Written By Dr Elaine Ryan.
First published on
Dr Elaine Ryan PsychD is a highly experienced Chartered Psychologist with 20+ years of experience in treating OCD and Anxiety Disorders. Member of the British Psychological Society (BPS), Division of Neuropsychology | EuroPsy Registered| Member of The UK Society For Behavioural Medicine
When people come to me with HOCD, what they often want—understandably—is certainty. They want to know what their thoughts mean. They want clarity about who they are. And they want the fear to stop. I always tell them the same thing: HOCD isn’t about your sexual identity; rather it is to do with what your brain does … Read more
This is one of those topics that doesn’t really get a proper look in until you’ve been in the field a long time. I remember, during my undergraduate degree in psychology, we studied perception in a fairly straightforward way—illusions, visual processing, that sort of thing. Then, later during my professional training, most of the focus … Read more
Why Some Thoughts Stick and Feel So Personal Have you ever noticed that your brain can have thousands of thoughts in a day and most of them just come and go, but then there’s that one—and it gets stuck? Maybe it’s something odd, or upsetting, or just completely out of line with who you are. And … Read more
If you’re experiencing intrusive thoughts about the people you care about most, it can feel deeply upsetting — and frightening. You might wonder, why am I thinking this? or what does it say about me that I can even imagine something like that? You’re not alone. This is something I’ve seen time and again, both in the people … Read more
This article is not going to be a descriptive article telling you about intrusive thoughts or treatment. Rather, it is intended to be a practical tool that you can use right away to help with intrusive thoughts. I am going to do a series of these type of practical pieces and shall start today for … Read more
In my last article I was talking about the obsessions within POCD and today I want to talk about the compulsions, as without compulsions, your POCD loses it’s power, as it is the compulsions that keep it, and indeed all forms of OCD going. You might have come across the phrase before – the OCD … Read more