Guides
Guides to OCD and ERP, written plainly.
What the compulsion is doing, what exposure work really involves, and the questions worth asking a therapist before you book. Free to read, no account, nothing sold.
Tools
Start here
- What OCD actually isThe loop underneath every theme, and why the content is the least important part.
- What ERP actually looks likeSession by session, without the horror stories. You are not going to be ambushed.
- Does online ERP work?What the research says about video delivery, and the ways it is genuinely better.
- Why ordinary talk therapy can make OCD worseAnalyzing the thought is a compulsion. The most important thing on this site.
- OCD or anxiety?They overlap and the treatments differ. How clinicians tell them apart.
- Why OCD gets missed for yearsThe average is over a decade. Here is what gets it mislabeled.
- How to find a real ERP therapistFive questions to ask on the consult call, and the answers you want.
- What OCD treatment costsSession fees, intensive programs, insurance, and what a course actually runs.
- Your first ERP sessionNothing scary happens in the first hour. Here is what does.
The themes
- Harm OCDThoughts about hurting people you love, and why having them means the opposite.
- Contamination OCDGerms, chemicals, and the kind that has nothing to do with dirt.
- Relationship OCD (ROCD)Do I really love them? The question that cannot be answered, only starved.
- Sexual orientation OCDA doubt disorder wearing identity as a costume. What it is and is not.
- Taboo intrusive thoughts about childrenThe theme people are most afraid to say out loud, explained plainly and without judgment.
- Religious and moral scrupulosityWhen faith becomes the compulsion, and how clergy and therapists work together.
- CheckingThe stove, the door, the email, the road behind you.
- “Just right” and symmetryNot fear of consequences — a feeling that will not resolve.
- Health anxiety and somatic OCDSymptom checking, and the version where you cannot stop noticing your own breathing.
- Existential OCDReality, consciousness, and questions philosophy cannot close either.
- Real event OCDWhen the thing actually happened, and the loop is built on a true memory.
- False memory OCDDid I do it? The theme that turns your own memory into the enemy.
- Postpartum OCDIntrusive thoughts about the baby — common, terrifying, and treatable.
- Body dysmorphic disorderThe mirror, the lighting, and the hours nobody sees.
The compulsions you cannot see
- Mental compulsionsReviewing, counting, arguing with the thought. The ones ERP has to find first.
- Reassurance seekingThe question you already know the answer to, asked for the ninth time.
- Rumination is a compulsionIt feels like problem solving. It is the problem.
- Googling itWhy research feels responsible and works like a drug.
- AvoidanceThe compulsion that looks like nothing at all.
- ConfessingTelling on yourself to make it stop, and what it costs the people you tell.
- The “what if” engineWhy the question always has one more version, and where the exit is.
Treatment, in detail
- Building the hierarchyThe list you make together, from mildly uncomfortable to unthinkable.
- The response prevention halfExposure gets the attention. This is the half that does the work.
- ACT for OCDWillingness and values, and how it sits alongside ERP rather than replacing it.
- Inference-based CBT (I-CBT)A newer approach that starts one step earlier, at how the doubt gets built.
- Medication for OCDWhat SSRIs do here, the dosing difference nobody mentions, and how it pairs with ERP.
- When ERP is not workingThe four usual reasons, and the one that is almost always it.
- When it comes backA flare is not a failure. What to do in the first week.
- Intensive and residential programsWhen weekly is not enough, and what a higher level of care involves.
The people around you
- Family accommodationHow loving someone with OCD quietly becomes part of the illness.
- Telling your partnerWhat to say, how much detail, and why the details are usually not the point.
- OCD in childrenWhat it looks like at eight, and what parents are asked to stop doing.
- OCD at workTime lost, what to disclose, and accommodations that actually help.
- Living with someone who has OCDHow to stop being the reassurance machine without withdrawing your love.