Justin’s Blog: “The Jog”

OCD in context. You may already be very familiar with references to OCD, especially in the larger culture.  “I’m soooooo OCD” is a phrase, often unhelpful to true sufferers, that reflects the current sentiments of many as to what it is.  Neat.  Picky.  High Standards.  Demanding.  This is NOT necessarily OCD in and of itself.  […]

Teddy pumped the sanitizer bottle for the second time in three minutes.  “I know, I know, it doesn’t help when I haven’t touched anything else, but I want to be sure.  You never know these days, right?”  Freda waits to enter gatherings and meetings until everyone else has shown up- “It just helps me know I […]

“You want me to do what?!” Many of my clients, and particularly for the sake of this article, Christian clients, are a bit surprised when I ask them to practice exposure.  Repeating scary, terrible thoughts on paper or aloud.  Doing things that feel risky.  It seems as a clinician I’m disrespecting your beliefs and don’t […]

Imagine intentionally telling yourself- again and again- “Maybe I’ll get sick and die.”  Or, “I’ll have a sudden urge to kill someone.” Or, “Maybe I blasphemed God and will go to hell.”  What if your therapist asked you to repeat these things to yourself?  Does that sound like negative self-talk?  A cause for grave concern?  […]

One of my first questions to a professor in my earliest IOCDF BTTI (Exposure Therapy training) at Massachusetts General Hospital was, “What happens if someone actually gets sick after a contamination exposure?”  I haven’t forgotten the simplicity of the answer that went something like this: “People get sick all the time. Yes, that might create some additional […]

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), the gold standard treatment for OCD, can be fairly straightforward once understood.  However, certain nuances are crucial for facilitating learning, growth, and maximal fear disconfirmation (fancy terms for successfully overcoming fearful responses).  Here are 10 tips- click on the picture for a downloadable version: ​ Be prepared to feel uncomfortable- a […]

The Bible has a lot to say about fear and anxiety.  In fact, some variation of “do not be afraid” is the most common directive in Scripture, occurring in some fashion more than ‘do not steal,’ ‘do not kill,’ and even ‘love your neighbor.’ How Does Anxiety Work? When we study these constructs in research, […]