Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder affects 2-3% of the population of the United States. Obsessions are intrusive thoughts, images, urges, or sounds that cause anxiety or discomfort. Compulsions are rituals or coping skills that are developed to try and make the anxiety, urges, discomfort, or obsessions go away. While compulsions initially alleviate the discomfort, they stop working and people engage with their compulsions more and more, with minimal relief.
Usually, people think of people with OCD as people who have obsessions with cleanliness or have compulsions to wash their hands a lot, clean all the time, constantly check locks, or arrange things in a certain pattern. Some people may have obsessions that things need to be “perfect” or “just right.” However, there are many other variants of OCD that are not obvious.
For example, there are some people who have obsessions of unwanted sexual thoughts, having harmed someone, or fears of losing control. Some then have compulsions to constantly seek reassurance, or constantly replay scenarios in their head, just to name a few. These obsessions and compulsions may not be obvious to others, but still cause a lot of distress, and are both distracting and exhausting.
While some of these thoughts and behaviors can be normal, some people spend hours of their days engaging with their obsessions and compulsions. OCD can worsen your mood, make you more anxious and irritable, and can also contribute to other disorders such as behavioral addictions (gambling, shopping, pornography, etc) and substance use.
There are many very effective treatments for OCD, ranging from medications to psychotherapy. There is a specific type of psychotherapy called Exposure and Response Prevention (Ex/RP). In certain cases of OCD, Ex/RP can be more effective than medications, and the benefits of Ex/RP will last even after stopping medications. Dr. Guo is trained in both medication management for OCD as well as Ex/RP, and finds helping people heal from OCD to be extremely rewarding.