OCD Related Content

On March 21, 2024, McLean Hospital hosted Anxiety and OCD in Kids and Teens, a course aimed at health care professionals, educators, and parents. Experts Lisa W. Coyne, PhD , Fairlee C. Fabrett, PhD , and Jeff Szymanski, PhD , weighed in on topics including the fundamentals of anxiety and OCD, how...

Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is the gold standard therapy for people with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). But for some reason, it wasn’t effective for Anne and Andy Heller’s family member. So, the couple, who are members of McLean’s National Council and generous donors to OCD research...

McLean Hospital, consistently ranked the #1 freestanding hospital for psychiatric care in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, has partnered with the Houston OCD Program, a national leader in the field of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) treatment. The McLean OCD Institute at Houston...

Maria Fraire, PhD , has known she wanted to be a therapist since she was eight years old. “People told me, ‘Oh, you’ll change,’ but honestly, I’m a bit tenacious,” said the incoming program director of McLean’s Child and Adolescent OCD Institute (OCDI Jr.). Fraire has been particularly interested in...

Last month, in honor of World Mental Health Day on October 10, Sean Shinnock, a volunteer in McLean’s Deconstructing Stigma campaign, was invited to speak to employees of The Boston Foundation about mental health and the importance of getting help. Sean shared his story of living with severe OCD...

Twenty years ago, McLean Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital launched the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Institute (OCDI)—an innovative and first-of-its-kind intensive treatment program for individuals living with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Since first opening its doors on the...

At 22, Robin did the hardest thing she had ever done in her life: she confronted her fears. Her fear of God, her fear of unintentionally causing others harm, and her fear of germs—all caused by obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)—had robbed her of her teen years and she wasn’t going to let the...

Katie Wilson is a former patient at McLean’s OCD Institute. I am six months pregnant and I am sleeping on a small patch of the living room floor, because every bed, sofa, or other surface in my home feels contaminated to me. Not safe. I am a trained and registered nurse, with a fear of blood that...

Adira Weixlmann is a former patient at McLean’s OCD Institute (OCDI) Life transitions can be an intense combination of positive and negative. Change creates great excitement and hope for the future, but can also be riddled with intense anxiety and worry about the unknown. As an OCD (obsessive...

A young boy spent eight hours a day on rituals to ensure that his dog was safe, including securing windows and doors and patrolling his home for perceived danger. A teenager’s dread of contracting AIDS cut her off from ordinary experiences like a first kiss. Children and adolescents with obsessive...

Lynette Peck is mother of a former patient at McLean’s OCD Institute . Tomorrow morning I will move my son into his new dorm room. Already today he and I have packed the car, driven 550 miles, eaten at two restaurants, used a number of public restrooms, chatted, laughed, and listened to countless...

Hollywood loves a good medical drama, but for Ethan S. Smith, a successful actor, writer and director, the anguish he experienced due to obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) was all too real. Although Smith now successfully manages his OCD, it was just a few years ago that he was in the depths of...