OCD is not being tidy. It is intrusive thoughts that horrify you and rituals that buy a few minutes of relief before the doubt returns. It is treatable, and it responds best when named accurately.
Book a Telehealth Appointment →Almost everyone gets strange, unwanted thoughts. The difference in OCD is what happens next: the thought sticks, feels enormously significant, and demands to be neutralized. So you check, wash, reread, confess, seek reassurance, or run the mental review one more time. Relief arrives, briefly, and the doubt comes back stronger. That loop is the illness.
A great deal of OCD is invisible. There is no hand-washing and nothing to see, just hours of silent mental reviewing. Many people are most tormented by intrusive thoughts about harm, sex, religion, or their own identity that feel so shameful they have never said them aloud to anyone. Those are among the most common forms of OCD there are.
Treatment usually pairs medication with exposure and response prevention, a specific type of therapy. Ordinary talk therapy and reassurance often make OCD worse, because reassurance is itself a compulsion. Getting the diagnosis right is what points you at the treatment that actually works.
Violent, sexual, or blasphemous thoughts that horrify you are common in OCD, and having them says nothing about who you are.
Mental reviewing, silent counting, and internal checking are compulsions even when there is nothing visible to observe.
Asking the same question again, or searching online for certainty, feeds the loop rather than closing it.
Medication for OCD often needs higher doses and longer trials than for depression, which is frequently the reason a previous attempt failed.
No. In OCD the distress is precisely the point: these thoughts appall you because they run against everything you value. That is the opposite of intent. People with OCD are not more likely to act on such thoughts.
It helps substantially, but the strongest results usually come from medication combined with exposure and response prevention therapy. Referral to an ERP therapist can be part of the plan.
That is worth revisiting. OCD frequently needs a higher dose and a longer trial, often ten to twelve weeks, than depression does. Many people are undertreated rather than untreatable.
Yes. Purely mental compulsions are extremely common and are often missed for years precisely because there is nothing to see.
Usually within one to two weeks. There is no waitlist and no referral requirement.
By secure video, anywhere in Oregon. The initial evaluation is up to 60 minutes and follow-ups are 30 or 45 minutes. You need to be physically located in Oregon during the visit.
Oregon care is self-pay only. $400 for the initial evaluation, $200 for a 30-minute follow-up, $250 for 45 minutes. Nothing is billed to a health plan.
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