OCD Through the Generations: What’s Changed (and What Hasn’t)

Summary

---

Get to Know OCD

Episode: OCD Through the Generations: What’s Changed (and What Hasn’t)

Host: Dr. Patrick McGrath / NOCD
Guests: Brenna Posey & Tracy Ibrahim
Date: September 14, 2025

---

Overview

In this episode, Brenna Posey (NOCD team member and advocate with lived OCD experience) and Tracy Ibrahim (NOCD therapist and Chief Compliance Officer with 44 years of personal OCD experience) have a candid, intergenerational conversation about the evolution of awareness, treatment, and stigma surrounding Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). They reflect on personal stories, highlight changes (and constants) in diagnosis, care access, and the impact of social media, and offer hope and advice for those navigating OCD today.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. OCD Awareness Across the Generations

• Tracy’s Experience (Gen X):
  • Growing up, OCD was barely discussed outside stereotypes (germophobia, tidiness) and was mostly tossed around as an adjective, not as a mental health issue.
  • “Nobody's thinking or talking about it at all. It might be used as an adjective, like, 'I'm so OCD because my backpack looks organized.'” (Tracy, 03:16)
  • Even with a mother who was a therapist, mental health — and specifically OCD — wasn’t discussed at home.
  • Mental health was stigmatized, and public dialogue focused instead on things like dental hygiene or abstinence (05:02–06:02).
• Brenna’s Experience (Millennial/Gen Z):
  • Grew up with more conversation about mental health, felt supported at home, and going to therapy was normalized—but OCD remained misunderstood as primarily “cleanliness.”
  • Initial therapists failed to diagnose her taboo, intrusive thoughts as OCD, even as late as 2010-2012.
  • “Still, at that point, people thought of OCD as being clean … my therapist couldn't say what I was struggling with was OCD.” (Brenna, 10:00)

---

Notable Moment

“If you were struggling mentally, you kind of probably felt unsafe to talk about that almost, and you just didn't know what people would say about you.”
— Brenna, 06:02

---

2. Access to Care and Diagnosis

• Tracy’s Journey:
  • Experienced OCD from age 4 or 5 but didn’t get a proper diagnosis or treatment (ERP) until age 30—despite frequent interactions with hundreds of mental health professionals.
  • Most providers missed OCD entirely, interpreting symptoms as depression, ignoring contamination concerns and intrusive thoughts.
  • “Hundreds of people missed the OCD—clear as day … if I could go back, I’d stand next to them and say, 'ask if I want to do it, ask if it distresses me.'” (Tracy, 13:55)
• Brenna’s Journey:
  • About 8-10 years between first notable symptoms and proper diagnosis, but eventually found the right care more quickly through increased awareness and resources.
  • “I found NOCD actually through social media ... And someone was able to be like: okay, you have OCD.” (Brenna, 15:10)

---

Notable Moment

“Even in becoming a therapist and learning about OCD, they did not train... most therapists are not getting proper OCD training.”
— Tracy, 14:20

---

3. The Role of Shame and Taboo Themes

• Both guests discuss the particularly isolating impact of taboo OCD themes and the deep shame, confusion, and fear involved.
• Tracy emphasizes the harm of years spent being misdiagnosed, sequestered in psychiatric hospitals, and treated as a danger due to misunderstood intrusive thoughts.
• Learning to use humor and community as recovery tools:
  • “I can make it funny ... it goes against my values.” (Tracy, 19:16)
  • “At first, I thought: How can you use humor? But now? I can’t imagine not using it.” (Brenna, 18:52)

---

Notable Moment

“I'm not laughing about the actual thing. I'm laughing about the OCD version.”
— Tracy, 19:26

---

4. The Impact of Social Media

• Game-Changer for Help and Awareness:
  • Brenna found ERP treatment and NOCD via a social media post: “If that post wasn’t a thing, I don’t know where I’d be right now.” (Brenna, 21:17)
• Drawbacks — Misinformation:
  • Tracy warns of “quack” cures and misinformation, which can lead to harm—quick-fix promises, non-evidence-based ‘solutions,’ and predatory workshops.
  • “People are losing a lot of money, time, a lot of mental health, because they're following these things.” (Tracy, 26:11)

---

Notable Moment

“You know, oh, come to my expensive weekend workshop where you will be done by Sunday—your OCD will be gone. And people believe it, because sometimes these are therapists ... It's sad.”
— Tracy, 25:55

---

5. Advice for the Next Generation

• Both participants agree on the need for better, ethically vetted resources, more consistency in therapist training, and filtering of online information for accuracy.
• Technology has increased both support and compulsive reassurance-seeking (e.g., ChatGPT, Google).
  • “The more things that come up through technology, the more ways people with OCD compulse with it ... ChatGPT is not a trained professional!” (Tracy, 29:51, 30:07)

---

Notable Moment

“It's so enticing to use because it'll just spit out an answer, and OCD wants an answer ... but we don't know sometimes that is exactly what is harming us.”
— Brenna, 30:16

---

6. Messages of Hope and Practical Advice

For those newly diagnosed with OCD:

• Tracy:
  • “You do not create your OCD content. You're not responsible for it. There's nothing to be ashamed, embarrassed, or anything else about it. Go get help from people who know what they're talking about because they're going to help you normalize what's happening to you.” (Tracy, 31:32)
• Brenna:
  • “No matter how long you've been stuck for and no matter the severity, there is hope for symptom management ... to live the full and beautiful life that you want despite having this OCD.” (Brenna, 31:58)

---

Notable Quotes

“Exposure Response Prevention therapy's been around for over 60 years ... and it's been considered the gold standard treatment because it does give you your life back.”
— Tracy, 32:58

“You're not alone. You are never alone.”
— Tracy, 34:27

“OCD is a journey but you're stronger than it.”
— Brenna, 34:24

---

Timestamps for Key Topics

• OCD Awareness in Previous Generations: 02:53–06:00
• Isolation, Stigma & Lack of Diagnosis: 06:00–15:00
• The Challenge of Proper Diagnosis: 13:49–15:38
• Humor as Coping & Taboo Themes: 17:07–19:41
• Role of Social Media (Hope and Harm): 19:42–26:24
• Advice for Hope and Recovery: 31:13–34:27

---

Final Takeaways

• OCD has always existed, but understanding, diagnosis, and treatment have evolved dramatically.
• Awareness and resources are better than ever, yet misinformation and inconsistent clinical training remain real risks.
• Social media offers unprecedented opportunities for education and access—but must be navigated with caution.
• The best advice: Find evidence-based support, target shame, and remember—you are not alone, there is hope, and a fulfilling life is possible with OCD.

---

Transcript

[A]

Foreign. Hi, everyone.

[B]

My name is Brenna Posey. I'm a NOCD team member who also has OCD experience herself. I've gone through exposure response, prevention therapy. And joining me today, I'm super excited is one of no CDs own, Tracy. I'll let her introduce herself in a second. But in this episode, we're really excited because we're going to be talking about OCD through the generations and the differences. And obviously OCD has been OCD through the generations, but access to care, awareness, role, social media. Yeah, there's been a lot of changes, so we're super excited to talk about that and just open the conversation. But Tracy on, introduce yourself.

[A]

Yes. Hi, I'm Tracy Ibrahim and I am a therapist at nocd. I'm also the chief compliance officer of nocv. And I also have a really long history of lived experience with O C, D. I did the math the other day. It made me feel a little bit old, but I'm clearly not old. But I've had OCD that I'm aware of for 44 years. And I also received exposure response prevention therapy and am living a much better life now since I have found treatment as well.

[B]

Love it. So important. And, you know, I think this episode should be really helpful for people. Just recognize the differences and changes and, you know, hopefully we can just bring more awareness to the fact that obviously OCD has been ocd, but there have been significant improvements with OCD and, you know, with everything about it, but obviously there still needs to be some work. So super excited to just dive in and talk about our experiences and. Yeah, so I think whenever I think of OCD through the generations, I kind of think of three big different topics. So one is like, OCD awareness, what it looks like, what it looks like whenever you were growing up versus whenever I was growing up. Second topic is kind of like access to care, I would say. So what my experience was and what yours was. And then really, I think the role of social media would be an interesting topic to talk about. Was not a thing whenever you're growing up. And it was basically a huge part of my experience growing up with mental health and ocd. So I kind of thought those were the big three topics we could talk about. First is OCD awareness. Tracy, do you want to just, like, what was it like for you growing up? Did you know what OCD was? Did you know? Like, let's. Let's just talk about that.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely. So what I would say is nobody was really talking about OCD at all. Outside of what everybody thinks of when it's ocd. So they weren't really thinking about it as, you know, it's a disorder or a problem. It was more just, oh, people wash their hands too much. They like germs. You know, maybe they clean a lot or have things really straight and tidy. Nobody's thinking or talking about it at all. It might be used as an adjective, you know, I'm so ocd. Because whatever. My backpack looks all, you know, organized or something like that. It was thrown around in my family, which is interesting. My grandmother clearly had undiagnosed O. C. D, and it was mostly around contamination O C, D. Um, and so she was kind of like the poster child of what the only way it was being talked about, if you will. And so I also had contamination ocd. I was unaware about all the other ways OCD showed up. So my entire awareness was, we don't like germs, that's okay. And also, we like our stuff in a certain way. So that's it. That was start to finish. Everything that I heard or knew about O. C. D. It certainly wasn't considered a problem or a disorder.

[B]

Yeah. And what was the conversation around mental health in general?

[A]

I would go. If there was not a conversation about mental health at all in general, nobody was talking about it. There was not a big emphasis on it being important. I'd even remember in school what types of groups they would bring in to talk to us. Whether it was elementary or middle school, you know, what were people coming in to talk to us about? What were the schools feeling were really important? And one of them was dentistry. I will never forget how many people came in.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Dentists that came in. As a matter of fact, they handed us these little pink chewy pills that we could take home. And after you brushed, you would chew it so that you could see if you had any marks where you didn't brush your teeth well enough. So oral care, very high on the list, apparently. And aside from that, no, there was. That was. That's really what stands out to me. Um, and then, you know, much, much later, there was an abstinence focus. Don't have sex. It's dangerous and bad. Those were the two focuses for all children, teens. And. Yeah, there was nothing else. Not on tv. Nowhere that I saw that was promoting mental health was actually looked at more in a negative connotation, Something people would laugh at. You know, they have movies like One Flew over to the Cuckoo's Nest or things like that that it was like, ha, ha. That's crazy. You know, throwing around the word crazy.

[B]

Yeah. I can't even imagine what it was like growing up during that time where, like, if you were struggling mentally, you kind of probably felt unsafe to talk about that almost, and you just didn't know what people would say about you.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. And I actually didn't know that I was struggling with mental health because it was not a topic of awareness. I just assumed that I was me and that life is difficult. I mean, that's pretty much, you know, the end that was. I remember walking around just feeling depressed. And now in hindsight, knowing that I had a lot of O, C, D intrusions and compulsions going on and just nowhere to find out that that's what was happening.

[B]

At what point did you recognize that you were struggling with your mental health? Like, if you can look back now and be like, oh, this is whenever it started.

[A]

Um, you know, interestingly, I went through so many hard points in life and never realized that, even though it was clear. Like, now I can look back and. But remember when you were crying all the time? Remember when this. That never dawned on me that that had anything to do with mental health or even the thought of what mental health was. And I have the unique experience that my mom was a mental health therapist, but she also did not bring awareness into our home about mental health. So we are. Some people are like, but you had a mom that was a therapist. I'm like, yeah, we never talked about mental health. She wasn't even aware of most mental health things to my knowledge. To this day, she doesn't know much about ocd, so she's retired. So too late. But, um, so, yeah, there just wasn't information out there. I didn't know what was happening. And then I think where it became evident the first time was I had some situations happen at home that led to. That led to me going to therapy. Um, my dad actually is the one who was like, she needs therapy. Because, you know, our family, you know, is. Is having issues. So they thought of it more. Mental health was family therapy to address family issues. And so we went to some family therapy. Um, they were divorced. That was my dad and stepmom. And the focus was why Tracy doesn't get along with her stepmom. And none of the other mental health things going on were even brought up. Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean, wow. So I was born in 98, and I feel like from the time that I was born to now, there's been an absolute huge shift of just the conversation of mental Health. So it's been really, like, kind of a whirlwind. I feel like, for me, that as someone who has struggled pretty severely with mental health. I grew up in Oklahoma, and I feel like there wasn't much conversation about mental health as I was growing up. I felt really lucky looking back at my life because my family was pretty open about mental health. You know, I felt comfortable sharing if I was struggling with my parents. So I feel really lucky looking back on that. But, I mean, even now, from. I would say, my first OCD experience, I've always been an anxious child, but my first OCD episode, I would say. I don't know if that's the correct term to call that, but the first time I really experienced OCD was whenever I was probably in elementary school, middle school. And at that point there was OCD awareness, but it was still, at that point, kind of like people thought OCD of being clean. And so I. Going to therapy was pretty normal, I would say. But still, even then, my therapist couldn't say that I. What I was struggling with was OCD. Looking back, and this was probably like 2010, 2012 time, and I was pretty. Looking back, I mean, it's pretty obvious I was struggling with ocd. I had very taboo, intrusive thoughts. I couldn't control it. I was doing mental compulsions. It took over my life. I was debilitated. And it was interesting at that time how they couldn't see it. And I think it was because at the time of just what OCD was thought to be, you know, Luckily, I feel like from then until through now, it's changed a lot, even. And so I feel really lucky in that. But I was able to get the treatment I needed, and someone was able to be like, oh, you have ocd, you know, and it only took only. I mean, it's a long time, but compared to you or compared to a lot of people, I think it took me like 10 years, 8 to 10 years for someone to be like, okay, this is OCD, but I know it took a lot longer for you.

[A]

It really did. Um, when, I guess when it became obvious to my family that I had what they would have finally considered a mental health issue, um, I was 10 and had some really significantly traumatic things happen one day, and I was just crying. And I. At this point, again, I had been having OCD intrusion since I was 5, 4. I'm a gen Xer. Just nobody was really talking about it. I didn't know I was struggling. I was crying. I knew I was crying. Because I was sad. I didn't know that I had intrusive thoughts also. I just knew that I didn't like germs, which made me assume that I had ocd. And I assumed that because my grandmother seemed like she had OCD and again, it was about germs. So on one fine day when I was 10, they brought me in to a psychiatric hospital for an evaluation because I wouldn't stop crying. And I was really just escalated in terms of emotion. And they assessed me and they asked me questions about self harm, which I had never done. I had never considered anything like that. But that's the day that my suicidal OCD started. It was from that question I actually clearly, clear as day, remember my brain just snapping, like, what do you mean end my life? Who does that? Wait a minute. I thought that was like a TV thing. Like really, you know, that's an extreme situation. But then I kept thinking about it and then, you know, and then the hospital, which started a very long, long history of not assessing me properly, not asking me the right questions. And so yeah, I did from 10 until I was 18 and a half. I was mostly hospitalized the majority of a 10 year period. Hundreds of people missed the O C D clear as day. I mean, if I now I wish I could go back and you know, and stand next to these people and go ask if I want to do it, ask if it distresses me, ask if I have intrusive doubt. You're not asking me the right questions and you keep doing the wrong things and you're making it worse. But obviously I can't go back in time. Wow.

[B]

So you would say hundreds of people missed the OC OCD diagnosis for you.

[A]

They, they all missed it. And interestingly I always told them when you'd go in and they'd say like, oh, like what do you struggle with? And I would say at this point I knew I had depression. I'd say depression and then as like an afterthought, you know, I have OCD because I don't like germs. They didn't even write it down because it seemed irrelevant. Nobody likes germs. Yeah, she has depression, um, and she's suicidal and she's all these things. And you know, which wasn't true. Um, but I didn't actually find exposure response prevention treatment until I was 30 years old. Wow. And was already a therapist. Actually. Um, even in becoming a therapist and learning about ocd, they did not train. And this is true of most therapists. Most providers out there are not Getting proper OCD training to recognize what it is, let alone to do the correct treatment. So, yeah, I had to go find out on my own. Wow.

[B]

Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. Just what has changed since then, you know? And even with my experience, mine was better in the sense that my second or third therapist was able to be like, okay, you know, and I found no CD actually through social media, which we'll talk about. But whenever I was struggling in my early 20s, but I was at that point, someone was able to be like, you have ocd. You know, I can't imagine whenever, like your experience where it took so many tries and for you to actually be the one to find it and the right care, I mean, wow.

[A]

It was pretty nuts, honestly. And there was so much damage done by that time because I'm locked up, I'm in a seclusion room on suicide precautions, homicide precautions, all these precautions for things I had not done, I just hadn't been assessed as somebody who has harm ocd.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And so all the years of driving home, these are true. This is real. You're dangerous, you're going to do these things. It took a minute, honestly, to reassess my entire life from 4, when I remember my OCD starting to 30 when I actually found out what OCD is. Other things too. There's an actual treatment that is evidence based and I have to go out and learn those things on my own. And so to this day I will. And I'm 51 now. I will occasionally get like a flashback, if you will, of like a memory of like standing in a seclusion room or being somewhere in a hospital and having thoughts about something, like traditional harm OCD thoughts and going, oh, wait, you. Oh, you know what that was? That was homicidal ocd. That wasn't you. Like, oh, that makes sense. Oh, okay. Reprocessing how you even processed who you are as a person, what, how. What your life means, what it doesn't mean, what you are and are not all about. So that's what drives me to be so passionate about it. Especially the taboo themes these days.

[B]

Oh, absolutely. I mean, there's so much shame and stigma and just, I mean, coming from someone that has had a lot of the taboo OCD themes and I experienced that shame, which I'm sure you did as well. Like, I also am so passionate about that because so, so many people with O C D are struggling with the taboo themes. You know, it's very important to talk about.

[A]

Absolutely. Because it's like, of course it's. And And I'm not saying that my contamination OCD is not important.

[B]

Right.

[A]

It sucks, to be honest with you. I mean, I have all my themes still. They're just well controlled. And my worst theme is contamination ocd. So, you know, I. I always want people to know. It's not like, oh, you're not struggling. We're all struggling because OCD is just ocd. Right. But I feel like since the beginning of time, when people even knew what OCD was, they have always known about contamination. Maybe checking, maybe, you know, but the other things just feel so heavy and, and can carry some shame and a lot of confusion. So. Yeah, absolutely. And now I can just laugh about all of the things that happen for me because humor helps make something that sounds so serious feel less serious.

[B]

Totally. Humor is so important, and I, I didn't recognize that until I was older and have gone through therapy. You know, honestly, the first time I did exposure response prevention therapy, I was like, how do people use humor? You know, this is such a. My OCD theme. It sounds so intense. Like, there's no way that I could just find humor in it. And now it's. I can't imagine not using humor with my OCD experience. It's. It's truly helped in a way.

[A]

It really does. That's one thing I drive home in our no CD support groups. I run a couple of Taboo themed support groups for this very reason. And you can sort of see the progression of people as they're going through their treatment. Like, how can you laugh about this? And I'm like, I'm not laughing about the actual thing. I'm laughing about the OCD version. And they're like, oh. I was like. Because that's the exact opposite nobody laughs about. You know, isn't it funny that I thought about, you know, pushing my daughter down the stairs? No, it's funny because I'm obviously not going to do that because I love her and it goes against my values. So I can make it funny.

[B]

Right? Totally.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. Okay. I really want to talk about social media and what that role has looked like for me personally. And I think maybe people my age could maybe relate to this. I actually found no cd. I found really, like, Taboo OCD theme awareness, and I found specialized therapy on social media. And like, that was my first, first, you know, time understanding it, which was crazy looking back, but I found OCD whenever I was really struggling with OCD in my early 20s. I like 19, 20. And at that point I'd been in therapy a few different times. My therapist didn't ever diagnose me with ocd, but I was on social media in college and found an OCD post somehow about talking about just like ocd. And I think it was probably a taboo theme. There's bringing awareness to it. And I was for, I was like, that's what I have, you know, like this is what I'm struggling with. I don't know how people weren't able to recognize that in me, but I just did it myself through social media. And that's how I found exposure, exposure response prevention therapy and just no CD therapy in general and was able to quickly get access to care because of that awareness through social media. And I've just seen, yes, while social media. There's so many negatives about it, trust me. Like I have experienced the negatives about social media but when I look back in my life I'm like, man, if that post wasn't a thing, I don't know where I would be right now. Like, I don't know, I don't know. Who knows how long it would have taken me to get access to care if I didn't see that social media post. And I'd love to hear from your perspective. You know what one, you think about social media, you're a therapist and there's so much like chatter about that online and what that looks like. And two, has it helped you as someone with ocd? I just love to hear your thoughts and you know you were, you grew up in a time where there was no social media. Now there is like, would just love to hear your thoughts on that.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely. You know, like you said, there was no social media. I would say as I got into my early adulthood is when things like chat rooms started with dial up Internet. So and nope, there were no chat rooms for. Let's discuss your OCD themes that aren't, you know, that did not exist. These were just like weird pickup things for the most part or trying to find a friend or something. Um, so there was nothing. Um, and I wish there was. Um, absolutely. I mean the way that I found exposure response prevention was doing a Google search or whatever the search was called at that time. Uh, what is the most effective treatment for ocd? And the reason is I was a therapist. I was a newer therapist and the people I was treating with OCD weren't getting better with the methods I was trained to use. I had given up on like, I still at this point just thought I had contamination ocd. So I wasn't really that concerned about it. Um, in terms of deeper problems, I just assumed all the taboo things going on were real still. Um, and so then I went out and found exposure, response prevention, started learning about it and then found was like, oh my gosh, what, what are these themes? Oh, this is me. This is me. Where do you find this stuff? And there was nowhere to find it. There was, there just wasn't anywhere to find it. There was the Internet, there was an amount of things you could find, but it was pretty limited. And so, I mean, now what do I think about social media? I love that it's there. I love that people have access to good things. I cringe at how many things are not good that they access, that say this is evidence based or say this is how you solve it, or, you know, maybe if you drink enough celery juice, you won't have ocd. All of these sort of things that unfortunately cause further suffering for people. If, if, if anything, that's the downfall is that people with OCD tend to research and when they research, they find both good things and things that are harmful. Um, and for me that's, that's, it's just feels sad and just makes me want to keep posting more and more, you know, on by Taboo Tracy, just like here, these are facts. These are facts. The. I, I hope you find these facts because it's just really easy to find things that are not factual and do more harm.

[B]

Right. I think something that I've seen on social media that I know just is not true is people, people saying like, here's your quick fix to ocd.

[A]

Oh yeah.

[B]

And I think as someone that has gone through ocd, you have to, you know, like how debilitating it is and how you just want to feel better immediately. And you're going to find something if you don't have the proper knowledge of ocd. If you see something that's like, oh, this will help your OCD in a day. You know, that seems really enticing when you don't know. And it's just not. Like, OCD is not a quick fix. So that's something that I've seen that's.

[A]

Been like, yeah, it's a lifetime. I always say it's a lifetime journey. I'm on the journey. The journey can be bumpy. Eventually it's less bumpy. I'm on a pretty smooth part of my journey. I don't get tripped up anymore 99% of the time. I know, I know. You know, all because I use erp. Um, but yeah, those a lot of People are losing a lot of money, time, a lot of mental health because they're following these things. You know, oh, come to my expensive weekend workshop where you will be done by Sunday, your OCD will be gone. And people believe it because sometimes these are therapists, sometimes these are people saying that they are research based. Sometimes it's people who, you know, all kinds of things. We'll just say that. And it's sad. This is a journey we're on, a journey we don't arrive and then finish and you. And it can be a beautiful life using the tools.

[B]

Yeah, you can have a beautiful and full life despite having ocd. Like, and I know for me I'm going to have OCD forever. And that's like, I've come to terms with that because guess what? Like, I'm the one that's in charge of my life. And it used to not be that. Like, it used to be OCD was dictating everything. Obviously there were ebbs and flows in times where it didn't feel present and times where it was all consuming. But now it's like I'm able to take control of my life, even though sometimes it feels scary. And I want to believe ocd, I know it's a liar and I know that I can be the one in charge. And I think that brings a lot of hope to me. And as we know, hope is so important for people and we've talked about like, okay, past generations, like my generation with ocd, what do you say, or what do you want to change for the next generation? When it comes to OCD and access to care, what do you hope to see?

[A]

You know, I hope to see ethical bans on harmful information. No matter what the media is, whether it's social media, whether it's, you know, whatever it might be, whatever media, things that they might come up with that I haven't thought of yet. I, I, I hope that there can be some ethics built in so that people can access correct, factual information and avoid the part where they get more harmed in the process of trying to find correct treatment. So I hope there's a way to be very obvious when here it is, like you find it on nocd.com you don't have to question, oh, you know, I don't know if this is real or not. You know, maybe to have two sections, a valid section of resources for and then everything else. And it has to go through a very good vetting process, kind of like becoming a therapist or anything else. That is one area I've tried to penetrate. It's pretty difficult training people who are going to provide mental health care. The appropriate knowledge and training of assessment and treatment of ocd. That is probably more likely than creating barriers on social media just so that the likelihood of you running into a therapist that knows how to assess you and knows how to treat you is more likely as opposed to a fluke. And you got lucky.

[B]

Yep. That's good. I love that. You know, as you were saying that, I was thinking we started out so your generation where there was basically no awareness to my generation where it was like, oh, okay, there is awareness now. It's great. People are able to get access to care and now it's almost like there's too much information out there to where it can be harmful and which obviously there is great information out there still. That's awesome. We want the right people doing that and evidence based treatment to be promoted in that way so people can understand what it is and hopefully be able to access it. But there are the negative sides of it. And so I think it's important to talk about just going forward, what that can look like. But yeah, that's really interesting.

[A]

Absolutely. Yeah. I can think about the more things that, that come up through technology, the more ways people with OCD compulse with it. You know, ChatGPT is one of them. People are like, well, I went home and I had an entire conversation about it and it appears this is the best course, course of action. And I'm like, chat GPT is not a trained professional. What are you talking about? Yes, Gracious, yes.

[B]

It's so enticing to use because it'll just spit out an answer and OCD wants an answer, we want an answer. And. But we don't know sometimes that that is actually what is exactly harming us.

[A]

Exactly. So just, it's so great that so many things are available and it's so harmful to so many people with ocd. Maybe we could have our own special section of everything that has to do with anything electronic. Like if you have ocd, push the OCD filter and then everything will just be real and valid and helpful and everything else will be outside of there and that way you can just ignore it. That's, that will never happen. I'm excited about that possibility. That's cool.

[B]

That's a cool idea. Um, wow.

[A]

I love that.

[B]

Cause it's, it's, it would be so helpful. Um, okay. As we kind of wrap up, I think it would be fun for us to both give like one piece of advice so if someone is newly diagnosed with ocd, no matter the generation, what would be the first thing that you would tell them?

[A]

Right now, my most absolute thing is you do not create your OCD content. You're not responsible for it. There's nothing to be ashamed, embarrassed, or anything else about it. Go get help from people who know what they're talking about because they're going to help you normalize what. What's happening to you. That's so good.

[B]

Yeah, I would have loved to hear that, you know? Yeah, I'm. Yeah, I'm sure I would say from me, no matter how long you've been stuck for, and no matter the severity, there is hope for symptom management and cause. I think I remember counting the days of how long I was struggling with an OCD theme and being like, how long is this going to last? You know, is this. Am I. Am I stuck like this forever? And I wish I could have told myself, you know, no matter how long you've been stuck for, like, there's always hope for you and to live the full and beautiful life that you want despite having this ocd.

[A]

Absolutely. Hallelujah to that. And it's true. And we're living proof of that. We're not like miracle angels or something where two people got helped and everybody else didn't get.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Exposure Response Prevention therapy's been around for over 60 years. I mean, that's longer than I've been around, that's for sure. And it's been considered the gold standard treatment because it does give you your life back. Back. Just like we got our lives back and you don't have to struggle, Right?

[B]

And if you're listening to this and you're like, huh? I want to learn more about exposure Response prevention therapy, please go to nocd.com our team will love to chat with you. You can book a free 15 minute call with our team so you can learn more about ERP therapy in your area. It's changed my life, it's changed Tracy's life. Um, and you know, ocd, it doesn't have to be like this forever for you. And that's another piece of advice that I would say. You know, I love this conversation, actually, about the generations and what has changed and what we hope for. It's been really fun. But if you want to continue listening to videos similar to this, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Um, you know, get more videos from me and from Tracy and from other NOCD team members. And, yeah, just know that it can get better if you're interested in learning more, go to any of our social media channels at treat my OCD, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and yeah, you got this. And OCD is a journey, but you're stronger than it.

[A]

That's right. You're not alone. You are never alone.

[B]

You're not alone. Yes.

[A]

Never alone. That's. I love to mention that, you know, as part of being a NOCD member in treatment with us, part of not being alone means that you can access unlimited support groups through NOCD on all different types of topics and ways that OCD shows up. So you can really, really not feel alone and hear from others who are struggling. So, yeah, that would have been a nice thing to have as well. Well, back in the day.

[B]

Oh, my gosh. What a great resource for people.

[A]

Yeah, I hope to see. Hope to see people over at no cd.

[B]

Yep. Love it. Well, thank you, guys. Tracy, thanks so much for joining this. This was awesome. I loved hearing your perspectives and you bring so much wisdom and knowledge and hope to everyone. So thank you and thank you.

[A]

Sdu.

[B]

Well, thanks. Well, this was so much fun and we'll talk soon.