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While both Harm OCD and desire to harm someone involve thoughts relating to harm, distinct features can help differentiate between the two.

Check out our ADAA members' new books that offer help for the public and support for professionals.

How do I know if I have self-harm OCD or if I actually want to kill myself? This is a significant differentiation to make because it can have treatment-impacting and even life-threatening consequences.

Whether we hear the term from a client, another provider, or our own classification of someone’s symptoms, “compulsions” tend carry with them some level of assumption – that this might just be OCD.

Harm inducing types of thoughts, images and urges are typically referred to as Harm OCD and they can cause significant distress and anxiety in sufferers.

In collaboration with The Reach Institute, Dr. Wallace explains how parents can decrease the impact of anxiety on children and teens to help them function their best and find more joy in their lives.

For Jill, it was useful to know that the house wouldn’t burn down if she stopped checking; but it was more important to learn that she would still be a worthwhile human being even if it did.   

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the term social anxiety has been thrown around as a catchall for the discomfort many felt as restrictions lifted and we began to resume our lives. However, it too can oversimplify the greater intensity of anxiety, and associated impact, experienced by those with Social Anxiety Disorder.

As COVID restrictions get a little less and less frigid with the ongoing vaccination campaigns, a lot of us are very excited to resume some of our normal work and social life. At the same time, we may experience a burst of anxiety as we start to get out of quarantine-- after all, it’s been a really long time, right?!  To help ease up that anxious feeling, Dr. Carmichael has packaged some of her favorite pointers into an easy-to-remember acronym of S.U.N. to help you cope!

Many mental health professionals are now conducting patient visits virtually. I am one of the only psychologists left in my building who has stayed behind to continue in-person work while abiding by COVID protocols. Since our practice specializes in refractory OCD spectrum disorders and anxiety disorders a lot of the work done at our outpatient clinic requires in-vivo exposures, which cannot be replicated on Zoom.

As a result of this collective pandemic experience, more of us have experienced loss, both expected and unexpected. How do we manage these feelings of grief and trauma when we are faced with seemingly endless rounds of uncertainty, doubt, and fear?