If you find yourself checking the lock on your front door countless times within a brief span of time or washing your hands constantly throughout the day or you find yourself engaged in repetitive behavior that you just cannot stop, there is help for you! Some of you may find yourself plagued by intrusive thoughts that instill anxiety if not panic. Sometimes it takes a particular behavior or ritual to make the thoughts go away. Few conditions cause as much ongoing frustration and pain as OCD or OCPD.

Many people find that medication together with effective therapy seem to be the best course of treatment for these challenges. Often, mild antidepressants are able to disrupt the never-ending thought patterns in our brains. I have found that these circumstances often find their roots in early childhood interactions and the way someone learned how “to be” in the world. Do they learn to feel interpersonally effective or that every mistake is magnified by others? Do they learn that they are able to communicate well with others or that others do not hear them or understand them or perhaps retaliate against them? In psychoanalytic therapy, it is important not only to discover the possible roots beneath these disorders, but to experience other healthier ways of being in the world. If you find yourself tired of any OCD or OCPD challenges, you do not have to live this way for the rest of you life!