Name: Expert-Approved Tips To Take Control of OCD In 2025
Uploaded: 2026-03-02T08:33:43.000Z
Duration: 14 min 25 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Today we're going to spend some time talking about overcoming and managing Obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD.

You may have seen our get to Know OCD podcasts and if you like the content that we do well, go to our NOCD YouTube channel and subscribe or get it wherever you get your podcasts.

Today we're going to take a break from the longer form of that and talk about some more educational work.

And I'm excited to talk about things that are really good for people with OCD to do and incorporate in their lives and also maybe dispel a few myths along the way.

Now, there are some really great scientifically proven evidence based treatments for obsessive compulsive disorder.

The first ones are exposure and response prevention therapy that we want to talk about.

And then there's also medication management.

Along with those things, there are some lifestyle habits that people can do and incorporate in their lives that could help along the way.

So what is exposure and response prevention therapy?

Exposure, or the E of ERP is purposely exposing yourself to the thoughts and the images and the urges that happen as part of ocd.

Those thoughts, images and urges that people may find to be intrusive, unwanted or inappropriate, however you may describe them, that cause you some kind of anxiety or distress or maybe shame or guilt or disgust or discomfort.

Those are things that we think, I probably shouldn't be having that, that needs to go away.

I like to maybe do something to neutralize it.

A compulsion is a mental act or a physical behavior that we do as a way to try to manage obsessive Compulsive disorder.

And we think that by doing those, it will stop the obsession from happening.

Yet it's not a permanent stop, because if you have ocd, you know that the relief is temporary.

And then the obsession starts to sink back in and the process starts all over again.

And now we have to do the thing over and over and over.

As you probably know already, living with it right where it tempts you by saying, oh, you were so close, you almost got there.

But as you'll learn, once is never enough.

So with exposure and response prevention therapy, by having people face their fears and learning that they can handle them, it isn't learning that they won't happen or that your compulsions are great to do or anything of that nature actually want to eliminate compulsions.

So we're purposely stopping the typical response that people have in relation to the obsessions that are occurring.

So by doing exposure and response prevention, we're allowing for the obsession, but

we're not allowing for the compulsion to support this.

We know that it's a mood enhancer by getting really good sleep.

When people go to bed and there's a tv, maybe in the bedroom, and

there's a couple of screens that they have access to right in the bed.

And I always say, get all of those away from the bed.

Beds are for sleeping, and if you're an adult, maybe some other things as well.

You want to be able to sleep in there and not get caught up in researching which OCD would like you to do.

You want to only be sleeping in there, Right?

Exercise releases chemicals in the brain that are similar to some medications and lead you to feel better, potentially over time.

Of course, if you're just starting off on medication, it's great to consult someone who works in the physical world, like a general practitioner or maybe a who can help you get on a good program.

But know that in starting medication, it's not going to feel great when you start it.

In fact, it's probably going to be rather uncomfortable.

That's going to happen when you start exposure and response prevention therapy.

And when you do that, OCD is going to throw a tantrum.

It's going to be a kid in a candy store demanding candy, and

You're going to finally say, you know what, ocd?

It's time for me to take things from you.

And the one thing you can take from OCD is doing compulsions.

So that's what you're really going to be working on.

If along the way you find that ERP isn't quite giving you everything you want, Medication is another thing that can be added to help supplement the work that gets done for.

And there are really great Medications out there.

Most likely you'll start on an antidepressant, one that we call an SSRI or a serotonin selective reuptake inhibitor or maybe an snri, which are bringing in other neurotransmitters there too, like norepinephrine.

Typically, the dosage that one needs of these medications is higher than the dosage that people who aren't specialized in treating OCD are comfortable with.

So if you just go to your general practitioner for medications, they may prescribe some of these drugs for you, but

you might not get the effect out of it that you were looking for.

This therefore says it's important to really seek out a professional not only to get exposure and response prevention therapy, again, the evidence based treatment for ocd, but

also to be sure that you're getting the right dosage of medications if that becomes a part of your treatment regimen.

And there are things above the SSRIs too.

You can also utilize certain other classes of drugs like tricyclic antidepressants.

Most of the time, doctors don't start with those because they attack several neurotransmitters and kind of work on those.

But they can have more side effects if people are really stuck in some of their obsessions and have a very low level of insight into the ocd.

There are even low doses of atypical antipsychotics that can be helpful.

Now, I know that antipsychotic word can sound very scary for a lot of people, but

at low doses, these medications can help break some of the hold that the obsessions have on people and maybe crack the door open a bit for people to be willing to try to do some exposure and response prevention therapy exercises.

We also have various levels of treatment available.

The outpatient is the typical thing that most people are familiar with for therapy, but

there's also intensive outpatient, which can be three hours a day for four or five days a week, partial hospital programs which are six hours a day, usually for five days a week.

then there's even residential treatment where you would go and actually live somewhere and do treatment 24, 7 for a month to up to three months of time.

All of that comes with a team of people who are there to help you, to talk with you, not only again about ERP and medication, but

some of those lifestyle things we were talking about.

They may help to set curfew so that you get some good sleep.

They'll serve meals that are hopefully healthy.

They'll likely have a gym available so that you can do some workout and they'll bring other things into your life that maybe you have stepped away from, like art and music, and

maybe even teach things like meditation or mindfulness.

These are great adjuncts that people can utilize in the treatment along with ERP to help them really focus in on the work that they're doing and not get distracted away.

OCD would love you to focus on anything other than the exposure and response prevention therapy that you need to be focusing on.

And there's even a therapy called act, or Acceptance and commitment Therapy, which, and

a good friend of mine, Michael Tuig, does a lot of research on, is a wonderful adjunct to the work that you can do with exposure and response prevention therapy.

But even he would say that is not the treatment for ocd.

That is a great adjunctive treatment for erp.