OCD Straight Talk

Chris discusses a general principle that applies not just to the management of OCD and anxiety-related symptoms, but to problems and conditions that people commonly face. Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have to chrisleins04@gmail.com. If you've found OCD Straight Talk helpful, consider giving it a 5-star rating, and reach out to KentuckyOCD.com for treating for your anxiety...

Chris discusses the question of why individuals experience certain intrusive thoughts? In this context, he also presents the value of embracing uncertainty. Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have to chrisleins04@gmail.com. If you've found OCD Straight Talk helpful, consider giving us a 5-star review, and subscribing to the podcast for more structured help with you anxiety-rel...

Chris discusses intrusive images and urges, noting that often they elicit anxiety because of what we think they mean. The question, of course, becomes, Do they REALLY mean that? Feel free to reach out with any question you might have to chrisleins04@gmail.com. If you've found OCDST helpful, feel free to give us a 5-star review, and subscribe to the podcast for more structured help with your an...

Chris talks through the idea that compulsive responses give credibility to the obsessional anxiety. The question becomes, What does it look like for you to not respond ? Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have to chrisleins04@gmail.com. If you've found OCD Straight Talk helpful, consider giving it a 5-star rating, and subscribing to the podcast for more structured help with yo...

Building on the last few episodes, and referring to the idea of the system and its parts, Chris explains what OCD looks like when it's no longer clinically significant. The answer might surprise you. Can you imagine intrusive thoughts that don't cause you much anxiety? Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have to chrisleins04@gmail.com. If you've found the podcast helpful, consider...

Chris has a conversation with Dr. B, his wife, about the OCD-system and how it works. Enjoy. Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have to chrisleins04@gmail.com. If you've found OCD Straight Talk helpful, consider giving us a 5-star rating, and subscribing to the podcast for more structured help with your anxiety-symptoms.

Chris discusses the OCD-system, the pieces and parts that make up the whole. And he identifies the common reaction of making "feeling better" the end goal for most OCDers. But the minute we focus on feeling better as our primary aim, we instinctively seek to do something to achieve that goal. What that response is most liklely meets the definition of compulsion.

Chris explains the thinking and assumptions of many people and patients about what "compulsions" are, and are not. Often, it's the assumptions we make about such behaviors that allows them to continue-on unchecked. Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have to chrisleins04@gmail.com. If you've found the podcast helpful, consider giving OCD Straight Talk a 5 star-rev...

Chris discusses common patterns across years of cases. Many patients struggle to make progress early in treatment (or because they are not in it to start with) for one or both of two reasons. Making efficient progress is first about distinguishing obsessions from compulsions, and second about finding the needle-compulsions in the behavioral haystack. Feel free to reach out with any questions you m...

Chris sits down with Dr. Mark McMinn to discuss scrupulosity and religious scrupulosity. The two talk through various issues, though, the simple issue. They also talk about spiritualty and psychology and how or where the two bodies of knowledge intersect. Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have to chrisleins04@gmail.com. If you found the podcast helpful, give us a 5-star rating; a...

Chris discusses the idea of meta-cognitions: the thoughts we have about the thoughts we have; and he answers a listener's question about intrusive images. He points not to the images or thoughts we have, but what we think about those thoughts or images that makes them scary.  Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have to chrisleins04@gmail.com. If you've found OCD Straight Talk...

Chris grapples with the questions of 1. What constitutes a panic attack? and What are the common triggers or reasons that individuals might experience them? He then tackles the whole matter of what to do next, suggesting that panic disorder is just OCD disguised as something else.  Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have to chrisleins04@gmail.com. If you've found OCD Straight Talk...

Chris tackles a listener's question about Mental Contamination, and provides clarity on two points: the first priority in making therapeutic progress, and the aim of exposure therapy. Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have to chrisleins04@gmail.com. If you've found OCD Straight Talk helpful, consider giving it a 5-star rating or subscribing to the podcast for more structured help...

Chris discusses the idea of overriding your urge to manage your thoughts and feelings. This isn't easy; and nobody (at least nobody who knows what he or she is talking about) is saying it is. But it certainly is possible. To further unpack this, Chris gives the example of behavior-change within the context of depressive episodes, and explains its longitudinal effect. He then shows how behavior-cha...

Chris takes on the question of the degree to which OCD is unlike the anxiety disorders and more like Trichotillomania and Excoriation Disorder. It comes down to emotionality and what specifically to focus on managing. Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have to chrisleins04@gmail.com; and consider subscribing for more structured help with your anxiety. 

Chris tackles a good question relative to exposure therapy: How informal is too informal? Many of us walk into exposure-work with the idea that it has look a certain way; and that way is often accompanied by some preconceived notions. Some of these are good and accurate. Some of them are not. Well, which notions or "parameters" are actually helpful, according to the literature?  Feel free to...

Chris provides a bird's eye view of the process-landscape. One of your questions at this point might be, Am I doing my exposures right? And that's a good question. Chris explains a few concepts and then connects them in such a way that will help you answer that question.

Chris asks listeners a question about the possibility of live-meetings, and invites feedback. And he takes on the question of whether differentiating between so-called anxious behaviors and objective compulsions is truly helpful; and he provides a clinical principle that orients individuals in the clinical process.  Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have to chrisleins04@gmai...

Chris reflects on a conversation he recently had with a respected colleague. They discussed the resistance some patients/OCDers appear to have toward doing exposure therapy on their own (that is, without the direct or immediate support of a therapist). Chris believes that under the right conditions, people may be willing to do exposure therapy despite not being in traditional treatment. The questi...

Chris discusses a therapeutic conversation he had recently with a new patient. They work through a few basic concepts, and how those concepts fit together in real-time. Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have, chrisleins04@gmail.com; and to subscribe to OCD Straight Talk for further help with your anxiety-related disorder.

Chris responds to a listener: Are these symptoms even related to OCD? Following a confusing meeting with a mental health professional, she further inquires as to the difference between overthinking and rumination. If you've found OCD Straight Talk helpful, feel free to give us a 5-star rating, and subscribe to the podcast for further help with your anxiety-related symptoms. 

We've all learned real skills from watching YouTube videos and listening to podcasts. Some of us have earned college, and even graduate degrees in asynchronous university programs, in which we've read and wrote and watched prerecorded lectures. The idea of DIY-learning is not new. What if there were a way for you to learn a structured process and formal, therapeutic skills? What if you could be yo...

MAJOR OCD STRAIGHT TALK ANNOUNCEMENT coming tomorrow. Chris responds to a listener's question, and discusses the concepts of distinguishing between obsessional and ruminitive thinking in so-called "pure-o OCD, and of mental contamination.  feel free to reach out with any questions you have to chrisleins04@gmail.com.

Chris responds to a patient's question, Is one compulsion better than another? Good question. The short answer is, No; but the long answer is, Yes.  Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have to chrisleins04@gmail.com. If you've found OCD Straight Talk helpful, consider giving us a 5-star rating, and supporting the podcast to help us produce more content.

**Major OCD Straight Talk announcement coming November 1, 2022. Chris discusses the question of, After I stop compulsions and mental rituals (e.g., ruminating), and I stop arguing with my thoughts, what I am supposed to do with them? The answer is not easy but simple. He ultimately presents a hard truth: the unabated acceptance of the future's uncertainty .  Feel free to reach out with any qu...