In Brief:
Using cognitive therapy for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is perhaps the most effective treatment available. When dealing with OCD, or any type of anxiety disorder, cognitive therapy teaches the patient healthy and effective ways of dealing with certain stimuli that invoke anxiety. Jeffrey Schwartz, a psychiatrist and author of Brains on Purpose, states that exposure helps ?people with OCD learn?under the continuing guidance of a professional therapist?to expose themselves to stimuli that intensify their obsessive thoughts and compulsive urges and then learn how to resist responding to those thoughts and urges in a compulsive manner. Schwartz lays down four steps in using cognitive therapy for obsessive compulsive disorder. Schwartz, whom also has OCD, says that ?by understanding this process by which we empower ourselves to fight OCD and by clearly appreciating the control one gains by training the mind to overcome compulsive or automatic responses to intrusive thoughts or feelings, we gain a deepening insight into how to take back our lives.
