Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Overview:

Living with OCD can feel exhausting. Intrusive thoughts, images, urges, or doubts can create intense discomfort and a strong need to do something to feel certain, safe, or relieved. Compulsions are not always visible. They can include checking, reassurance seeking, avoidance, reviewing situations in your mind, or trying to figure out with certainty what your thoughts mean.

Common Experiences:

• Intrusive or unwanted thoughts, images, urges, or doubts
• Repeated checking, reassurance seeking, or mental reviewing
• Feeling a strong need for certainty
• Avoiding situations that trigger intrusive thoughts or discomfort

How Therapy Helps:

Therapy focuses on understanding the cycle between obsessions, distress, and compulsions, and how attempts to find certainty or relief can unintentionally keep that cycle going. Using evidence-based approaches, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), therapy can help you change how you respond to intrusive thoughts and gradually reduce the hold OCD has on your daily life.

Learn more about OCD therapy in Toronto and across Ontario.