My OCD was literally driving me insane and this one video has helped me more than months of talk therapy. Thank you so much, Dr. Katie d'Ath! I owe you my life.

So you can't stop your thoughts. They come and go. But what we CAN control is how we react??

I HAVE OCD AND I BEAT IT FOR TWO MONTHS. I HAD TO DO RITUALS BEFORE GOING TO BED, BUT ONE NIGHT I REFUSED TO DO THEM AND I GOT INTO BED IN A STATE OF SEVERE DISTRESS. I JUST CLOSED MY EYES AND EVENTUALLY WENT TO SLEEP AND WHEN I WOKE IN THE MORNING MY OCD HAD COMPLETELY VANISHED.

Great videos. It's been a great help. I seem to have a lot more control of my thinking and thoughts.

You are amazing! Thank you for sharing your knowledge :)

Thank u for the great videos

Hi Katie, I'm so glad I found this videos, they have been really helpful. I have had OCD (without physical rituals) for many years. For the past years it has been really bothersome when I try to study with different thoughts (that I'm gonna fail the test, etc, etc), I used to be very sharp but since then my academic performance has declined a lot. Your techniques have positive impacted on me, the discomfort is terrible but then the way of seen life changes when u overcome it. I don't actively engage in exposing with thought since the thoughts just come alone by themselves and I try not to pay attention. My questions is the following: even If I feel well any given day, do I have to actively think about them to expose myself or just let them come and apply the techniques? Thanks a lot!

I have never been diagnosed with ocd but i feel like I have for multiple reasons (checking, fear, anxiety,) But most of this I am able to cope with because I figured out exposure theapy on my own as a child trying to logical prove to myself that my fears were illogical and that i was trying to "train" my body not to be anxious. But I have another problem where this works. I feel Compulsed to do things I do not want to do (self harming things) When I am on tall buildings I think "I could jump it would be easy" and i often try to avoid this by just getting off the high place. Some of these thoughts do not go away. I Had this problem under control, but a month ago I decided to "test" if the problem was gone by doing one of my triggers, and it came back. Most of the anxiety came from the fear that the problem would come back 2 years after i thought i had conquered it. This is a bit trickey of a concept because, the trigger is touching the roof of my mouth, and this makes me think I might try to gag myself. Now, because touching the roof of my mouth is not actualy harmful. I tried to avoid doing it as long as i could. Eventually I became scared to even do this in fear that it might trigger the problem i had 5 years ago of gagging myself. The other day I realized i can control what I do, and that The compulsions had to be folowed by a deliberate action, so in order to choke myself, I would have to do it Voluntarily. Now, This becomes a problem such as the one about being on tall buildings. I think "I could do it it would be easy" about hurting myself (in a non life threatening way.) The way i used to make this go away was by thinking to myself "im in control, I dont have to" and then I would tempt myself to do the action im afraid of, but then not do it. This became my ritual, but eventualy it provided no help. because the ability to hurt myself is always present. Recently I tried to use my triggers that were not really hurting myself, but that I feared might lead to actually hurting myself. When I had this under control The Problem went away for a few hours. Then later I was struck by a fear of doing the actual thing i was scared of hurting myself, (again not severly but in a way that causes 10/10 anxiety) Now because the way I got around the past fear was to "Do the thing I was scared of" I had the Urge to, Hurt myself, to avoid being afraid of hurting myself" As completely illogical as this sounds... It is bothering me currently. Im unsure of what to do now because, Doing what im scared that I might do (hurt myself) Would be counter productive. What I am trying now is, When the urge to hurtmyself comes up, Do nothing at all, and wait for the urge to go away) This is gradualy making my anxiety go down But I dont know if there is anything I acn do because I cant Do what im scared of doing because..... Im scared of hurting myself and doing that would not help me. (I Feel in control currently But im just scared that I am going to have to hurtmyself one time in order to stop worrying about it) So... Should I just continue with my ignoreing the urge when it comes? and gradualy the anxiety will go down over time? Or is there anything else I need to do.

Hi Katie, my name is Jamie, I'm 19 and my OCD has been a big problem for me, for about the last 4 years now. I'm not sure how to define or categorise my OCD, i think the most accurate term i've found is magical/superstitious OCD, for example, if I have a fight with one of my friends or loved ones, I'll unconsciously remember what I was wearing, and next time it comes to getting dressed I'll avoid picking out that shirt. That was a less serious example. But recently I've had trouble studying, getting to lectures on time and meeting deadlines because of my intrusive (or superstitious) thoughts, a few more examples would be crossing thresholds at doorways or roads or between bollards, thinking a good thought while i'm washing my hands, or getting into bed, the list could go on and on, I am just trying to give you an idea. I try to carry ERP out on myself, but the anxiety always lasts for so long and feels like its having a real impact on me and who I am, i usually end up giving in. I have been stuck in that up-down trend that you showed on that diagram in your habituation video for 3 or 4 years now, and am at a loss as to what I should do. If you have any advice or anything that could help me, I would be extremely grateful. Thank you for taking the time to read this, Jamie :)

Hey Katie, I just watched a few of your videos and I see that you really get OCD. Can I ask, because I've tried to use ERP already before - what is the best way to apply it to my compulsions? I have some kind of pure-o where basically I try to suppress any thought as I do an action, whether it's a good thought or a bad one, with an emotionally neutral one. And the thing that makes it hardest is feeling the need to avoid making mental associations; a bad thought as I do something I love, or a good thought as I'm doing something I hate. Or vise-versa, it really doesn't matter. And I always worry that association will taint that thing or thought forever. I just don't know how to accurately target this obsession, can you offer any advice in particular?

Hi Katie, thanks for your video. The kind of OCD I suffer from is pure obsessional so I guess all my neutralizing behaviors are mental and probably unknown to be. I constantly get disturbing mental images, mostly sexual, that bothers me throughout the day. My anxiety level has gone down when I found out that I suffer from OCD and these thoughts have no meaning. However, I still get very uncomfortable when these images pop up on my head. What would be an appropriate ERP activity that I can follow to help me with this. Again, thanks a lot for you great videos.

Hello Katie, I'm so happy I found your videos because I am currently struggling with what I believe is harm ocd. I am going to tell you a little bit about myself. I am a 22 year old young a beautiful lady. I am very passionate about my dreams and goals in life and one of them is becoming a great chef and being able to teach people how to cook. My ocd started last month so I'm almost two months into this thing and it is debilitating because It makes me feel scared and depressed. It happened one day when I remembered a scary movie that I had watched when I was younger and the images were so horrifying I than started to dwell on it and panic etc...day in and out I would question "omg am I crazy, would I do those things, no I wouldn't," on and on until I pictured harming people close to me and that's when I decided this "thing" has gone too far! I realize I have a lot of mental rituals to help myself feel better and my biggest fear is that if I let the thoughts be there it will consume me and I will like them or want them to be there. I guess that is the ocd trying to keep me in the loop. Since it's only been almost 2 months with this I've followed your advice and I see improvement and moments of normality coming back where I'll go an hour or two without thinking those thoughts and say "oh I haven't thought that in a while" if you have any advice for me I would really appreciate it thank you!

What do you do if you have a health anxiety, like fear of catching or having a disease or health condition? One can't (and wouldn't) give oneself cancer. How would "exposure" work in that case?

Hi Katie, First off, thank you so much for taking time to help countless people with your videos. My 11 yr old son has intrusive thoughts and night time has been hard for him. As many of your clients know, night time can be the worst time for thoughts to run free, often keeping them up for hours. It became a ritual for him to have to cry himself to sleep in order to get all of his emotions out each night. One day while searching the internet I found an article on meditation and decided to give it a go. We have been actively meditating for 2 weeks and it has helped my son get to sleep at night. For us this has been a miracle because we were at the point of considering putting him on sleeping meds. If you have any experience with meditation, could you please spread the word to your audience. It has not only helped my son with sleep but has helped him to gather his thoughts about being in the present when he has panic attacks. There are all kinds of articles online on how meditation can help physically change your brain and helps decrease anxiety. Meditation also helps your mind relax and take a break, which I know anyone with OCD truly can benefit from. I am not a therapist but hopefully this can help someone else the way it has helped my son. Thanks again, Jen

Hi Katie, hope you can help me with this. I mostly suffer from intrusive mental images which is sexual in nature. Initially I thought I was going insane because these images followed by extreme anxiety bothered me all day long. My situation has improved somewhat after I realized that I was suffering from pure O and the anxiety has subdued a little. However, the intrusive images continue to bother me and leave me in discomfort for most of the day. I want to try ERP by myself and wanted to know how to go about it. It would be great if you elaborate how I can use this method to cure my condition.

I'm really grateful to you..and this means a lott to me,thank you !! I've seen almost all your videos on this topic coz I'm suffering from this very badly..! need to discuss, if you're available..

your videos are awesome. can you make more about social anxiety? i'm noticing i have some ocd things within me, but the ocd really comes into play for me with social anxiety (over-thinking how to behave with others in different situations)? thanks.

You're my new obsession : )

I have been doing what you are saying for a few weeks now. I have the germ thing and the pure o intrusive sexual, death, bad words, violence thoughts and bi polar II. I have also today been vocalising the thoughts ], wow, and you just said it! I wish I had started what I have been doing long ago which you are confirming

Great video! What do u mean "habituate to those uncomfortable feelings"? Also, how can you relate ERP to my situation-How would you recommend applying this to someone with OCD who is super particular about cleanliness and perfect operation of their new phones or other electronic devices? For example- I got a new iPhone recently and everyday I feed that i NEED to check every single operation of it from volume to speed etc, as well as keep it clean by dusting it and using special cleaning implements. Where can I start with ERP for this? Thanks in advance, Jon

Sounds like "torture therapy"

Hi I am not sure if I should call you Dr. Katie? I am also not sure if you are still responding to questions since this video was done almost a year ago. Anyways, I do have ocd and I am really enjoying watching your series of videos. I have not come across something so meaningful and something that makes a lot of sense to me. I think I might have heard or read about some of the concepts you have mentioned but I think this time around listening to your videos has made it even clearer what I can do to help myself overcome my ocd or manage it. My ocd is ocd contamination and I do have emetophobia. Basically everything I do is done so I don't get sick and throw up. That is my biggest fear, fear of throwing up. I do a lot of things to avoid that. What you say makes a lot of sense when it comes to me wanting to change my ocd pattern of behavior and way of thinking and in turn help me overcome my phobia as well but I just keep thinking to myself that this fear (fear of throwing up) is not something I want to expose myself to or keep facing on consistent basis to overcome my fear. I think that if I can avoid throwing up then why not? What I find difficult is where I draw the line to say that it's ok for me to be careful of germs and contamination so I don't get sick (since I don't want to get sick and don't think others want to in general), and where do I draw the line and say I should not be overly careful of germs etc etc to where it becomes ocd and a phobia. In the example you gave about contamination and touching the chair and then touching other things and not washing your hands, I understand how that would work in a situation where there is less likely a chance of getting sick from doing so. However, what about in a situation where I am really anxious if someone like my father gets sick and maybe contagious and gets me sick? Do I still go the one step further and in this case increase my risk of getting sick on purpose? It makes no sense for me to get sick on purpose if I can possibly avoid it. Is this an extreme case and should I just not take it to that much of an extreme and just do "normal" things to not get sick? I am not sure how I would handle that kind of situation and using this exercise. Can you please get back to me with your thoughts on this? I really appreciate these videos. Thank you very much and also is there another way to contact you if I have any further questions or thoughts etc or is this the best way?

Sorry the typo if I had a dream that I can* easily recall

Dear Katie, I have a question. With the responsive thought to provoke your OCD, my problem is that I'm a perfectionist and I want to remember all the things I done or everyone in the past(always try to look back). For example if I had a dream that I can't very much easily recalled I would've thought about it very much and hard to make it (the compulsive thinking) goes away. But if I couldn't able to recall my dreams I feel like I have to remember it. So does that mean if I have a perfect vision of the dream should I be thinking about it more or try not to think it more for the responsive action for the long term gain? And if don't remember at all and i am trying really hard both to try to remember everything and try to forget all about it, what is the good way to respond or act rather than try not to think about it? Because five years ago I already decided to leave all my OCD actions and embrace it. And it does work very well for my OCD reactions in the long term. But it all goes into the mind. Please need your help & response. Thank you very much Katie. Don't stop the videos..

Hi Katie, what do you do if you don't have anything to fear and be exposed to? i.e. repetitive thoughts about a girlfriend's past casual lover? He pops in my head all the time for no apparent reason! Even though she has no contact with him and no interest in him at all. So I don’t have anything to fear or expose myself to because he’s no longer a threat. But still I keep thinking about him. Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks Katie. Great videos btw.

Katie. Do you think Zoloft is helpful to use forever?

Hello, I really love your videos and have watched all 10 more than once to try and remind myself that I can get out of the hell I'm in. OCD has been bothering me now for 1 month and 1 week, constantly saying something horrid inside my head. It's stuck in my head like a broken record, it's so insulting and makes me feel absolutely disgusted that horrid thoughts could get such a hold on my happiness. I was finally starting to recover but then this year was really bad and the ocd took a hold of me putting disturbing thoughts inside my head, because of this thought my head started feeling lke there's cold water inside of it (GP told me it's all pyschological). Then went numb and I felt dissconnected with my real self, even with the numbness OCD was still replaying horrid thoughts in my head over and over again. Saying something horrible and writing it out in red writing inside my head, adding other horrid thoughts like putting horrid faces on my face. The thoughts were so loud I got terrified, I had panic attacks and an out of body experience which I'm guessing is because my body went to sleep from over tirdness but my mind is fully awake in anxiety. According to OCD's rules I have to say the oposite of what it's telling me, it's such a long sentence and ocd replaces my words with it's horrid words. It says 'I do...' when I say 'I don't...' it says 'yes' when I say 'no' I scream at it and say no but it's still saying the horrid things over and over again loudly, it has the nerve to say it in a voice similar to mine, it has the nerve to say the statement in first person making it seem like me. (I wish I could defeat those lies) It's like I don't have controll over my own mind and body. I feel ashamed of being so week. I fear it will ruin my new year because if the thoughts are still killing me at that time then my happiness for the whole year will be over. I can't sleep, I would wake up 1-2 hours later in the thought. GP gave me sleeping tablets last week, doesn't work well I tried to ignore it but it's playing like a broken record loudly, the same insulting thing over and over again. I try to distract myself but it's still there over and over again. So now I'm thinking today is going to be the day I get rid of it (I was thinking this for the whole time but the ocd got attached to ruining my new days by ruining my twelve o'clocks which is the start of the new day) Anyway yesterday I thought I was going to jump on in the thoughts by just making fun of it and looking at every one of them whilst doing a review in my head of what happend. Today was my perfect day to do that but then the ocd ruined my plans in the night (now). I don't want to give up because I don't want my new years ruined. I have made so many fun plans. I see people for ocd however I don't think they know much about how to help it. I just talk about my problems, they listen and I go away feeling the same (completely alone with this thing and no idea how to stop it). However your videos have helped alot. Thanks. I feel lost right now because the thought is still bothering me. Sorry for the long comment this is as short as I can go whilst briefly explaining things.

What about groinal responses. I'd rather be afraid of germs than my own disgusting arousal. How is someone supposed to tackle that?

Hi Katie d'Ath! First of all, I'd love to thank you for making these videos. You're so good at explaining things and make them clear to me and other people with OCD. There's something I wonder; I've been having OCD since about the age of 11 (today I'm about to turn 24). It has been so many years that I somehow feel safe with my OCD, but in the same time it has gone so far that I feel anxiety and worry pretty much all the time. I got my diagnosis and medication about a year ago but have still not taken it. I tried some medication with St John's wort for a couple of months, but it stopped working after a while. Everytime I try to go against the OCD, I feel awful (obviously) and it can lead to no sleep at nights, which ruins my studying. I would like to ask you who are a proffesional: is it possible to beat OCD without antidepressive? I have Paroxetine to take and some calming for sleeping (which I haven't tried yet). Any suggestions? Thank you for once again! - Rena

Hi Katie, I suffer from OCD, how would ERP help with your ROCD, constant worry about my girlfriend, having negative thoughts, sexual obsessions, and almost the inability to be happy because of these reoccurring thoughts. I always end up messing up the relationship with overreacting( like her not txting me fast enough) to situations... I get supper worked up and then I "reset" the next day act better, but agian the pattern continues. I know it's all in my head, but anxiety is what kills my ability to concentrate in other activities