i am young, and i wash my hands repeatedly and i am crazy afraid of getting tge swine flu again, i also think that if i think bad things those things will happen to people, what do i do?

I’m sorry to hear about your upsetting obsessions. The obsessions and compulsions you list are some of the most common OCD symptoms as well as the most easily treated. Remember, each time you give into an obsession (i.e. wash your hands), you feed your OCD. The trick is to stop feeding it. Of course it's not that easy, as willpower alone is not enough. If it was, it would not be one of the most debilitating mental health disorders in the world. Ignoring your obsessions or analyzing them (i.e. by explaining to yourself that what you are thinking is not rational), also does not work.

To get better, you need to embrace the thoughts. You need to say to yourself, "I am going to get swine flu and die" or "if I think this bad thing about someone it will happen." This is called ‘exposure’ – it’s very uncomfortable but it is a scientifically proven way to treat OCD.

It can be almost impossible to do on your own, so what you need to do is find a psychologist who employs the cognitive-behavioral therapy approach of exposure and response prevention (EXRP) to OCD. Make sure you get a psychologist who treats OCD in this way as a psychodynamic (talk) therapy does NOT work for OCD. All you will have is an expensive bill and months of fruitless therapy. Psychodynamic therapy is useful for many things, but OCD is not among them.

Best of luck,
Dr. Wiliams

I’m sorry to hear about your upsetting obsessions. The obsessions and compulsions you list are some of the most common OCD symptoms as well as the most easily treated. Remember, each time you give into an obsession (i.e. wash your hands), you feed your OCD. The trick is to stop feeding it. Of course it's not that easy, as willpower alone is not enough. If it was, it would not be one of the most debilitating mental health disorders in the world. Ignoring your obsessions or analyzing them (i.e. by explaining to yourself that what you are thinking is not rational), also does not work.

To get better, you need to embrace the thoughts. You need to say to yourself, "I am going to get swine flu and die" or "if I think this bad thing about someone it will happen." This is called ‘exposure’ – it’s very uncomfortable but it is a scientifically proven way to treat OCD.

It can be almost impossible to do on your own, so what you need to do is find a psychologist who employs the cognitive-behavioral therapy approach of exposure and response prevention (EXRP) to OCD. Make sure you get a psychologist who treats OCD in this way as a psychodynamic (talk) therapy does NOT work for OCD. All you will have is an expensive bill and months of fruitless therapy. Psychodynamic therapy is useful for many things, but OCD is not among them.

Best of luck,
Dr. Wiliams

I’m sorry to hear about your upsetting obsessions. The obsessions and compulsions you list are some of the most common OCD symptoms as well as the most easily treated. Remember, each time you give into an obsession (i.e. wash your hands), you feed your OCD. The trick is to stop feeding it. Of course it's not that easy, as willpower alone is not enough. If it was, it would not be one of the most debilitating mental health disorders in the world. Ignoring your obsessions or analyzing them (i.e. by explaining to yourself that what you are thinking is not rational), also does not work.

To get better, you need to embrace the thoughts. You need to say to yourself, "I am going to get swine flu and die" or "if I think this bad thing about someone it will happen." This is called ‘exposure’ – it’s very uncomfortable but it is a scientifically proven way to treat OCD.

It can be almost impossible to do on your own, so what you need to do is find a psychologist who employs the cognitive-behavioral therapy approach of exposure and response prevention (EXRP) to OCD. Make sure you get a psychologist who treats OCD in this way as a psychodynamic (talk) therapy does NOT work for OCD. All you will have is an expensive bill and months of fruitless therapy. Psychodynamic therapy is useful for many things, but OCD is not among them.

Best of luck,
Dr. Wiliams