The Healthy Compulsive Project

OCPD is reputed to be resistant to change, yet there is abundant evidence that with help and motivation, many can alter their behavior to live in a more well-adapted and fulfilling way. Key is working with the personality traits and enlisting them in the process of change. 

This is the first of four episodes describing the four different types of obsessive-compulsive personality, and the possible benefits and pitfalls of each. Some obsessive-compulsives are natural leaders, teachers & mentors. But too often these capacities are used as a bully might--hurting rather than helping. 

What is Shame? An inaccurate & debilitating interpretation of our limitations as humans. Trying to avoid it with perfection makes it worse. In this episode we distinguish shame from guilt and and explore how to override it. 

If we aren't open to experience we miss chances to connect, explore, and learn. Quickly rejecting anything "not just right" costs us enriching experiences.  We explore the concepts of Not Just Right Experience, and Openness to Experience as investigated in the Five-Factor Model of personality. 

Demand sensitivity is a lens which distorts our sense of what others want from us. This lens misinterprets the most benign hopes for us as demands, and we sacrifice out own needs to meet what we mistakenly think are the expectations of others. 

In this episode of the The Healthy Compulsive Podcast we explore the relations between ideals, rules and commandments. People with Obsessive-Compulisve Personality may try to remedy insecurity by becoming overly conscientious. They may convert ideals into commandments, and good guidelines become rigid & destructive. 

Understanding whether you have OCPD can be helpful not only in managing your symptoms, but also finding meaning in your personality. It's also helpful to distinguish between obsessive and compulsive, and obsessions and compulsions. 

Your ego may not be serving you well. But it's not about being egotistical. It's about whether it supports a balanced personality, or insists on control & order.  

Narcissistic and obsessive-compulsive personalities may similar at first glance, but a closer look reveals differences, with implications for treatment and relationships.  

The question you really need to ask yourself when you partner has threatened to divorce you, is not just whether you are ready to divorce, or what you will do to keep your partner. It's also about what you would want to change for your own well-being. 

People with obsessive-compulsive personality are not all alike. Four typical types are leaders, workers, servers, and thinkers. Each type has healthy and unhealthy potential. Developing each of these rather than relying on just one type helps us to live healthier, more balanced lives. 

Vacationing can be a trial for perfectionists, obsessive-compulsives, and Type A personalities. Things rarely go according to plan, and the struggle to let go can be difficult. This episode includes two blog posts:  A Short Guide to Vacationing for Workaholics, Compulsives, and Type A’s, and There Will Be Roosters: A Personal Story about Obsessing. 

When cultivating the potential of the obsessive-compulsive personality, an essential ingredient is inspiration. But too often, the frozen version of the obsessive-compulsive personality won't let in the very thing we need. 

You may not have OCD after all. More than twice as many people have OCPD (obsessive-compulsive personality disorder) than OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). And most of them don’t know it. Many people with OCPD, and many clinicians as well, are unaware of the condition and how it differs from OCD. This episode clarifies the differences and offers an example. Click here for the written version on...

People with obsessive-compulsive personalities can make committed and reliable partners, or they can destroy relationships with their insistence on telling the other how to live. This episode is for partners of people with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), with suggestions for how to get along with the OCPD partner and make the best of what can be a trying relationship. The episode...

This episode explores the link between unhealthy compulsivity and depression in three parts: understanding what depression may be trying to tell us, how the negativity bias protects us and makes us miserable at the same time, and why compulsives get stuck on the hedonic treadmill. Click here for the written version .  Transcript Why Compulsive People Get Depressed Part 1: The Missed Potential of L...

 Introducing The Healthy Compulsive Project Podcast, offering information, insights, and inspiration to optimize the obsessive-compulsive personality.  From clinical, personal and Jungian perspectives, help with depth and a light touch for OCPD, perfectionists, control freaks and micro-managers.  Transcript: Wait, The Healthy Compulsive? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Not in my book. And I’ll tell you ho...

Control freaks and perfectionists unite! Anyone who’s ever been known to overwork, overplan, overcontrol or overanalyze is welcome here, where the obsessive-compulsive personality is explored and harnessed to deliver what it was originally meant to deliver. Join psychotherapist, Jungian psychoanalyst and author Gary Trosclair as he delves into the pitfalls and potential of the driven personality w...