Every time you research that things you’ve already researched, you are telling your mind to monitor for more of those worried feelings and more of those questions.

An important first step is in healing is developing an understanding of how we got to where we are so we can address the particular wounds and issues that are holding us back from a life we truly enjoy.

In this case (anxiety disorders), breathing exercises are kind of like bringing a knife to a gunfight. It’s still good to have breathing as a tool, but it’s not going to help you win.

What usually happens for most clients is that their OCD gets treated OR their trauma gets treated.

As if going on that first half journey of establishing a life and some belief in your abilities isn’t hard and harsh enough, there’s a transition you have to make just as you’re starting to feel confident. The second half of your life comes after you’ve built something and tasted some success via adaptation to the world and realized that it couldn’t satisfy you - if you’re willing to slow down enough to feel it and admit it.

O. Alan Noble addresses a common questions for those struggling with scrupulosity

Celebrate, high-five, nerd out on what you do, and get excited when things go right. You can do this and still be great at your job. Your heart will thank you, your life will be more satisfying, and the people you serve will notice.

CBT-I will introduce you to proven ways to make your bed a place where you want to go to sleep rather than a place where you dread tossing and turning.

Our anxiety may be increasing as we pursue more and more solutions that cause us to make more complicated, restrictive lifestyle alterations with the promise of eventually bringing relief if we get it just right.

OCD is likely not what you think it is.

When you stay away from situations, people, or places that might remind you of your bad thoughts and feelings, you miss an opportunity to learn that your fears are not real.

If you are looking for a resource you can work through that will help you begin the process of going back into your story in order to go forward as a person and as a Christian, I have developed this journaling guide for you.

Doing the opposite of what OCD tells you to do makes you believe those false signals are actually false and provides emotional relief. Information alone cannot achieve that for you.

The more certainty you seek, however, the more anxious and uncertain you become. Why is that? That’s because OCD only throws you questions/dilemmas that can’t be perfectly answered and require you to take a leap of faith.

But so many people stall out at “white knuckling” past their anxiety and then grow weary and give up because nobody is lovingly pushing them hard enough to have emotionally transformative experiences that help them change their relationship with anxiety in a way that finally allows it to fade.

If your child is experiencing sudden-onset psychiatric symptoms after a recent illness or infection, the best path forward is to involve both a pediatrician and a therapist who specializes in anxiety and OCD.

The bottom line is that you can feel all types of ways about all types of things. That feeling, no matter how ominous, doesn’t make it any more true, and it doesn’t mean it’s from God.