Urge Surfing: How to Ride Out an Urge
Coined by Dr. G Alan Marlatt, PhD, “urge surfing” is a term meant to help people ride out the desire or urge to do something that they really don’t want
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Mindfulness Isn’t What You Think It Is
One of my pet peeves (and I have many) is when people say, “mindfulness doesn’t work for me.” I always ask, “what did you expect it to do?” They invariably
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5 Tips for Handling Thanksgiving When You Have OCD
Here in the U.S., Thanksgiving is right around the corner. And then comes Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s … it can be a lot of pressure with expectations and togetherness.
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How to Support Someone With OCD
I think it’s probably fair to say that many of us have some level of fear around the holidays and Covid. Is being vaccinated enough? Will we unknowingly expose or
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Understanding Your Amygdala
If you’re at all familiar with the amygdala, you know it affects so much. And if you’re learning how to respond differently to your anxiety or OCD, understanding this part
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5 Ways to Get Out of Emotional Reasoning
We all engage in emotional reasoning, which is using our feelings as proof of something and/or allowing those feelings guide to guide our behavior. Who can’t relate to feeling something
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The Basics of Emotional Reasoning
Have you ever felt so sure that something bad, something horrific was about to happen? Your heart pounds and palms sweat. It must be true, because you feel it. Right?
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How Do I Know If My Fear is “Rational”?
So much of recovery from an anxiety disorder and/or OCD is in distinguishing the “what is” from the “what if.” Your brain tells you something scary. Your threat-alert system is
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Therapy Isn’t Working. What Should I Do?
Sadly, I hear this a lot. It’s a delicate topic for sure. I hear stories of people who’ve been with the same therapist for years. They either still feel stuck
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Let’s Talk About Health Anxiety
In treating health anxiety, we talk about the same process we do for all anxiety disorders. We work on becoming mindful of our experience: acknowledging how we’re feeling physical and emotionally. Rather than try to get it to go away, we become...
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How to Experience Anxiety without Resisting It
By experiencing anxiety, I mean ride out the fear-filled thoughts and feelings, allowing them to be there without trying to make them go away. The spirit of this is really
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