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What happens when the thing that feels frightening, unpredictable, or even traumatic is your own brain?
For people living with OCD and anxiety, intrusive thoughts can feel terrifyingly real. You may find yourself questioning your memories, searching for reassurance, or performing rituals because the possibility of something bad happening feels impossible to tolerate. And when these experiences begin to shape your daily life, they can feel traumatic in their own right.
In this episode, I sit down with Jenna Overbaugh, a licensed professional counselor who has specialized in OCD and anxiety since 2008, to talk about the often-misunderstood experience of living with OCD. Drawing on her clinical expertise and lived experience, Jenna helps us understand why intrusive thoughts can feel so convincing, how OCD can interfere with relationships and everyday life, and why exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy can be such an important part of recovery.
Because the goal isn’t to eliminate every uncomfortable thought or guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen. It’s to build the capacity to experience uncertainty, tolerate discomfort, and keep living a meaningful life anyway.
We also explore why effective exposure therapy should be collaborative, gradual, and challenging but manageable; not an exercise in overwhelming someone or forcing them to face their worst fears without preparation. And we discuss how children with OCD can be misunderstood when their behaviors look like defiance, disrespect, or stubbornness, even when they’re trying desperately to prevent something terrible from happening.
Topics covered in this episode:
- Why living with OCD can feel traumatic, even when the threat seems to come from within your own mind
- Intrusive thoughts, false memories, and why frightening thoughts can feel so convincing
- How OCD rituals and compulsions can take over daily life
- How OCD can be mistaken for defiance or disrespect in children
About the Guest:
Jenna Overbaugh is a licensed professional counselor who has specialized in OCD and anxiety since 2008. She is passionate about making mental health concepts practical and accessible, and her work focuses on evidence-based approaches including exposure and response prevention (ERP) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Click here to visit Jenna's website and learn more about her work.
Connect with me:
Want to learn more? You can find me on Instagram @dr.koslowitzpsychology and check out my new book Post-Traumatic Parenting: Break the Cycle and Become the Parent You Always Wanted to Be
