Around these parts, we talk a lot about obsession and compulsion, which isn't news because this is a podcast about anxiety disorders.

When compulsions are behavioral, you can see them.

There's not a lot of questions about them.

But when they are mental in nature, there's a lot of questions, starting with what on earth even is a mental compulsion.

So let's talk about that today.

Hello everybody. Welcome back to The Anxious Truth. This is episode 337 of the podcast. We are

recording in February of 2026 in case you are listening or watching in the future. Today we are going

to talk about mental compulsions. We have a special guest that is Lauren Rosen. She is an OCD specialist and anxiety specialist practicing in California. She's a friend of mine, a clinician I greatly respect and trust, and she's an expert in this sort of thing. She just wrote a book called The Mental Compulsions Workbook for OCD. She's going to join us. We're going to talk about mental compulsions and try to take some of the mystery out of them. I am Drew Linzalada. I am the creator and host of The Anxious Truth. If this is your first time listening to this podcast or watching on YouTube, welcome. I'm glad you're here. I hope you find the podcast or the YouTube channel helpful in some way. And of course, if you are a returning listener or viewer, welcome back. Thanks for hanging out today. I hope you get something out of today's episode. Before we bring Lauren on and talk about mental compulsions, just a very fast reminder

that the anxious truth is more than just this podcast episode or this YouTube video. There's all the

previous podcast episodes that came before it. There are low-cost workshops and courses. There are

the books that I've written. There's the Disordered podcast as I do with Josh Fletcher every Friday. You can find that one at disorder.fm. But go check my website at the Anxioustruth.com and avail yourself of all of the resources, many of which are free. And if there is a cost, it's very low-cost stuff. I think you'll get something out of it. Many people do. So check it

out at the anxious truth.com. So let's bring Lauren Rosen on. We're going to talk about mental

compulsions. I will come back at the end to do a little wrap up and give you all Lauren's links.

Let's get to it. Hi. What else? What up? We are admittedly, folks, as I promised, Lauren Rosen is here with me.

Lauren may be the second most frequent guest on The Anxious Truth after Joanna, possibly.

Wow.

This may tie you.

I'm honored.

Full disclosure, we are stumbling into this podcast episode, or at least I am.

I'll bear with us. I stumble almost everywhere these days.

It's just stating the nature of life.

We will get this right.

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