OCD Straight Talk

Thanks for listening. Chris discusses the regrettable fact that many people struggle with OCD symptoms, and often get access to misleading, or even straight erroneous information. Chris also discusses Pure-O. The simple truth is that where there are intrusive thoughts heckling an individual in the foreground, there are compulsions happening in the background. The question is, "What" or "Where are...

Chris discusses a technique he encountered under the clinical supervision of Dr. Monnica Williams. The technique is aimed at dismissing intrusive thoughts. Exposure Statements are not "curative" in the sense that they have not been found to treat OCD. Neither do they directly reduce anxiety. Many individuals across the world, however, have stated that they are helpful for dismissing obsessions (i....

Chris explains the nature of intrusive thoughts within OCD, and employs a technique that is used to begin to dismiss them, or let them go.  This is not a technique for reducing anxiety - that technique is stopping compulsions. It's a logical strategy for "turning down the volume," if you will, on the thoughts. It's a technique for using the uncertainty of the future as a tool for letting go o...

In this episode, Chris distinguishes intrusive thoughts (also called obsessions) from rumination (mental compulsions, DSM-5).  They're both cognitive activities; so telling the difference is often easier said than done. He then explains a strategy that is often used to stop ruminating. Please remember that this podcast is only a podcast, though. It is not meant to be consumed in lieu of evide...

This is a simple, simple reality. OCD runs on compulsions. In this episode, Chris talks about habituation, and the difference between exposure therapy with compulsions versus that without them. Thanks for tuning in.

Chris discusses the most important question in the effective treatment of OCD: What are your compulsions and how do you find them? The skill of finding compulsions and the determination to prevent them is a strategy that supersedes merely doing exposures for anxiety.  Feel free to reach out with question at chrisleins04@gmail.com.

Chris discusses the art of identifying compulsive patterns. Safety behaviors aren't just turning on and off light switches. Compulsive patterns are different for everyone. The question is, What are yours? 

Chris discusses the concept of therapeutic progress - how do we define it? If you are to judge the efficacy of your therapeutic work on the degree to which you make progress, then the next logical question becomes, What is therapeutic progress?  Chrisleins04@gmail.com; thetenthousandlakes.com

Chris answers the question, How do I know when my therapist doesn't really know how to treat an anxiety-related disorder? Bottom line is, if you've been in treatment for a little while and haven't made progress, chances are pretty good that your therapist isn't a specialist. Chris speaks to "five pillars" of evidence-based anxiety treatment. But the treatment doesn't work for those who don't work...

Chris gripes about the treatment-system, and thinks out-loud about the industry-implications of myriad treatment protocols across so many (apparently) different conditions.  

Chris revisits the reasons and convictions behind the OCD Straight Talk podcast, and bears witness to a distinction between generalists and specialists in the field of psychotherapy.

Chris discusses the specifics of how OCD and the anxiety related disorders function comparative to the YBOCS-II, a gold-standard psychometric for measuring OCD. It all hinges on forcibly stopping safety-behaviors.

Chris discusses the ineffectiveness of striving after certainty in the context of intrusive thoughts and disordered anxiety.

Chris discusses certainty as a fact life with or without an anxiety related disorders. It's not our intrusive thoughts or worries that are irrational but the behaviors we engage to regulate them that are irrational.

Chris discusses mental rituals and how to decipher between mental rituals and intrusive thinking.

In this episode, Chris discusses not only the clinical importance of stopping all compulsions, but of finding them. Safety-behaviors (or compulsions) don't scream and shout, saying "Hey, I'm a compulsions. Stop me." They have something to be gained by not being stopped. "What?" you ask. Well, if you're not identifying them as compulsions, you're not stoppin' 'em; and of youre not stopping them, th...

Chris deals with an important element of exposure therapy, technically called Habituation.

Chris discusses cognitive therapy and cognitive-behavior therapy with the exposure-component as treatment-modalities for the anxiety-related disorders. Tune in for this educational talk on symptoms and treatment.

Victor Meyer's 1966 study points us in the direction of the evidence-based protocol. Chris explains the basic symptom-dynamic and -functionality of the anxiety-related disorders.

In this brief podcast Intro, Chris mentions a treatment theme of individuals not making sufficient therapeutic progress by way of conventional treatments, and launches a new podcast that seeks to inform listeners as to "good treatment" in the world of the anxiety, and OCD sufferer.