Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: OCD Treatment in Los Angeles
OCD Treatment
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common, chronic, and long-lasting mental health disorder in which a person experiences uncontrollable, recurring thoughts (obsessions) and/or behaviors (compulsions) that they feel the urge to repeat over and over. These compulsions can significantly impact daily life and a person’s overall well-being. However, despite the prevalence of OCD and its effects, treatment of OCD is always possible.
In terms of how many people it afflicts, lifetime prevalence among adults in the United States is 2.3%, making finding an effective treatment center or learning to identify OCD symptoms paramount.
OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
An Introduction to OCD & Treatment in Los Angeles at Thrive Treatment.
Sometimes seen as a quirky personality trait, OCD is anything but quirky for those living with it, bringing intrusive thoughts, compulsive behaviors, obsessive thoughts, and other challenges that affect a person’s behaviors, quality of life, and mental wellness.
The obsessions that define it can take over the mind, creating a cloud of noise that increases in size and volume. Feelings of anxiety and stress that ensue are only relieved when you do whatever it is your OCD dictates.
It’s like you’re being held captive, your mind making you a hostage until you give in to its demands. Without learning strategies at a professional treatment program like the evidence-based treatment for OCD in Los Angeles and actively working against it, OCD can become so intense and time-consuming that it begins wreaking havoc on the rest of your life, interfering with all aspects, from work to school to personal relationships. You feel like you’re genuinely not in control until you hit that release valve.
OCD isn’t just a little bit of an excessive attention to detail or task repetition. It’s not a choice someone is actively making to constantly think about the same thing. So, what exactly is it then?
OCD is a chronic mental health condition that affects every facet of daily life, causing significant disruptions, stress, anxiety, and much more. It is an anxiety disorder that brings an intense amount of anxiety paired with these compulsions. Finding an effective treatment plan or creating a personalized treatment approach at Thrive Treatment’s OCD treatment in Southern California is often necessary to understand and overcome the challenges of OCD and engage in effective, transformative behavioral health programs.
INSURANCE
We Work With Most Major Insurance
At Thrive Treatment, we accept most private insurance plans, and we are in network with Cigna, Optum, First Health, and Anthem Blue Cross. Additional payment options are available, so don’t hesitate to call our OCD treatment in Los Angeles to explore the treatment options for overcoming OCD with our intensive outpatient program (IOP) and support from trained clinicians.
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CONDITIONS
Conditions We Treat
SYMPTOMS
Understanding OCD
The disorder is broken down into symptoms that express themselves as obsessions and those that manifest as compulsions.
These are the thoughts that are persistently repeated ad nauseam, the urges or mental images that dramatically increase levels of anxiety and stress.
In the context of OCD, obsessions aren’t the same as when someone says they’re “obsessed” with a song or something along those lines. Obsessions that cross the line into OCD are stress-inducing and cause real fear and discomfort.
As per a report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), obsessions commonly fall into the following categories:
- Aggressive Impulses – Thoughts of violence and a fear of harming themselves or others
- Contamination – Obsessed with the thought of being contaminated with germs, chemicals, disease, etc.
- Need for Order – Anxiety and distress from things being out of order or asymmetrical
- Religious – Worries of blaspheming or concerns of judgment and unwittingly committing a sin
- Repeated doubts – Unending thoughts about whether a door was left unlocked or the stove was left on
- Sexual Imagery – Perverse sexual thoughts and impulses
When people picture someone with OCD this is typically what they’re seeing. Compulsions are the repetitive behaviors that a person feels the urge and obligation to do in response to an obsessive thought. Actually going through with an action or repetitive behavior serves to soothe the nerves and quiet the anxiety for a short period of time.
These also are expressed in a handful of common ways:
- Checking – Constantly checking appliances, locks, doors, etc. to ensure safety for example
- Cleaning – Related to obsession about contamination, this includes repeated hand washing, sanitizing, elaborate bathroom routines
- Hoarding – Saving things unnecessarily
- Mental Acts and Rituals – Praying obsessively, counting to a specific number, repeating words, etc.
- Ordering – This refers back to the obsession for the need for order and acting on it by, for example, making things symmetrical
- Reassurance-seeking – Checking in with someone repeatedly
- Repetitive Actions – A compulsive act that a person feels the need to repeat over and over and over again like re-reading something, re-entering a room or carrying out a particular action
When people picture someone with OCD, compulsions are typically what they’re seeing. Compulsions are the repetitive behaviors that a person feels the urge and obligation to do in response to an obsessive thought. Going through with an action or repetitive behavior serves to soothe the nerves and quiet feelings of anxiety for a short period.
These are also expressed in a handful of common ways:
- Checking – Constantly checking appliances, locks, doors, etc., to ensure safety
- Cleaning – Related to obsession about contamination, this includes repeated hand washing, sanitizing, and elaborate bathroom routines
- Hoarding – Saving things unnecessarily
- Mental Acts and Rituals – Praying obsessively, counting to a specific number, repeating words, etc.
- Ordering – This refers back to the obsession with the need for order and acting on it by, for example, making things symmetrical
- Reassurance-seeking – Checking in with someone repeatedly
- Repetitive Actions – A compulsive act that a person feels the need to repeat over and over and over again, like re-reading something, re-entering a room, or carrying out a particular action
If that seems like a lot, it’s because it is. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a lot.
The fact is that people are consumed by OCD, and the feeling of being taken hostage serves to isolate a person emotionally and physically. They withdraw from social settings and situations. Relationships are not only difficult to maintain, but also difficult to start. None of that happens in a vacuum, and the consequences of living with unaddressed OCD can have real ramifications on a person’s mental health and personal life.
Noticing these symptoms in yourself or a loved one can be a reason to contact our OCD treatment in Los Angeles to discuss our intensive treatment program and anxiety program, familiarize oneself with potential related disorders like social anxiety, and explore various mindfulness or other personalized treatment options to begin effective healing.
The anxiety and stress that OCD creates, coupled with possible feelings of shame, can also transform into further feelings of depression, making finding OCD treatment in Southern California crucial.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) adds that “people with OCD may try to help themselves by avoiding situations that trigger their obsessions, or they may use alcohol or drugs to calm themselves”.
Coping mechanisms like substances become a false relief, allowing a person to temporarily escape their OCD by way of drugs and alcohol. However, self-medicating is never a good solution and introduces an array of additional challenges, such as the development of co-occurring disorders. Though the range is broad, “estimates of the lifetime prevalence of a co-occurring substance abuse disorder (SUD) in individuals with OCD vary widely, from less than 10 percent to almost 40 percent”.
A study from the Journal of Anxiety Disorders related to the instances of substance abuse disorder in those with OCD showed that “70% of participants with comorbid SUDs reported that OCD preceded SUD onset by at least one year.”
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THRIVE
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Thrive Treatment offers OCD treatment at our Santa Monica and Culver City locations in Los Angeles, California. Discover your personal path to recovery today.
TREATMENT
When to Get Help for OCD
There’s a line that is crossed when your obsessions and compulsions go from being manageable to overtaking your life. When a little worry about germs or order turns into something that takes up all your time, it is at that point that you or a loved one would benefit from outside help from a professional OCD treatment program.
If you find yourself retreating from life because your compulsions take precedence, it’s time to get assistance. And when that isolation leads to substance abuse, it’s imperative that you stop going it alone, with our in-person treatment team and support groups for OCD in Los Angeles being a part of your potential healing and outpatient treatment.
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What to Expect in OCD Treatment in Los Angeles
Successful treatment for OCD is predicated on personalized care under the guidance of mental health experts who truly understand obsessive-compulsive disorder. If OCD is something that led you or a loved one to drug or alcohol abuse, it’s even more important that you’re at a facility that is designed to deliver effective dual diagnosis treatment.
What you can expect from OCD treatment in Los Angeles at Thrive Treatment is an evidence-based approach that’s created to suit your needs. Talk therapy in the form of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) plays a big part in teaching you how to deal with the obsessions and compulsions that have plagued you. We also combine proven OCD and anxiety treatment with other strategies like exposure and response prevention (ERP), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and more.
Thrive Treatment also uses an array of holistic treatment options throughout your OCD treatment in Los Angeles to help you find the unique collection of strategies that work for you. In both individual and group therapy sessions, we work through the underlying issues and triggers of OCD and simultaneously tackle the substance abuse it may have caused.
All of that in the comfort of a warm environment and a caring staff.
CONTACT
Thrive's OCD Treatment Program in Los Angeles Can Help You
At our OCD clinic in Los Angeles, our psychiatrist is board-certified in both General and Addiction Psychiatry. Our medical director is board-certified in Addiction Medicine, meaning there is arguably no better place to conquer and defeat your co-occurring OCD and substance abuse en route to a more gratifying and peaceful life.
If obsession and compulsion have taken control of your mind or you see your loved one trapped in that cage, reach out to us at Thrive Treatment and let us help you figure out the next steps.
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