Interview with Insider on claustrophobia

Ben was featured in a recent article for Insider, offering information and tips for treating claustrophobia. Claustrophobia is a fear of enclosed spaces, often triggered by an awareness of being unable to easily escape from a situation. Check out the article to learn more!

Appearing on "All the Hard Things" Podcast

Check out the latest episode of “All the Hard Things” with Jenna Overbaugh. I sat down with Jenna to discuss postpartum OCD and anxiety in fathers and partners. While mothers understandably receive the bulk of the focus when it comes to postpartum struggles, fathers and other non-child-bearing partners are not immune. Hormones are one piece of the puzzle, but there’s much more to postpartum OCD and anxiety. Give it a listen when you have a chance!

Logic Won't Help Your Anxiety

Check out my latest article featured on Made of Millions. If you’re unfamiliar with Made of Millions, they’re a really cool organization dedicated to raising awareness and breaking down stigma related to mental health. Really excited to work with them!

New Year, New Updates

Happy New Year! I’ve been meaning to post some updates, but it seems to perpetually end up getting bumped from the to-do list. I have a couple of new Psychology Today articles to share:

“Are Coping Skills Really Helping You?”

“How Much Do OCD Subtypes Matter?”

I swear, I try not to make every article title a question, but the editors at PT seem to prefer to make them a little more “clickbait-y”.

I’ve also started an Instagram account, sharing resources, information, updates, etc. Follow along if you’re interested! I imagine it will probably be updated more frequently than this blog, so perhaps a better place to stay connected.

I have a Psychology Today blog!

Today I posted my first article to my new Psychology Today blog! The blog is called “Capturing OCD” and will feature articles related to OCD and Anxiety. The first article went live today — it’s called “Willpower is Overrated: Why You Can’t “Just Stop” Doing Compulsions”. Please check it out!

Wrapping up OCDCon 2021!

I’ll always miss the community and camaraderie of in-person events, but IOCDF put together a truly tremendous conference this year. So many great talks to choose from - I’ll be sifting through the on-demand content for the next few weeks! Many thanks to IOCDF and to my amazing colleagues for all of their hard work!

IOCDF Online OCD Conference 2021

Don’t miss this year’s IOCDF Online OCD Conference! I’ll be giving a talk - “OCD & Procrastination” as well as facilitating a support group for Parents of Adult Children with OCD.

ERP Basics Training - Fall 2021

There are still have a few spots left for ERP Basics! If you’re a clinician and would like to learn the skills to begin implementing Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) in your practice, check out this training. It’s approved for 6 CEs and includes a one hour individual consultation.

Veritas Collaborative Symposium - OCD & Eating Disorders

Join me this weekend at the Veritas Collaborative Symposium on Eating Disorders! I’ll be giving the keynote talk along with my colleague, Steve Tsao, PhD, addressing the complicated task of “Untangling OCD & Eating Disorders”. For a sneak peak, check out my blog post here.

1 Million Steps 4 OCD Walk 2021

OCD North Carolina is hosting FIVE walks this year! Asheville, Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro, and Wilmington will all be holding events. Come join me at the Durham walk on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25TH!

ERP Basics Training

Feeling energized after wrapping up our most recent training series! And excited to cultivate more therapists trained in using ERP to treat OCD!

Clinical Training Series

Are you a therapist looking to develop a specialty in treating OCD? This training is an opportunity to learn the basics of Exposure and Response Prevention so that you can begin helping your clients with OCD using an empirically-supported treatment model. Included in the training will be four, one-hour live webinars, as well as one hour-long individual follow-up consultation.

For more information, click here.

Or register directly here.

Join us for the Virtual 1 Million Steps 4 OCD Walk!

Registration is now open for the annual 1 Million Steps 4 OCD Walk! As you might guess, the walk will be virtual this year, but it’s still a great opportunity to raise both money and awareness for OCD. This is one of the biggest fundraisers for OCD North Carolina and it’s how we are able to fund things like community events and scholarships. Please join us by registering to walk today!

The Online OCD Conference starts today!

As always, IOCDF has a great weekend in store for us! It may not be the same as connecting in person in Seattle, but there are still some really interesting events planned. Don’t miss my talk tomorrow for parents of adult children with OCD!

Registration is open! Scholarships available!

Registration is now open for the 2020 Online OCD Conference! Also, NW Anxiety Institute is offering some really generous scholarship opportunities, for those who may be considering the conference but are unable to afford it. Check it out!

Online OCD Conference schedule is here!

While I’m still mourning the loss of the 2020 IOCDF conference (and a trip to Seattle!), I am excited for the upcoming Online OCD Conference. The schedule is here and , as always, it features some great talks. I’ll be presenting a talk for families - “All Grown Up: Adjusting to Better Help Your Adult Child with OCD” on Saturday, 8/1 at 2pm. I’ll also be running a Community Discussion Group (formerly known as a support group) for parents of adult children with OCD on Friday, 7/31 at 12:30pm.

How do you adapt ERP for a pandemic?

Many people wonder about where to draw the line with exposures. This conundrum has become particularly muddy in our current situation, as we are faced with new and uncertain risks. Some of my former colleagues at McLean Hospital’s OCD Institute recently wrote an article, detailing many of the considerations affecting how we deliver ERP during a pandemic. The article is featured in the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies’ newsletter, the Behavior Therapist and is called “Adapting Exposure and Response Prevention in the Age of COVID-19”.

In short, the article suggests that we can adjust by: doubling down on response prevention (given the limits on actual exposure), focusing on function over form (am I washing my hands to follow the recommended guidelines or to reduce distress?), and by leaning into inhibitory learning rather than habituation-focused exposures (changing our relationship to anxiety and uncertainty rather than trying to eliminate it).

Figure it out yourself!

“From Camping to Dining Out: Here’s How Experts Rate the Risks of 14 Summer Activities”

I love this article from NPR. Like me, it completely dodges the question of what you should or should not do in the current pandemic. Instead, it encourages you to gather reliable information about risk, then make your own choice about which risks you would like to take. There are no easy answers, no formulas to apply - just a rough approximation of risk and a choice to act with uncertainty.

IOCDF conference will be virtual this year!

IOCDF recently announced that the annual conference is canceled and will be replaced with a virtual event. I’m feeling many conflicting things about this announcement. I’m sad to be without the community of the conference for another year, as I love being able to facilitate my annual support group and will miss connecting with my colleagues. I’m also excited, as this will provide a unique opportunity to bring the conference to a wider audience. As a member of the conference planning committee this year, I have been able to get an early glimpse at some of the virtual programming in store for us and it does look exciting!

Embracing the Many Contradictions of a Pandemic

I keep getting asked about how people with OCD and anxiety are handling all of this. And I get it. Many people are feeling heightened stress and anxiety right now and so it seems natural that folks who were already dealing with these things might be struggling. And of course, for some people, that assumption is accurate. But I think it also oversimplifies this situation. We all want to understand what’s going. We see the enormity of the pandemic and want to be able to wrap our heads around it. But humans are complex and the situation has pervaded so many aspects of our lives that it seems impossible to boil this down to something so simple. Instead, I think we need to embrace the ambiguity of it all. There are many conflicting thoughts and feelings that we are all cycling through. We don’t have to pick one. We can allow ourselves to experience these thoughts without having to filter it into a binary choice. I’ve highlighted just a few of these contradicting thoughts below:

It’s okay if we move back and forth between these contradictions. It’s okay if, in any given day or hour, we vacillate between these thoughts. Give yourself some space to allow these thoughts in without having to attribute meaning or significance to the thought’s presence. The thought does not need to be emblematic of you or a summation of your pandemic experience; it can simply be a snapshot of one particular moment in time. Maybe someday we’ll sort this all out and and reach a better understanding, but for now, we have no choice but to accept the uncertainty and navigate our way through this experience.