Experts Define Moral OCD, Urge ERP Therapy as 100% Certainty Drives Compulsions
Updated
Updated · BuzzFeed · Jun 6
Experts Define Moral OCD, Urge ERP Therapy as 100% Certainty Drives Compulsions
3 articles · Updated · BuzzFeed · Jun 6
Summary
Moral OCD centers on intrusive fears of being immoral or a “bad person,” with experts distinguishing it from fleeting self-doubt by its intensity, persistence and daily-life disruption.
Compulsions often follow those thoughts through reassurance-seeking, rumination and “undoing” behaviors, as sufferers chase 100% certainty that they are good — a standard experts say can never be met.
Thought-action fusion can raise the stakes further, making people feel that thinking something wrong is equivalent to doing it and fueling guilt, distress and repeated checking or confession-like behavior.
ERP — exposure and response prevention — is the gold-standard treatment, experts said, warning that regular talk therapy can worsen OCD and advising patients to seek clinicians specifically trained in OCD care.