Cognitive behavioral psychotherapy (CBT) is the psychotherapeutic treatment of choice for children, adolescents, and adults with OCD. CBT helps the patient create an internal strategy for resisting OCD that will be of lifelong benefit.

What Is CBT?

There are some symptoms of anxiety that can happen in conditions other than anxiety disorders. This is usually the case with panic attacks. The symptoms of panic attacks are similar to those of heart disease, thyroid problems, breathing disorders, and other illnesses.

As a result, people with panic disorder may make frequent trips to emergency rooms or doctor’s offices. They may believe they are experiencing life- threatening health conditions other than anxiety.

The “BT” in CBT stands for behavior therapy. Behavior therapy helps people learn to change their thoughts and feelings by first changing their behavior. Behavior therapy for OCD involves exposure and response prevention (E/RP).

Exposure is based on the fact that anxiety usually goes down after long enough contact with something feared. Thus people with obsessions about germs are told to stay in contact with “germy” objects (e.g., handling money) until their anxiety is extinguished. The person’s anxiety tends to decrease after repeated exposure until he no longer fears the contact.

Exposure is generally more helpful in decreasing anxiety and obsessions, while response prevention is more helpful in decreasing compulsive behaviors. Despite years of struggling with OCD symptoms, many people have surprisingly little difficulty tolerating E/RP once they get started.

Cognitive therapy (CT) is the other component in CBT. CT is often added to E/RP to help reduce the catastrophic thinking and exaggerated sense of responsibility often seen in those with OCD.Other techniques, such as thought stopping and distraction (suppressing or “switching off” OCD symptoms).