Obsessive and Compulsive? (Episode 85)
Disordered: Anxiety Help
Josh Fletcher and Drew Linsalata
4.9 • 665 Ratings
🗓️ 8 November 2024
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on Disordered we're starting with the assertion that all anxiety disorders are obsessive and compulsive in at least some way. Then we make our way through all the "usual suspects"
- Panic disorder
- Health anxiety
- Social anxiety
- GAD
- OCD (obviously)
We're looking at the obsessional components of each anxiety flavor, and the corresponding common compulsions or rituals designed to easy anxiety and discomfort.
If you're worried because you think you have one type of anxiety ... and also OCD ... don't worry. While the usual "we're all a little OCD" thing is really awful and should be banned forever, within the context of anxiety disorders there are always obsessive and compulsive tendencies at play.
Also, shout out to selective mutism, which is officially an anxiety disorder according to the DSM-5 but has never been mentioned on this podcast before. Spoiler alert: neither Drew nor Josh had anything constructive to say in that moment because neither has any experience with that presentation. Sorry, selective mutism.
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Struggling with worry and rumination that you feel you can't stop or control? Check out Worry and Rumination Explained, a two hour pre-recorded workshop produced by Josh and Drew. The workshop takes a deep dive into the mechanics of worrying and ruminating, offering some helpful ways to approach the seemingly unsolvable problem of trying to solve seemingly unsolveable problems.
https://bit.ly/worryrumination
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | All anxiety disorders are obsessive and compulsive in at least some way. |
| 0:06.0 | We could rename panic disorder, panic attack OCD. |
| 0:09.3 | Or even the obsession is, I'm having panic attacks, I must be broken. |
| 0:12.7 | The obsession becomes, I need to fix myself. |
| 0:14.8 | What if? |
| 0:15.6 | Insert your health fear here, and then the compulsion becomes all the things you do in response to that thought to try and bring down the fear that the thought creates. |
| 0:23.1 | Googling reassurance seeking, scanning, body checking, poking, prodding, threat monitoring. |
| 0:29.3 | There's a big list of compulsions there. The obsession is how am I performing in front of this person |
| 0:34.7 | and am I pleasing them or not or whatever? |
| 0:39.5 | What if people see who I really am? |
| 0:44.1 | The compulsions are rumination, planning, rehearsing what to say, |
| 0:49.2 | performing people pleasing, critically analyze our social performance. |
| 0:54.1 | Welcome to Disordered. This is episode 85 of the podcast entitled, Am I Obsessive and Compulsive? |
| 0:59.0 | It's a good question we're going to answer today. I am Drew Linzalata, one of the co-host of Disordered. I'm a therapist practicing under supervision in New York, specializing in anxiety and anxiety and sufferer of anxiety and OCD and depression for many years of my life on and off, |
| 1:14.1 | but better now. |
| 1:15.2 | A three-time author, social media dude, advocate, educator, |
| 1:19.7 | you know, general like mental health guy. |
| 1:22.0 | I'm happy to be here. |
| 1:23.7 | I'm Joshua Fletcher, also known as Anxiety Josh, |
| 1:26.9 | psychotherapist based in Manchester in the UK, |
| 1:29.5 | who specializes in anxiety and anxiety disorders. Like Drew, I'm a previous sufferer, |
| 1:34.5 | like to combine personal experience with my professional experience, author, podcaster, Instagram |
... |
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