Quick Tip: It’s Ok to Dread Therapy

For all the positive press I have directed towards my therapist and OCD therapy in previous posts, that is not to say that my treatment was all smooth sailing. There were many times that I woke up on the day of my appointment and thought “damn, I do not want to do this today”. And I think intuitively this thought makes sense. OCD therapy often involves confronting your OCD fears (i.e. the thoughts you hate most in the world) intimately, leading to a lot of potential anxiety. And sometimes after a week or so of not having many OCD thoughts, the last thing I wanted to do was dig deep and bring them to the surface. Or in other cases, I had already had a difficult week with OCD and I felt like therapy would just exacerbate the problem by piling on even more troublesome thoughts.

However, even though I probably dreaded my therapy appointment as often as I looked forward to it, I can say with confidence that I came out of basically every single session with a more positive outlook than when I went in. And oftentimes, the reasoning for why the session was helpful varied. Sometimes I learned a new skill or other times, I dispelled a dumb OCD fear. And frequently, it was even simpler than that. It is nice just to talk to someone who understands what you are going through, is non-judgmental, and is there to help. I would even recommend therapy to someone who doesn’t have OCD. Talking about what is going on in your life to a professional is a healthy form of self-care. So in summary, understand that it is ok to not want to talk with your therapist sometimes, but if you trust them and the work they have done with you so far, then proceed to your session with confidence as it will almost undoubtedly be a beneficial experience.