How is obsessive compulsive disorder treated?
There are two treatments for OCD that have proven to be effective: Behavior therapy and medications. The backbone of behavior therapy for OCD is Exposure and Response or Ritual Prevention (or ERP). The sufferer is exposed to what they are afraid of (which triggers the obsession and creates anxiety) and then does not perform the usual compulsion/ritual to reduce the anxiety. For example, to follow up on the example used above of the hand washer, the person would touch a door knob and then not wash their hands. Recall that the obsession is that their hands are now covered in germs and they or a loved one are surely going to die. It is easy to see how this belief could cause anxiety! In the past the sufferer has used washing their hands to relieve the anxiety, but now they have entered treatment and are not going to wash their hands. What they discover is that if they can wait long enough, the anxiety does eventually go away and no one gets sick and dies. The principle that ERP is based o
