I would like to nominate OCD as one of the 5 most misunderstood diagnoses in medicine.

Why do I say this? 

I talk with people whose lives have been touched by OCD every day. I see the questions they ask and the beliefs they hold.

I saw what I learned about OCD in medical school.

Five years...

Do you remember the movie Wayne’s World? In one scene, Alice Copper invites Wayne and Garth to hang out with him.  Our protagonists drop to their knees, saying,  “We’re not worthy. We’re scum. We suck.”

That’s shame in action.

However,...

Do you remember the movie Wayne’s World? In one scene, Alice Copper invites Wayne and Garth to hang out with him.  Our protagonists drop to their knees, saying,  “We’re not worthy. We’re scum. We suck.”

That’s shame in action.

However,...

We all have a deep longing to be seen and accepted for who we are. 

If you have a child learning to manage OCD, you know this is a tall order. One of the big worries is, “What would people think about me if they could see my life?“

Your child might wonder: Would you be my...

How well do you understand what day-to-day life is like for your son or daughter learning to manage Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? 

Here are some things that might get in the way of your ability to put your finger on the pulse of your child's life, especially if your child first experiences...

One day I went to visit a friend who had just moved into a new house. She said, “I’ve got to show you something.” She tool me up to her bedroom and opened her husband’s sock drawer. I saw perfectly folded pairs of socks fanned in neat rows organized by color.  She...

 I’m an animal lover. For most of my life I’ve had cats and fish and bunnies. When my son was in preschool, he launched a campaign to persuade me to adopt a dog. 

Even though my son’s official OCD symptoms did not emerge until he was about 17, he popped out the womb...