dan Levy rem...

Some OCD thoughts evolve so slowly you don't realise what you're dealing with. Here's how to spot them. Not every OCD symptom arrives loudly. Some of the most disorienting signs are the ones that feel like ordinary overthinking, the repeating thought, the indecision, the "just right" feeling you can't shake. This week, Leela and Pri explore the subtle, often-missed signs of OCD and how to tell the...

OCD dread and psychological horror have more in common than you'd think. Let's get into it. Inspired by a point Elena Fasan made in her interview, Leela and Pri unpack the unsettling overlap between OCD dread and psychological horror: The Haunting of Hill House ,  Insidious , the creeping wrongness that both produce. What is OCD dread, exactly? How does it show up in real life versus on scree...

Your child might have OCD. Here's what to look for, where to start, and the questions that matter most. In part two with Elena Fasan, licensed clinical social worker, OCD specialist, founder of the Children's OCD & Anxiety Collective, we get into the practical reality of parenting a child with OCD. What are the signs parents should know? How do you start the process of getting help without mak...

She grew up in the world of ballet. She worked in Hollywood. She met Tom Cruise, Oprah, and Duran Duran. She also has OCD. In part one of our interview with Elena Fasan, licensed clinical social worker, OCD specialist, and founder of the Children's OCD & Anxiety Collective in Los Angeles, Elena shares her remarkable personal journey. From the performing arts world to the high-pressure stages o...

OCPD: the Amy Poehler of disorders. It's not like the others. Let's break it down. Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) is frequently confused with OCD but they're fundamentally different conditions. This week, Leela and Pri break down what OCPD actually is, how it shows up, why it's misunderstood, and how to tell it apart from OCD. Plus: in honour of Friday the 13th, a dive into the e...

Your gut and your brain are in constant conversation. For people with OCD and anxiety, that conversation matters. The gut-brain axis is one of the most fascinating frontiers in mental health and it has real, practical implications for managing OCD and anxiety. This week, Leela and Pri dive into the science of how your digestive system influences mood, serotonin levels, and anxiety, and what you ca...

What is actually happening in an OCD brain? The neuroscience is fascinating and kind of reassuring. This week, we welcome back April Grant, Resident Counselor at Authentic Connections Counseling and Founder of True North Therapy, specializing in ADHD and OCD. Together, they dive into the neuroscience of OCD: how the neurodivergent brain is wired differently, why it loops, and the genuinely hopeful...

Hypervigilance: when your nervous system can't stop scanning for threats that aren't there. Sound familiar? This week, Leela and Pri deep dive into hypervigilance. What it is, why the OCD and anxious brain defaults to it, and how the "monkey mind" keeps punching the panic button even when nothing is actually on fire. Strategies to help your nervous system stand down. Plus: they go  Back to th...

OCD doesn't just live in your head. It shows up in your friendships, your social life, and the way you move through the world. This week, Leela and Pri dive into the overlap between OCD and social anxiety: how obsessive-compulsive disorder can impact relationships, social situations, and the exhausting mental work of just being around other people. But first: there's a puzzling betrayal to address...

Even Disneyland isn't Disneyland when OCD comes with you. Here's how to travel anyway. This week, Leela and Pri talk openly about the realities of travelling with OCD. Why unfamiliar environments, lost routines, and uncertainty can feel overwhelming, and what practical strategies actually help make trips manageable. Because OCD doesn't respect your itinerary. Plus: it's January hibernation season,...

Manifestation, tarot, magical thinking: where's the line between spiritual practice and OCD? As the new year approaches, Leela and Pri explore the fuzzy, fascinating territory where magical thinking meets OCD. When does a ritual become a compulsion? What separates a spiritual practice from an anxiety-driven one? And is time even real? (Spoiler: they decide it might not be.) Plus: butter discourse...

OCD is ego-dystonic. Here's what that word means, and why it's actually really important to understand. This week's cosy holiday episode includes an important reminder buried in the news chat: OCD is ego-dystonic. Meaning the thoughts feel foreign, unwanted, and in direct conflict with who you are and what you value. Understanding this changes everything about how you relate to your OCD. Plus: the...

Anxiety and anxious OCD are related, but they're not the same thing. We break down the differences and how we manage both. This week, Leela and Pri dig into the overlap between anxiety and anxious OCD: where they intersect, where they diverge, and what their own experiences have taught them about telling the difference. An honest, personal conversation about living with both. Plus: the emo music r...

Scrupulosity OCD, religious OCD, and navigating OCD through motherhood and the postpartum period. Expert answers to your questions. In part two of the conversation with Licensed Professional Counselor Mary Rogers Kirby, Leela and Pri dig into the Q&A follow-up to their OCD subtypes discussion. They cover religious OCD, scrupulosity, and the specific challenges of navigating OCD during motherho...

From contamination OCD to relationship OCD to religious scrupulosity, a proper deep dive into OCD subtypes with an expert. This week, Leela and Pri sit down with Mary Rogers Kirby of Creating Solutions, a Licensed Professional Counselor specializing in anxiety, OCD, and trauma. Mary Rogers takes them through the full spectrum of OCD subtypes, including the well-known varieties like contamination a...