Debunking OCD Myths

The OCD and Anxiety Podcast by Robert James Coaching Thank you for listening. Music. Hello and welcome to The OCD and Anxiety Podcast where we explore how to have a more positive relationship with anxiety disorders disorders taking back control so that you can start living the life you choose and not the one chosen by your fears. Music.

Hello and welcome to episode 433. I hope that you're doing very well today and if you are struggling with OCD or anxiety and you would like to get some support with that Well, you can by heading over to my website, robertjamescoaching.com. There you can book in for a free session, or if you prefer, you can send me a message and let me know about what you're struggling with. In today's podcast, I'm going to be talking about typical myths that surround OCD and trying to debunk some of those myths.

Unfortunately, a lot of people really don't understand OCD, how it works, how it functions.

They might make throw it throw away comments or jokes about it that can be really frustrating if you're somebody who's really struggling with OCD so today's podcast is really all about that if you find the podcast helpful I would really appreciate it if you could subscribe that really does help the podcast a lot and most people who listen are not actually subscribed so if you could do that that would be amazing so many thanks guys

if you have any questions do please let me know and off we go Music. Here's a quote from the International OCD Foundation to get us started today, and it is this. OCD is not a personality quirk or a character trait. It is a very real mental health condition that affects about 2 to 3 million adults and half a million youth in the US alone. The first myth is that OCD is just about being neat, clean, and tidy.

And the amount of times that I hear this from people who don't know about OCD is so frustrating when they just say oh you have OCD well you don't seem like you have OCD your house isn't that clean you're not that orderly you know you don't have things symmetrical around your house so you probably don't have OCD you just you know you you haven't quite figured it out you uh you don't have it at all and when you hear things like this it's so patronizing it's so frustrating

but unfortunately it's often in the case that people, you know, in popular culture tend to think that OCD is very simple in that way, that it is about being neat and tidy. And of course, the reality is so much more than that. OCD is a very complex issue. Of course, there's many different types of obsessions that people have. And there's also, you know, things like pure O where, you know, there aren't actually any physical compulsions at all in that type of OCD.

And so, you know, this is one typical thing that people often say about OCD. Myth number two is that many people seem to think that OCD is a kind of choice or a kind of personality quirk. It's something that you want to have in your life is, I think, what they're saying, that you're actually choosing, you know, to be this way, which again, completely ignores the fact that actually this is a recognized mental health challenge.

It's in the DSM-5. It's something that if you do have, it's incredibly hard and difficult to deal with. You know, so obviously it is not a personality question. Whatsoever. Another common myth is that, you know, if you're struggling with OCD, you should just be able to snap out of it.

You know, like it's something that you've just picked up one day and, you know, you started to act in this way, you started doing these compulsions, but actually, you know, just as easily you could put it back down again, you know, and let go of it and that would be it. You would be feeling better. You wouldn't be experiencing difficult emotions anymore.

You wouldn't be getting caught in the trap of OCD. If only it was that simple, hey, you wouldn't be here, you know, listening to this podcast and me talking about, you know, some of the myths that surround OCD. So unfortunately, you know, we may wish that was true, but it really is very difficult at times to let it go. That being said, if we do follow the right path, you know, and actually seek out the right types of treatment, of course, we can make huge progress with OCD.

Another myth is that people seem to believe that the compulsions are always visible, that perhaps you are always cleaning things, for example. This is something that we tend to hear a lot. If you have OCD, well, you must be a hand cleaner. You must be washing your hands all the time. Now, of course, if you have contamination OCD, well, Well, that might be correct. But for many people who struggle with OCD, it's got nothing to do with washing the hands whatsoever.

It may be pure O or it may be another form of OCD that involves, you know, kind of thinking and strategies as your compulsions. Or it could be something like sensory motor OCD, where, you know, it may be really hard for people to spot what the compulsions are at all. But the person actually performing those compulsions is, you know, only far too aware of what those compulsions are. You know, but again, people like to make those judgments about it.

And they like to believe that, you know, it's very simple. It's, you know, it's these physical compulsions that you're performing.

Forming and if you just stop those then you can stop your OCD and you won't have a problem anymore and again I just wish it was so simple as people tend to tend to believe another myth that people often have is this kind of belief that either you have severe OCD or you don't have it at all and there's no room there for for the gray and actually you know in in OCD in my experience having worked with hundreds of people now with OCD.

Actually, there's so much gray. And, you know, many people struggle with obsessions, you know, maybe for a few weeks at a time, and then maybe they have a kind of relapse where they're doing a lot better. They're learning to not perform their compulsions and they're making a lot of progress. Other people might be, you know, really stuck in it a lot more than that. That there's all sorts of different ways of experiencing OCD.

And it isn't just black and white. It isn't just, well, you have severe OCD or you don't have OCD at all. There's plenty of room for gray there. And I think it's really important to kind of understand OCD as a kind of spectrum. Depending on how well you're doing, maybe you're applying ERP or acceptance commitment therapy to your OCD. And you're really beginning to make progress, well then of course your OCD isn't going to be as severe as it was in the past.

And so this idea that OCD has to be all or nothing. I'm sorry again, but that just simply isn't true. Another unhelpful myth is that strategies for managing OCD are not actually effective. It doesn't matter how hard you may be trying to manage your OCD, that you're always going to struggle. And actually, the evidence shows that that isn't the case. The strategies like ERP and acceptance commitment therapy have actually been proven to be very beneficial for people with OCD.

And, you know, so yet again, it's another myth that isn't true. So there we go. I think having an understanding of what some of these typical myths are can be really, really helpful because, you know, if you believe some of these myths, if you're holding onto them as if they are true. It can cause you to have limiting beliefs about your ability to overcome OCD. And I think it's It's so important that we recognize our limiting beliefs and to move forward and to not allow them to hold us back.

Because as we've just been pointing out, so much of the stuff that people say about OCD or maybe some of the things that we even think about OCD ourselves is not actually correct.

And so if we can understand that, then hopefully we can begin to learn to let go of some of those limiting beliefs and begin to make a bit more progress with our OCD and with anxiety. So there we go, guys. I really hope that you enjoyed that. It would be amazing if you could subscribe.

I really would appreciate that. And if you have any questions at all, do please let me know.

Just a quick reminder that if you want to get a free session all you need to do to get that is to head over to my website www.robertjamescoaching.com and there you can leave me a message and we can arrange the free session and now just a quick reminder of my disclaimer any information that you view on my website instagram page facebook group or anywhere else online or any information that you listen to on the podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be

a substitute for actual medical or mental health advice from a doctor psychologist or any other medical or mental health. Music.