Intrusive Thoughts Unmasked

Episode 29: Real World Stigma! Unexpectedly Hiding Behind the Mask

I had two situations recently that put me in the position to feel like I needed to wear the mask around my lived experience with OCD - ME? - ME!!! - How is that possible? Talking about my lived experience is everything about my world!

But my world, and living with OCD and the bubble I find myself in that doesn't create stigma and shame, does not exist in every situation and in everyone's world. And I had to face this head on. It was tough, and I had forgotten what it was like to retreat behind a mask out of shame and stigma. Nonetheless - always good opportunities to grow, learn, and find ways to be courageous and get even more comfortable when put in situations of discomfort! 

I hope this episode resonates with you if you find yourself in situations where you retreat behind a mask. It doesn't mean what we've been through is shameful, it just exposes how vulnerable it is and can be when we are in a position to choose whether we share the experiences we've had with OCD. 

If you are in need of a community of people who can help you feel more accepted, less alone, and more connected to people who understand, please check out my online community for weekly support, monthly classes and events at

https://the-ocd-support-community.co.mn

If this podcast inspires, supports, and gives you hope and you'd like to support us monthly or sponsor us, please visit our patreon page and become a member. Your contribution will help us continue the podcast and help us provide even more resources for our community! https://www.patreon.com/intrusivethoughtsunmasked

Episode 28: ROCD & Attachment Styles

Sheva Rajaee, therapist and author of Relationship OCD joins me today for an in depth discussion on Relationship OCD, attachment styles and how they can intermingle! Attachment theory is so important to understand in order to see how we show up and function in relationships. This episode gives great psychoeducation on what attachment means, how it may impact us with OCD, and are we ever able to change our attachment style?

This is a thoughtful and informative discussion, and I hope you enjoy it!

If you are in need of a community of people who can help you feel more accepted, less alone, and more connected to people who understand, please check out my online community for weekly support, monthly classes and events at

https://the-ocd-support-community.co.mn

If this podcast inspires, supports, and gives you hope and you'd like to support us monthly or sponsor us, please visit our patreon page and become a member. Your contribution will help us continue the podcast and help us provide even more resources for our community! https://www.patreon.com/intrusivethoughtsunmasked

Episode 27

OCD not only impacts the individual living with symptoms, but loved ones feel the pain, the suffering, and often the helplessness of not being able to stop it or relieve it! There can be guilt. There can be stress and fear. There can be frustration. And there can be hope, strength, and love. 

We often overlook the experience of the parent of someone with OCD or the loved one. And they often overlook their own mental health and coping skills. It can sometimes be put on the back burner. 

Today - three stories of parents and their lived experience of what it was like to discover symptoms, navigate the often scary task of finding help, and how they take care of themselves while showing up for their kids. 

If you are a parent and looking for support, resources, and other parents/family who just get it - check out Natasha Daniels resources at and @childocdtherapist on Youtube and Instagram!

If you are in need of a community of people who can help you feel more accepted, less alone, and more connected to people who understand, please check out my online community for weekly support, monthly classes and events at

https://the-ocd-support-community.co.mn

If this podcast inspires, supports, and gives you hope and you'd like to support us monthly or sponsor us, please visit our patreon page and become a member. Your contribution will help us continue the podcast and help us provide even more resources for our community! https://www.patreon.com/intrusivethoughtsunmasked

Episode 26: The Mask I Wore This Summer

This is a storytelling episode talking about a personal experience I've had this summer and in reflection seeing the many masks I had to wear. What I wanted to focus on was the 'why'. Many of us wonder why it is we feel like we *have* to wear a mask at times -with ourselves and with others. Sometimes it feels like it doesn't make sense, and others just don't understand. So today, I wanted to share through my own experience some of the reasons many of us pick it up and put it on, and then even how hard it is taking it off. 

I hope this episode resonates with you, and that if you have or are experiencing this, you can feel like there's a 'why' attached that sometimes gets lost in the shame we feel. 

If you are in need of a community of people who can help you feel more accepted, less alone, and more connected to people who understand, please check out my online community for weekly support, monthly classes and events at

https://the-ocd-support-community.co.mn

If this podcast inspires, supports, and gives you hope and you'd like to support us monthly or sponsor us, please visit our patreon page and become a member. Your contribution will help us continue the podcast and help us provide even more resources for our community! https://www.patreon.com/intrusivethoughtsunmasked

Episode 25: Dr. Steven Phillipson - Emotions that can be a barrier to treatment and recovery for OCD

In this episode, I talk to OCD specialist and renowned therapist about the emotions of resentment, despair and hopelessness and how they can impact treatment, and even after treatment, what it means to live with a brain like ours with OCD! Dr. Phillipson talks extensively about why we may feel these emotions and also what can help when they show up to remind us that this is a disorder that happened to us and not something that warrants these emotions that cause barriers. 

Always a pleasure to have Dr. Phillipson on our podcast! It was a great discussion that felt validating and also person-centered when it comes to living with OCD and the natural emotional experience we have with the disorder and the themes.

For more information about Dr. Phillipson's practice, go to: www.ocdonline.com

If you are in need of a community of people who can help you feel more accepted, less alone, and more connected to people who understand, please check out my online community for weekly support, monthly classes and events at

https://the-ocd-support-community.co.mn

If this podcast inspires, supports, and gives you hope and you'd like to support us monthly or sponsor us, please visit our patreon page and become a member. Your contribution will help us continue the podcast and help us provide even more resources for our community! https://www.patreon.com/intrusivethoughtsunmasked

Episode 24: In My Own Words: Grief & Other Emotions

In this episode, 3 lived experienced individuals with OCD share what it is like to live with the grief and other emotions that accompany a life with OCD. Emotions are not often talked about...but SHOULD BE! Because it's often the emotions that keep us silent...that enforce the mask. When in reality, if we only knew just how many people live with what we live with, feel what we feel...we would know that so many other people can relate and help us feel normalized and VALIDATED in those emotions. 

I hope you will feel like what you have experienced is seen and heard through the narratives of these amazing guests! You truly are not alone!

If you are in need of a community of people who can help you feel more accepted, less alone, and more connected to people who understand, please check out my online community for weekly support, monthly classes and events at https://the-ocd-support-community.co.mn

If this podcast inspires, supports, and gives you hope and you'd like to support us monthly or sponsor us, please visit our patreon page and become a member. Your contribution will help us continue the podcast and help us provide even more resources for our community! https://www.patreon.com/intrusivethoughtsunmasked

Episode 23: The Clancy Trial 

This has been a wild and tragic week of misinformation spewed and continued to be spewed on social media by influencers unethically 'diagnosing' Lindsay Clancy with mental health disorders. 

Please know that behaviors by therapists who 'diagnose' people who they don't know, have not assessed, are not associated with the person or circumstances is a violation of ethics and it is irresponsible, reckless, and inappropriate. Therapists who do this are unethical and should not be trusted. 

This week has been triggering for many in our community because of the circumstances of the trial, and when you have therapists carelessly adding to the fears to fulfill a personal agenda, it can have dire consequences. I'm doing this podcast to share my experience in advocating against this kind of behavior, and also to share how this has taken a toll on myself, and does with many advocates. 

I am right there with you if you are struggling and feeling fears around this situation. You are not alone. And I hope this episode clears up any misguidance you may have seen by irresponsible influencers. 

If you are in need of a community of people who can help you feel more accepted, less alone, and more connected to people who understand, please check out my online community for weekly support, monthly classes and events at https://the-ocd-support-community.co.mn

If this podcast inspires, supports, and gives you hope and you'd like to support us monthly or sponsor us, please visit our patreon page and become a member. Your contribution will help us continue the podcast and help us provide even more resources for our community! https://www.patreon.com/intrusivethoughtsunmasked

Episode 22: Dr. Michael Greenberg: Psycho-Dynamic and OH MY Oedipal Complex!

I have been waiting for a while to dive into this episode and post it for you! I adore Dr. Greenberg and how he thinks when it comes to the whole experience of OCD and the continued healing we can do in learning not just about the disorder but all of the other nuances about our childhood that can contribute to what we are experiencing emotionally today! And this episode reflects that!

We had no agenda, and here we are going deep into where psycho-dynamic therapy can play a role in explanations of emotions now as adults and how concepts such as Oedipal complexes may offer an explanation to our themes. 

Before you go running for the hills! Give it a listen. As a psychology student both in my past Masters degree and my current, I was ALWAYS scared of finding out some deep, dark meaning to why OCD manifests the way it does...when in reality psycho-dynamic offers way more complex interpretations that have nothing to do with content, themes, or my feared outcomes. Michael does an amazing job at breaking it down for us in a person centered, trauma informed way.

Please know Michael will be joining us again, so send me your comments/questions and we can talk more about the things you are curious about!

[email protected]

If you are in need of a community of people who can help you feel more accepted, less alone, and more connected to people who understand, please check out my online community for weekly support, monthly classes and events at https://the-ocd-support-community.co.mn

If this podcast inspires, supports, and gives you hope and you'd like to support us monthly or sponsor us, please visit our patreon page and become a member. Your contribution will help us continue the podcast and help us provide even more resources for our community! https://www.patreon.com/intrusivethoughtsunmasked

Episode 21: John, Stephanie, & Ryan: How to be a supportive sibling to someone with OCD

SO MANY THANKS to these wonderful individuals for coming on to share their personal experiences of what it's like to live as siblings of someone who has OCD. This episode revealed so many of the issues many of us face - as people who LIVE with OCD - and those that are desperate to support us and help us get better - and how communication or fears or shame can get in the way of being able to meet each other. I loved how each person had a different viewpoint and especially how they approached this, all while everyone wanting one thing - to help make things better and easier. 

Loved ones as supporters may seem SO EASY, right? Just understand OCD and do what needs to be done! That's just not the case with this disorder. So many of us wear a mask, we hide the experience, we shield our loved ones, and we cover up the degree of suffering we have to avoid feeling like a burden or weak or unworthy. How do we communicate this? How do we convey just how hard and consuming this is, all while making sure we are still loved, accepted, and not looked at differently? These are a few of the things we touched on today. 

I really hope to have more of these interactive discussions on this podcast. The raw and vulnerable talk about what it's really like from ALL angles. 

Many, many thanks to Stephanie, Ryan, and John for sharing your stories and for making me an 'honorary' member of your family! Being with you during this recording helped me feel loved and accepted, so I know that you all are doing your parts as a cohesive and supportive family not only to make John feel supported, but anyone that you encounter who may struggle with mental health issues to help them feel validated, normalized, and accepted - exactly as they are. 

If you are in need of a community of people who can help you feel more accepted, less alone, and more connected to people who understand, please check out my online community for weekly support, monthly classes and events at https://the-ocd-support-community.co.mn

If this podcast inspires, supports, and gives you hope and you'd like to support us monthly or sponsor us, please visit our patreon page and become a member. Your contribution will help us continue the podcast and help us provide even more resources for our community! https://www.patreon.com/intrusivethoughtsunmasked

Episode 20:
This is a storytelling episode. I've been hearing from clients and many people that summers are super triggering because of the pressure to travel or the feelings of sadness/envy of people who are traveling and portraying that life is impeccable because of their trips!

Travel is hard, y'all. There are a lot of expectations and it's a complete disruption of your routine, so while many people are excited for that, we - with OCD - may feel scared or dysregulated because we are USED to our routine and the control around it. 

I wanted to share what it's been like for me the last 6-8 years learning and just having to deal with and manage the moments in different countries as I travel to do work to bring OCD awareness internationally. It's been something that has been a values based experience, but one that I've had to struggle to learn to be okay with and enjoy. 

I hope this episode helps if this is something you deal with!!

If you are in need of a community of people who can help you feel more accepted, less alone, and more connected to people who understand, please check out my online community for weekly support, monthly classes and events at https://the-ocd-support-community.co.mn

If this podcast inspires, supports, and gives you hope and you'd like to support us monthly or sponsor us, please visit our patreon page and become a member. Your contribution will help us continue the podcast and help us provide even more resources for our community! https://www.patreon.com/intrusivethoughtsunmasked