Finding an OCD therapist

According to IOCDF, “it can take up to 14–17 years from the onset of symptoms for a person to get an appropriate diagnosis and effective treatment for OCD” (IOCDF). But why the delay?

Age of onset of OCD symptoms

For many people, OCD starts in childhood, adolescents or in their early 20’s (Stanford). This is a hard age for getting into any type of therapy, as many parents can attest to. School schedules, activity schedules, parents not knowing if this may be a phase (as so many things in childhood are), and limited number of child and adolescent therapists can make this feel impossible.

OCD or “just” anxiety?

Anyone with OCD could tell you that it causes a significant amount of anxiety. So, it’s easy to understand how it could become confused with any other anxiety disorder. To add this this, many people with OCD don’t experience those “stereotypical” symptoms often portrayed in media (e.g, washing hands, checking locks). And, some forms of OCD are tricky to spot for those who are not very familiar with OCD because someone may not show any outward compulsions but are actually experiencing numerous mental compulsions (e.g., reassuring themselves, reviewing if they did/didn’t do something, ruminating, etc). This can lead to an incorrect diagnosis and ineffective treatment method.

Not just any therapist, an OCD therapist

While many therapists are able to see a wide variety of symptoms and diagnoses, this doesn’t always include OCD. OCD requires a very specific treatment that involves significant training that not many therapists offer. This treatment is called ERP (exposure and response prevention). You can learn more about ERP in my blog post here, or through IOCDF here.

While there are a lot of wonderful treatments out there that therapists provide, they just aren’t all effective for OCD and this can make finding effective treatment much more difficult. Thankfully the IOCDF offers a directory to help find a therapist near you. I also offer ERP to those living in Illinois through telehealth services, or in person to those near my office in Oswego.