What Is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

Find a therapist to treat OCD

ERP, ACT, and I-CBT are all evidence-based ways to change your relationship with OCD.

.There isn’t one “right” treatment, there are different ways of approaching OCD.

You have options in OCD treatment and can advocate for yourself.

Be mindful of not getting into a compulsive loop of picking the "perfect" treatment.

If you’ve started exploring therapy for OCD, you’ve likely come across different approaches. There's exposure and response prevention (ERP), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and inference-based cognitive behavioral therapy (I-CBT), a form of CBT specifically targeting OCD.. For many people, choosing can quickly become overwhelming.

It’s also very easy for those with OCD to latch onto the choice process, turning it into another question to focus on: Which one is best? What if I choose the wrong one? What if I waste time?

Rather than approach a decision as something to get “right,” it can be more helpful to think of the treatments as different entry points into the same goal: changing your relationship with OCD so that it no longer dictates how you live your life.

To make the process feel more approachable, I broke down the top three evidence-based treatments for OCD and how to determine the best fit for you.

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP): Facing Fears

Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is the most widely researched and commonly recommended treatment for OCD, with decades of empirical support. During ERP, you intentionally and systematically approach situations, thoughts, images, or sensations that trigger obsessions, whether through in vivo (real-life) exposures, imaginal scripts, or interoceptive exercises, and you practice response prevention by resistance rituals. such as reassurance-seeking, mental reviewing, checking, or avoidance. Over time, the process retrains your brain to learn that distress can rise and fall on its own and that you can tolerate uncertainty and discomfort without seeking relief through compulsions.

You feel stuck in compulsive behaviors and rituals

You’re constantly........

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