Holistic
OCD
Treatment
At Conscious Psychiatry, we offer personalized treatment options to support your mental health journey with care and expertise.
At its core, OCD is about uncertainty and doubt. It's like your brain's ability to feel sure about things gets stuck, leaving you in cycles of worry and repetitive actions as you try to feel safe or "right" about something.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder affects about 2-3% of people, with women experiencing it just as often as men. But here's what many don't realize: OCD in women often looks completely different from the hand-washing or organizing stereotypes we see in movies.
Women with OCD frequently experience thoughts and behaviors that get dismissed as "normal worrying" or just being a caring person. This means many women go years without proper diagnosis or treatment, carrying a burden they don't have to bear alone.
Many women with OCD carry intense worry about being responsible if something bad happens to loved ones. You might find yourself worrying that you could accidentally harm family members, or checking appliances, locks, or your children's breathing repeatedly.
Perhaps you go over conversations in your mind to make sure you didn't say anything hurtful, or you avoid driving with others because you're afraid of causing an accident. The constant need for reassurance about safety can become overwhelming.
Women frequently experience OCD around relationships and doing the "right" thing. You might constantly question your feelings toward your partner, wondering "Do I really love them?" or obsess about being a good mother, daughter, or friend.
The need for things to feel, look, or sound exactly right is particularly common in women with OCD. This might show up as rewriting emails, texts, or documents over and over, rearranging items until they feel perfect, or starting tasks over if they don't feel complete. There can also be mental efforts to achieve the "right" thought or feeling.
Unlike visible behaviors like hand-washing, mental compulsions happen inside your head and can include mental checking or reviewing, counting or repeating phrases silently, having mental arguments or debates, analyzing and re-analyzing decisions or interactions, and seeking mental reassurance or certainty.
Many women with OCD suffer quietly because their symptoms are often invisible or get explained away.
The encouraging news about OCD is that it's highly treatable with the right approaches. The most effective therapy for OCD is called Exposure and Response Prevention, or ERP, which has success rates of 60-85%. This treatment works by gradually exposing you to the things that trigger your obsessions while helping you resist the urge to perform compulsions.
Another helpful approach is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, which complements ERP by helping you accept intrusive thoughts without fighting them, recognize thoughts as just thoughts rather than facts, focus on living according to your values despite OCD symptoms, and develop psychological flexibility and mindfulness skills.
For many people, medication can be an important part of treatment. SSRIs are the first-line medication for OCD, though they work differently for OCD than for depression. Higher doses are often needed, response may take 10-12 weeks rather than the 4-6 weeks typical for depression, and combination therapy with both medication and ERP is often most effective.
Conscious Psychiatry provides specialized OCD treatment for women throughout the Denver metro area, combining evidence-based therapies with deep understanding of how OCD uniquely affects women's lives.
Founded by Jordan Gough, PMHNP-BC, our practice recognizes that OCD in women is often underdiagnosed and undertreated, requiring specialized approaches that honor both the complexity of the disorder and the strength of women who live with it.
Our philosophy centers on the belief that OCD recovery is not about achieving perfect mental health, but about reclaiming your life from OCD's demands.
We combine proven treatments with compassionate understanding of the unique challenges women face when living with OCD. Ready to get started? Just reach out We accept insurance.
