The OCD Stories

In episode 356 I interviewed Dr Amy Mariaskin. Amy is a licensed clinical psychologist and director at The Nashville OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center.  In this episode we discuss her new book, ways OCD can affect intimacy, when taboo intrusive thoughts interrupt sex, issues with orgasms, sexual kinks and fantasies and how these may trigger OCD, obsessively worrying about getting pregnant, over analy...

In episode 355 I interviewed Psychotherapist Joshua Fletcher (Anxiety Josh). We discuss his therapy story and mental health journey including OCD, what is anxiety, adrenaline and cortisol, panic attacks, wilful tolerance, meerkat mode, OCD taboo intrusive thoughts, and much more. Hope it helps.   Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/anxiety-josh-355   The podcast is made possible by NOCD...

In episode 354 I interviewed Chris who has kindly agreed to share his OCD story with us. We discuss his OCD Story, depression, how seeing a therapist that didn't understand OCD triggered his OCD, panic attacks, not being able to get a question out of his mind, seeing an old therapist again who noticed it was OCD, sexual orientation OCD, exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), rumination, t...

In episode 353 I interviewed Jon Hershfield. Jon is a psychotherapist and the director of The Center for OCD and Anxiety, at Sheppard Pratt. He is the author of six OCD books. We discuss what's new with Jon, his new book, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), OCD and BPD, common overlaps in traits, causes of BPD, how BPD may complicate therapy for OCD and how to navigate this, Dialectical behavio...

In episode 352 I invited 18 past guests to share their words of wisdom or hope with you to celebrate reaching 5 million downloads since 2015. Thank you to all my past guests for sharing their stories or expertise, and thank you to you for listening or spreading the show with others. I hope this episode educates and inspires.   Therapists and advocates on this episode (in order) are: Dr Jon Abramow...

In episode 351 I interviewed Dr Robert Hudak. Robert is a psychiatrist, and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the university of Pittsburgh.   We discuss his therapy story, what is schizophrenia, what is psychosis, he defines what hallucinations and delusions are, how to differentiate between an obsession and a delusion, how exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP) is modified for OCD when...

In episode 350 I interviewed Charlene Colwell. Charlene is a therapist who uses Exposure and Response Prevention therapy (ERP) and Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS - level 1 trained) for OCD.   We discuss her therapy story, what is IFS, how IFS maps the mind, another way to view OCD, how IFS may be helpful for OCD, using IFS alongside ERP, and much more. Hope it helps. Show notes: https://theo...

In episode 349 I chat with Anna who has kindly agreed to share her story with us.   We discuss some of her childhood mental health experiences, school anxiety, how OCD affected her work, she details some of her specific OCD experiences, depression, medication, postnatal/postpartum experiences of OCD, getting diagnosed, getting therapy, harm themed OCD, a relapse, hit and run themed OCD, getting th...

In episode 348 I chat with Shaun Flores who has kindly agreed to share his story with us.   We discuss his story, how a dream triggered OCD in a big way, sexual orientation themed OCD, suicidal themed OCD, harm themed OCD, ADHD, some of the possible reasons why people of colour are under represented in the OCD community, how he's doing now, his advocacy, and much more. Hope it helps. Show notes: h...

In episode 347 I interviewed Chrissie Hodges. Chrissie is a Peer Support specialist, founder of OCD Gamechangers, and Author of 'Pure OCD: The Invisible Side of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder'. Chrissie was awarded the hero award at the 24th IOCDF conference in San Fran. We discuss some of the physical symptoms of OCD, worrying about telling her therapist about the physical symptoms that were manif...

In episode 346 I chat with Dr Patricia Zurita Ona. Patricia is director of the East Bay Behavior Therapy Center and adjunct professor at the Wright Institute. She is the author of several books including her new book 'Acceptance and Commitment Skills for Perfectionism and High-Achieving Behaviors: Do Things Your Way, Be Yourself, and Live a Purposeful Life'. We discuss what are perfectionistic, an...

In episode 345 I chat with Dr Sam Greenblatt. Sam is a licensed clinical psychologist. We discuss an update on his past relapse, his fire metaphor, processing the trauma of OCD, meta OCD, PTSD and OCD, identity and OCD, the idea of perceived fragility, loss and grief around OCD, figuring out what is normative, and much more. Hope it helps.   Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/ greenblat...

In episode 344 I chat with Courtney Newman who has kindly agreed to share her story with us.   We discuss her story, going to therapy, learning what OCD is, mental compulsions, harm worries around her family, covid related contamination worries, having a clean world and a dirty world, and much more. Hope it helps.   Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/ courtney-344   The podcast is made...

In episode 343 I chat with Robert Fox. Rob is a therapist (LMHC) practicing in Woburn, USA. He specialises in internal family systems and EMDR therapy.  We discuss what is internal family systems (IFS), the idea of parts of us, feeling feelings, the positive intention of our parts, the idea that OCD is a sign post to something deeper that needs healing or attention, pushing down feelings in childh...

In episode 342 I chat with Dr Steven Phillipson. Steven is a licensed clinical psychologist who specialises in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for OCD. Steven is the Clinical Director at the Center for Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy in New York. We discuss why sleep is the hostage of anxiety, desperation around sleep, what is sleep and the stages of sleep, how sleep medication, alcohol, and benzo...

In episode 341 I chat Dr Lynne Drummond. Lynne is an honorary consultant psychiatrist at south west London and St George's NHS Trust, and visiting Professor at the University of Hertfordshire . We discuss her therapy story, her new book "Everything you need to know about OCD", the stigma around OCD, raising awareness around OCD, a historical view of how OCD has been viewed, working with patients w...

In episode 340 I chat with Liam who has kindly agreed to share his story with us.   We discuss his story, pedophile themed OCD (pOCD), violent intrusive thoughts, attending a support group, grief and loss, learning to see OCD not as a bully, his therapy journey and what he learned, setting up his own OCD support group, a suicide attempt, advocating about OCD at his work, and so much more. Hope it...

In episode 339 I chat to Dr Heather Sequeira. Heather is a consultant psychologist specialising in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). We discuss her therapy story, trauma and OCD, what is post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), what is complex or developmental trauma, what's going on in the brain with trauma, disgust in trauma and OCD, doubt and uncertainty, treating OCD and trauma together, the...

In episode 338 I chat ​Dr Jordan Levy and Dr Tatyana Mestechkina. Both Jordan and Tatyana are licensed clinical psychologists who treat OCD.   We discuss their therapy story, we chat about the thought of what if this is not OCD and other thoughts that get in the way of therapy, such as, What if this time is different? What if I'm doing therapy the wrong way? What if this is the piece of "evidence"...

In episode 337 I chat with Geoff who has kindly agreed to share his story with us.   We discuss his story, depression, spending 20 years with a traditional psychoanalyst who did not help or recognise OCD within him, the red flags of this therapy for OCD, realising that there are different schools or types of therapy, and the trauma caused by this particular therapy relationship for Geoff, eventual...

In episode 336 I chat with Lily Bailey about her new book 'When I See Blue'. Lily also wrote the book called, 'Because We Are Bad'.   We discuss her new book, Lily reads us a section of chapter 1 from her book, how the main character was inspired by some of Lily's own story, the themes of OCD the main character Ben experiences, why Lily wrote more back story for Ben including other struggles, we d...

In episode 335 I chat with Traci who has kindly agreed to share her story with us.   We discuss her story, misophonia, perfectionism, religious scrupulosity, starting with therapy, ADHD, sexual intrusive thoughts, unwanted arousal, groinal, needing to get therapy perfect, rumination, and so much more. Hope it helps.   Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/ traci-335 The podcast is made pos...

In episode 333 I chat with Jonny Say. Jonny is a UK based psychotherapist.   We discuss how he's doing, Jonny's mental health and how he practices self-compassion daily, we discuss shame around intrusive thoughts and in doing compulsions, the inner critic, self-compassion and how it can help, building up psychological flexibility skills before exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), values...

In episode 333 I chat with Dr Roberto Olivardia. Roberto is a Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Instructor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School. He also maintains a private psychotherapy practice. We discuss his therapy story, and personal story with ADHD, the school system and ADHD, what ADHD is, the comorbidity of OCD and ADHD together, how ADHD can feed into OCD, common OCD themes he sees w...

In episode 332 I chat with Kim and Jack Vincenty who have kindly agreed to share their story, from the perspective of mother and son.   We discuss Jack's story, Kim's story as the parent, moral scrupulosity, being surrounded by triggers, going through multiple rounds of exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), going to Colorado to do his biggest exposure, depression, where Jack's at now, we...