Aha! Moments about OCD
I’m always thinking about how books, movies, and events apply to people suffering from OCD and related disorders, anxiety or depression. Which means that I’m also thinking about how they apply to me. Because yes, along with being an OCD therapist, I also have OCD.
OCD can influence your life in subtle (and not so subtle) ways that can affect how you view the world, how you approach treatment, how you manage your recovery, and how you function in relationships with others and the world around you. Often when I’m reading books or watching movies or videos, even ones that have nothing to do with OCD, I have moments of epiphany where I say, “Aha! That applies to people who have OCD!” In my Aha! Moments blog posts, I use my own experience with OCD to explain these epiphanies and how I apply them to my own recovery. In recent years, I’ve also expanded the blog to include descriptions of tools and techniques I’ve found helpful in my journey to tame OCD.
I also post on the Beyond the Doubt Psychology Today blog, where OCD advocate and author Jeff Bell and I share an inside perspective on life with OCD and the lessons of uncertainty.
If you’re pressed for time and would like some action-focused tips & tricks to help you tame OCD and reclaim your life, then check out my new FredTalks blog, where I share posts you can read in a minute or two that are based on stories and concepts from my memoir, Is Fred in the Refrigerator? Taming OCD and Reclaiming My Life.
To receive notifications of new blog posts as well as free OCD-taming tips & resources, sign up for my Shoulders Back! email newsletter, which I sent out every month.
As you probably already know :), my blogs are not a replacement for therapy, and I encourage all readers who have OCD to find a competent ERP therapist. See the IOCDF treatment provider database for a provider near you.
Enjoy, and I hope it helps!
OCD, self-criticism, and wearable technology
I share some of my own examples of how wearables and OCD can interact, as well as criteria you can use to make decisions about whether wearable technology is right for you and your OCD recovery.
Empowering & hopeful book recommendations
Three books I've enjoyed and recommend—even though they have nothing to do with OCD—to help you feel more empowered, hopeful, and optimistic. Also, find out more about your own primal world beliefs and how they might change over time.
The truth about people pleasing
You don't have to have OCD to engage in people pleasing, but people with OCD often end up participating in this compulsive behavior of doing things for others for fear-based reasons.