Tips and Tricks on Managing OCD with Paul Peterson
The OCD and Anxiety Treatment Centers is the nation’s largest outpatient provider for those dealing with the effects of OCD, Anxiety, and Trauma. Our scientific therapeutic approach produces the most effective treatment outcomes in our industry and is why the program is covered by most insurance companies. The OCD and Anxiety Center in Mesa are experts in helping children, youth and adults take control of their lives. Clients participate in daily, weekday, three-hour programming allowing them to continue to work or go to school. For more information, please call our admissions office at toll-free 1-833-850-0230 or go to https://theocdandanxietytreatmentcenter.com
Transcript
00:00 Welcome back. You've probably heard the term OCD, but as the acronym has become
00:06 part of our cultural lexicon, myths about the disorder have proliferated. Here to
00:11 help us parse what's true is Paul Peterson. He is the CEO of the OCD and
00:17 Anxiety Treatment Center. First of all, people do throw around that term, "I'm
00:21 OCD about my books. They have to be lined up." But that's not really OCD, so can we
00:27 start with a working definition? Right. OCD is where somebody has an intrusive
00:32 thought and it spikes an enormous amount of anxiety and fear and worry through
00:37 them, and then they want to create certainty to make sure that that thing
00:41 couldn't be true or isn't gonna happen or hasn't happened. And so then they, by
00:46 doing that, they get this reduction of symptoms by finding, knowing that
00:50 they didn't do it. So we've heard of people who have obsessive behaviors,
00:55 washing hands, locking, checking to see if the oven's on and off. Do your patients
01:01 have those kind of symptoms? Yeah, that's one of those misconceptions. I would say
01:05 about five to ten percent of the people we work with have those, and then it's
01:09 all these other ones like superstitious OCD or harm OCD. I mean, there's so many
01:14 different types that people just don't know exist. So let's talk about those
01:18 intrusive thoughts, because as you mentioned, that's the most common. And you
01:22 know, we think of people locking and unlocking, but 95% of people with OCD,
01:26 they're just having thoughts that intrude on their day that are scary. You
01:31 have to do this or something bad's gonna happen. How do you know if you're
01:35 suffering from a disorder versus like you're just having the occasional
01:38 intrusive thought? Yeah, well it really comes down to the feeling. A lot of
01:42 people, everybody has intrusive thoughts, but when you have that intrusive thought,
01:45 zero to ten, ten being the highest level of distress, zero not at all, there may be
01:50 a six or seven, and it lasts for seconds. But when there's a problem, it's
01:55 super high, and it can last for hours, days, even weeks. And you know, we all have
02:01 anxiety. That's part of the human condition. You might even have anxiety
02:05 about coming on to the show talking about anxiety. Sure, absolutely. However, for some people, it
02:10 really does become something that affects their quality of life, because
02:13 it's not situational. I'm anxious because I'm doing something scary. It just starts
02:18 to, people's brains perseverate. Right, that's right, and they lose their
02:23 life because they focus so much on this, than what really matters. And
02:27 what really matters is living life, right? And I don't know what I did, or what I
02:31 could have done, or what will happen. I just want to enjoy today. And all of us
02:36 do. Yeah. So you've been working with patients, and you've got some treatment
02:41 plans that have been very effective for both OCD and anxiety. Yeah, we actually,
02:45 our treatment center, we are in the, have the highest reduction of symptoms in
02:49 the whole nation. We have such a sophisticated programming that it
02:53 actually gives us the results that we want. And we use this process called
02:56 exposure and response prevention, or exposure therapy. And it's about changing
03:00 how the brain reacts to the scary things that are coming in it.
03:04 So let's just say I'm afraid of spiders. I have anxiety surrounding it. Now I
03:09 can't leave my house because there might be a spider. I can't get out of bed. There
03:12 could be a spider in my room. So exposure therapy, from my understanding, is you
03:17 would start with, there's a spider ten yards away. There's a spider ten feet
03:21 away. There's a spider next to you. Now it's in your hand. Sure. And little by
03:25 little, you get used to it. You're exposed to the thing that's making you
03:29 anxious. Yeah, you know, the one who cares the least has the most power, right? So the
03:34 less I care about things, the more power I have over them. And so if I, if I run
03:38 away from the spider, then the next time I see a spider, my brain knows exactly
03:41 what to do and it's gonna run away even more and get to a point where I don't
03:44 even go to places where there are spiders. I need to start to face my fear,
03:49 make my monster my friend. I love that. What kinds of fears are you seeing? I
03:55 mean, I just came up with spider because they're scary. Sure. It could be fear that I
03:59 might hurt my family member. I might do something wrong. I might
04:03 disappoint Heavenly Father. I might do something terrible to a child or to, I
04:10 mean, it just can be all things. People focus on that contamination, but you know
04:14 there's contamination of a city. They can be worried about even what could
04:20 come from that city. It's more of gross instead of contamination. So there's a
04:25 lot of types of anxiety, a lot of types of OCD, but you've been very successful.
04:32 So somebody's watching, they think, "I think my level of anxiety is a little
04:36 higher than usual," or "I'm not able to go about my daily life because I have to do,
04:41 you know, I have to wash my hand," or "I'm having these intrusive thoughts." You want
04:45 people to know that there are some solutions and treatments that have been
04:48 working. Yes, treatment works if you get the right treatment. The IOCDF had a
04:54 study that said that between 14 to 17 years it takes to find a therapist that
04:58 can actually help you. So when you are looking for a therapist, you have to find
05:02 somebody who's truly specialized in OCD and/or anxiety. Thank you so much.
05:07 And that's you. So if this is something you're dealing with, make sure to find
05:11 somebody who specializes. Thank you for being here.
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