OCD Counseling

OCD is a chronic mental illness in which the person has recurring thoughts that lead to doing something repeatedly. OCD is not restricted to a particular age group; instead, people of any age and gender suffer from OCD.

What Is OCD Counseling?

OCD is a treatable mental illness, but unfortunately, many people fail to diagnose it. OCD is treated with psychotherapy which is counseling in general but may require medical treatment for a long time.

In counseling sessions for OCD, cognitive behavior therapy with exposure and response prevention (ERP) is the treatment of choice. Most researchers and practitioners have recommended counseling as one of the most effective treatments for OCD.

In ERP, the sufferer is exposed to the things that they fear the most. The main idea behind telling those things is to make them comfortable with those objects. The ERP continues for around 15-20 sessions at the therapist’s office, where they expose the person to their obsession for approximately 90 minutes; they are also asked to practice it at home.

Usually, most counselors ask the patient to think about the things they fear the most. At the same time, some counselors start the therapy by exposing them directly to the stimuli.

Cognitive therapy for OCD aims to cure the obsessions and compulsions that arise from distorted beliefs or mental processes. If you have OCD, however, you may overestimate the importance or danger associated with strange, odd, or intrusive thoughts, even though most people report such studies daily. You might even believe that you will increase the chances of the feared event, thought, and action occurring by thinking these thoughts.

In cognitive therapy, the therapist evaluates your thought patterns and finds a better approach to your more realistic thoughts. The therapist may help point out some distortions in your thinking that you may not be aware of.

However, if you find yourself or your loved one who suffers from reoccurring thoughts that affect daily life activities, you must seek medical help. Research shows that people who take counseling sessions for their mental illness recover faster and lead a more comfortable life.