

The OCD Stories
Stuart Ralph
Welcome to The OCD Stories, hosted by Stuart Ralph. The podcast has been heard over 7million times globally. Check out your first episode from our existing hundreds of episodes featuring experts, and people experiencing symptoms just like you today. If you do, you may just feel understood, heard and possibly help you identify your next step in your own personal journey to healing.
Disclaimer - this podcast is not a replacement for therapy. Please seek treatment from a licensed mental health professional.
Disclaimer - this podcast is not a replacement for therapy. Please seek treatment from a licensed mental health professional.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Dec 24, 2022 • 49min
Dr Patricia Zurita Ona: ACT for BPD and OCD - super-feelers, and emotional regulation (#361)
In episode 361 I chat with Dr Patricia Zurita Ona. Patricia is director of the East Bay Behavior Therapy Center and adjunct professor at the Wright Institute. She is the author of several books including 'Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder'. We discuss what is borderline personality disorder (BPD) and super-feelers, what it's like being a super-feeler, what is acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), the 6 micro-skills Patricia teaches, emotional noise vs emotional awareness, OCD and super-feelers, she details some of the micro-skills, attachment, compassion, being a super-feeler while doing exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), and much more. Hope it helps. Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/patricia-361 The podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, convenient therapy available in the US and outside the US. To find out more about NOCD, their therapy plans and if they currently take your insurance head over to https://go.treatmyocd.com/theocdstories

Dec 18, 2022 • 43min
Story: Penny (#360)
In episode 360 I interviewed Penny who has kindly agreed to share her OCD story with us. In this episode we discuss her story, sexual orientation themed OCD, relationship themed OCD, figuring out it's OCD, getting married, Exposure and Response Prevention therapy (ERP), working on issues in the relationship without OCD blowing them out of proportion, yoga, a reading of something she wrote, and much more. Hope it helps. Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/penny-360 The podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, convenient therapy available in the US and outside the US. To find out more about NOCD, their therapy plans and if they currently take your insurance head over to https://go.treatmyocd.com/theocdstories

8 snips
Dec 11, 2022 • 1h 1min
Dr Steven Phillipson: The top 6 emotions of OCD (#359)
In episode 359 I chat with Dr Steven Phillipson. Steven is a licensed clinical psychologist who specialises in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for OCD. Steven is the Clinical Director at the Center for Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy in New York. We discuss what's new with Steve, the top 6 emotions often involved in OCD: anxiety, guilt, shame, depression, anger, and disgust. He discusses depersonalisation/derealisation (DPDR) and shares his experience of it, plus other emotions such as not having feelings, resentment, and desperation. Showing irrelevance to the brain voice, having an urge and impulse, and much more. Hope it helps. Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/steve-359 The podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, convenient therapy available in the US and outside the US. To find out more about NOCD, their therapy plans and if they currently take your insurance head over to https://go.treatmyocd.com/theocdstories

Dec 4, 2022 • 38min
Story: Jess (#358)
In episode 358 I interviewed Jess who has kindly agreed to share her OCD story with us. In this episode we discuss her story, her themes of OCD, her earliest memory of OCD, religious obsessions, health obsessions, some of the difficult experiences that exacerbated her OCD, relationship obsessions, the different therapies she did, figuring out her identity, medication, using NOCD therapy, creating notecards as reminders for therapy, how Jess deals with rumination, and much more. Hope that helps. Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/jess-358 The podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, convenient therapy available in the US and outside the US. To find out more about NOCD, their therapy plans and if they currently take your insurance head over to https://go.treatmyocd.com/theocdstories

Nov 27, 2022 • 53min
Story: Brooke Miller (#357)
In episode 357 I interviewed Brooke who has kindly agreed to share her OCD story with us. In this episode we discuss her story and journey through therapy, medication, exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), panic, control and OCD, relationship themed OCD, over exercising as a punishment, developing intrusive thoughts around her therapist, having a psychotic episode, self harming, getting a bipolar 2 diagnosis, her son having OCD, and much more. Hope that helps. Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/brooke-357 The podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, convenient therapy available in the US and outside the US. To find out more about NOCD, their therapy plans and if they currently take your insurance head over to https://go.treatmyocd.com/theocdstories

Nov 20, 2022 • 1h 1min
Dr Amy Mariaskin - OCD and Sexual Intimacy (#356)
In episode 356 I interviewed Dr Amy Mariaskin. Amy is a licensed clinical psychologist and director at The Nashville OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center. In this episode we discuss her new book, ways OCD can affect intimacy, when taboo intrusive thoughts interrupt sex, issues with orgasms, sexual kinks and fantasies and how these may trigger OCD, obsessively worrying about getting pregnant, over analysing the quantity of sex in a relationship, groinal and other bodily stuff, when sex is a compulsion, contamination worries and sex, medication, relating to sexuality again after years of OCD affecting it, and much more. Hope it helps. Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/amy-356 The podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, convenient therapy available in the US and outside the US. To find out more about NOCD, their therapy plans and if they currently take your insurance head over to https://go.treatmyocd.com/theocdstories

Nov 13, 2022 • 45min
Joshua Fletcher (Anxiety Josh) - What is Anxiety? (#355)
In episode 355 I interviewed Psychotherapist Joshua Fletcher (Anxiety Josh). We discuss his therapy story and mental health journey including OCD, what is anxiety, adrenaline and cortisol, panic attacks, wilful tolerance, meerkat mode, OCD taboo intrusive thoughts, and much more. Hope it helps. Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/anxiety-josh-355 The podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, convenient therapy available in the US and outside the US. To find out more about NOCD, their therapy plans and if they currently take your insurance head over to https://go.treatmyocd.com/theocdstories

Nov 6, 2022 • 40min
Story: Chris (#354)
In episode 354 I interviewed Chris who has kindly agreed to share his OCD story with us. We discuss his OCD Story, depression, how seeing a therapist that didn't understand OCD triggered his OCD, panic attacks, not being able to get a question out of his mind, seeing an old therapist again who noticed it was OCD, sexual orientation OCD, exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), rumination, the inner critic, what helped him, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), compassion, and much more. Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/chris-354/ The podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, convenient therapy available in the US and outside the US. To find out more about NOCD, their therapy plans and if they currently take your insurance head over to https://go.treatmyocd.com/theocdstories

Oct 30, 2022 • 45min
Jon Hershfield: OCD and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) (#353)
In episode 353 I interviewed Jon Hershfield. Jon is a psychotherapist and the director of The Center for OCD and Anxiety, at Sheppard Pratt. He is the author of six OCD books. We discuss what's new with Jon, his new book, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), OCD and BPD, common overlaps in traits, causes of BPD, how BPD may complicate therapy for OCD and how to navigate this, Dialectical behaviour Therapy (DBT), words of hope and much more. Hope it helps. Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/jon-353 The podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, convenient therapy available in the US and outside the US. To find out more about NOCD, their therapy plans and if they currently take your insurance head over to https://go.treatmyocd.com/theocdstories

Oct 23, 2022 • 36min
5 million downloads: 18 guests (Wisdom & Hope) (#352)
In episode 352 I invited 18 past guests to share their words of wisdom or hope with you to celebrate reaching 5 million downloads since 2015. Thank you to all my past guests for sharing their stories or expertise, and thank you to you for listening or spreading the show with others. I hope this episode educates and inspires. Therapists and advocates on this episode (in order) are: Dr Jon Abramowitz, Sheryl Paul, Sheva Rajaee, Laura Johnson, Jenna Overbaugh, Dr Michael Greenberg, Jonny Say, Margaret Sisson, Dr Steven Phillipson, Kimberley Quinlan, Alejandro Ibarra, Dr Michael Twohig, Dr Patricia Zurita Ona, Dr Sam Greenblatt, Chrissie Hodges, Aaron Harvey, Dr Amy Mariaskin, and Sean Shinnock. Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/5-million-352 The podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, convenient therapy available in the US and outside the US. To find out more about NOCD, their therapy plans and if they currently take your insurance head over to https://go.treatmyocd.com/theocdstories


