#nocd

The company expects you to fit into their cookie cutter therapy model as if their clients aren't all individuals with extremely diverse backgrounds. I especially do not recommend NOCD if you have more conditions than solely OCD. They do not know how to handle people who have multiple disorders and mental conditions.

The only positive I will say about NOCD, and this is a major stretch to count here, is that NOCD's website has a lot of information about different OCD subtypes. You may learn you have more OCD subtypes than you realized by reading NOCD's webpages about the disorder. Did the NOCD therapist I had actually treat me well with multiple subtypes? Absolutely not.

Keep in mind that the therapy that NOCD offers is a type of exposure therapy made for OCD. This means that if the therapy is not done correctly, there is severe likelihood of psychological harm to the client, which may worsen the client's OCD symptoms. NOCD therapists do not work with their clients on trauma either. They solely "treat" OCD. If you want more than your OCD to be treated, especially if your other mental disorders intertwine with your OCD, do not go to NOCD for therapy. You will be forced to have a separate therapist for everything else, which means paying for two therapists (and NOCD will demand multiple NOCD appointments a week as well, so you'll be doing way more therapy than what's healthy). For months until I finally cut ties with the company, I was having three therapist appointments a week, which was harmful and expensive.

To make matters worse, NOCD does not allow you to choose your own therapist. The company will assign you a therapist and hammer home that they don't want you to switch to a different person. The therapist I had was so bad that she started forcing me to look into residential treatment as "homework" instead of putting me on the waitlist for a NOCD therapist trained in PTSD, which she had promised to me that she did. She told me to keep meeting with her while I was "on the waitlist," so she was lying to me about the situation while trying to shove an intensive residential treatment option on me that I didn't need and would have harmed me even more.

NOCD ghosted me as soon as I asked about the possibility of being given a refund—such a great example of professionalism. /s And what I've written here isn't even all of the problems I had with the company. Please potect yourself. I sincerely suggest finding a therapist outside of NOCD who is trained in treating OCD specifically. That therapist will also be able to treat your trauma and other mental disorders too. You'll be saving money and not paying a horrible company to worsen your OCD symptoms. You'll also have a therapist who doesn't shove you into their company's mold and expect you to magically fit. Your therapist won't have a manager telling them what to do; your therapist will focus on what you as the client want and need.

to my understanding, non offending big 3 paraphiles experience with their attraction seems similar to intrusive thoughts because they cause distress and such, so i guess im wondering abt where the distinction lies? i also find the psychological aspects of sex and sexuality interesting in their own right so beyond my own concern i’d be interested to learn cuz it’s just really fascinating

thanks dude!! :)

No worries at all anon! This is a HUGE SpIn of mine and I'm always happy to provide any perspective, even if I'm not a professional and all that.

The biggest distinguishing factor between an intrusive thought and a regular thought is if it's voluntary, and if the thought is welcomed or wanted. Intrusive thoughts are out of your control and often incite feelings of revulsion, disgust, discomfort, fear, anxiety, or rejection. They are thoughts that you want OUT of your brain as soon as possible. When you talk about paraphilias, the waters can muddy a little.

Paraphilias do not necessitate that the thoughts are unwanted. This may be true of paraphilic disorders, wherein the patient experiences clinically significant distress over their paraphilia (this doesn't necessarily refer to one of the big three!), but it's not inherent. A lot of paraphilic fantasy rejection can come from internalized shame due to outside social stigma and personal morality... but so can intrusive thoughts. There's no clear cut distinction between the two due to how much influence society has over our thoughts and how we respond to them, HOWEVER, you may want to consider looking into something like POCD.

POCD, while not an officially recognized diagnosis, is a subset of OCD that specifically centers around pedophilia. There exists also ZOCD (zoophilia OCD) and NOCD (necrophilia OCD), however POCD is by far the most well-researched out of these. POCD involves obsessive and/or compulsive behaviors regarding proving or disproving if one is a pedophile, such as through intentionally exposing themselves to distressing imagery on purpose or engaging with intrusive thoughts related to children. More often than not, people with POCD don't end up having any paraphilic attractions at all-- they are worried about the concept of being a pedophile and if they'll enact tangible harm, not grappling with actual attraction.

I've struggled with POCD for some time now, but I'm fairly confident in that I don't have any attraction to IRL children. The extent to which I'll engage with my thoughts is in fiction, and even then, it's more of a curiosity as opposed to something that's a consistent turn-on-- which is in direct contrast to my other paraphilias which are much stronger and carry with them less internalized shame, and more externalized fear over being harassed, abandoned, and/or doxxed. I don't experience fear over IF I'll offend, because I'm confident that I won't under my own circumstances. But this is something that can vary from person to person.

Some potentially helpful further reading:

EXPOSED: Living with OCD through Art (HOW DO I LOVE?) | #OCDArtist #IOCDF #ARTSAVEDMYLIFE | These four paintings began in my Exposure and Response Prevention intensive outpatient program this past July. It took mornings of facing fears I've been ritualizing away my whole life to get to this point, to these paintings. No profession guarantees success, really. Nothing can do that for us, except for us. My dreams, the creative ones, have always been possible. There is no complete dream, though, and I think I'm finally start to live in mine. IRL, tho. My whole life adults have been telling me that when they look at my dreams they just see a hat, meanwhile I moved on, shaking my head because it is just like The Little Prince. We forget. We don't see the snake swallowing the elephant in the room whole, and when we lose that part of ourselves to the lives our adult parents and caregivers who view vulnerability as weakness and creativity as frivolous, we lose who we are meant to become. Our most authentic selves. OCD has me doubting myself every step of the way, so I am finally deciding to fucking side step that shit and live every minute of the life that I am choosing to lead. Not my mom. Not my OCD. Not my trauma. Me. Do your healing and see how you become the person you really, truly did need. It's fucking wild. I couldn't have done it without embracing the artist I was always meant to become. Deepest gratitude to my therapists, psychiatrists (who fucking listened to me), and my husband and favorite human. Also all the love to my cat boys who spend nights sitting up with me while I paint. Recovery from things, OCD or addiction or any other illness that exists, never stops. For me, my 12-step program is ERP. My OCD is lifelong. So I can't stop, and that means I can't stop painting. What a beautiful way to show the ones you love that you love them by waking up every day to face your fears and become the mindful being they, and you, deserve. #artistsoninstagram #artoftheday #exposureresponseprevention #ERP #OCDrecovery #IOCDF #IOCDFARTISTS #OctoberArt #supportdisabledartists👻

Then, when searching for evidence-based OCD treatment, I stumbled upon exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy. Although ERP is extremely effective (about 80% of people with OCD see a significant reduction in symptoms after going through treatment), there was only one therapist in my area who specialized in it. She had a 7 month wait list and charged $250 per session- making the care pretty much inaccessible for me.

I got lucky though since my mom, who was desperate at the time to see me get better, found money from a family friend to pay for my treatment. She also called the clinician and begged her to get me off the waitlist. If it wasn’t for her, I probably wouldn’t be here today.

After doing ERP with the provider for 12 weeks, I ended up getting better- so much to the point where I was able to go back to school, finish up my football career (I was a college quarterback) and eventually complete my degree. Because I managed the OCD fears by accepting the uncertainty behind them (a core principle behind response prevention), the anxiety over time went away, and the thoughts decreased in frequency as well as in severity (since they didn’t really matter to me anymore). After that happened, I ended up returning back to normal pretty much- feeling as good as I did before my severe OCD onset.

That’s when I started pondering the question, “if OCD is so treatable with a good ERP therapist, then why isn’t treatment more accessible to people going through the condition?” It’s a question I’m sure many of you are currently asking or have asked before.

Now to the good news....There is no more need to ask that question. Now inside of NOCD, you can do live, face-to-face therapy sessions with a licensed therapist who specializes in treating OCD using exposure and response prevention (ERP). After signing up, all you need to do is open up your phone or laptop and start the session with the ERP therapist. It’s all video-conferencing.

It’s the solution that I always wanted when I was going through treatment, so I hope you can find value in it if you are suffering- especially those who are stuck on the waitlist or who live hours from care.

Anyways- if you have questions about doing ERP therapy with a NOCD telehealth provider or with another therapist feel free to ask them here. I will definitely give you the pros and cons.

Much love!

I'm going to try self compassion today. Guilt doesn't keep the world spinning.

1) You feel like certain people, places, or memories are “contaminated" with a bad feeling:

After an uncomfortable interaction or intrusive thought, it can feel like the emotion sticks to things around you—almost like it's spreading.

2) You avoid objects or spaces that remind you of a specific emotion:

A couch, a shirt, a room, even a song can suddenly feel "wrong" because it reminds you of guilt, shame, or anxiety.

3) You try to mentally or physically "clean" the feeling away:

This might look like overanalyzing what happened, replaying conversations, seeking reassurance, or doing certain actions until the feeling goes away.

4) You feel a strong urge to distance yourself from people or things tied to the feeling:

Even if nothing objectively bad happened, OCD can convince you that staying near them means the emotion will stick around.

5) The relief never lasts for long:

Even when you avoid, analyze, or "fix" the situation, the feeling tends to come back-keeping the OCD cycle going.”