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The logo for Embodied, which features a person with brown skin wearing yellow pants, a white shirt and white glasses pulling back a starry curtain of the silhouette of a person that is roughly twice as large as the person in yellow pants. The word "Embodied" is at the top with the WUNC logo directly underneath it and the PRX logo in the bottom righthand corner of the illustration. All of the text is in white, and the background of the illustration is light blue.
Embodied

Breaking the cycle of obsessive-compulsive disorder

By Kaia Findlay,
Anita Rao
Published January 26, 2024 at 1:01 PM EST
An illustration featuring a masculine-appearing person with their head in their hands. They're wearing a gray hoodie and have red squiggly lines branching out and up from their upper body. To the left is a thought bubble with a heart with a question mark in it. To the right is a thought bubble with two praying hands in it. In the bottom righthand corner of the illustration is a thought bubble with a bottle of poison tipped over, a match and a house on fire.
Charnel Hunter

OCD often goes misdiagnosed and misunderstood … and if left untreated, can impact platonic, intimate and familial relationships in challenging ways.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, is a mental health disorder characterized by a cycle of intrusive thoughts and compulsions. An unwanted thought or fear produces anxiety and distress, leading people to engage in rituals and responses that temporarily alleviate that distress until the intrusive thought appears again.

Half of OCD cases are misdiagnosed, and it can take up to 17 years for an individual to receive effective treatment after experiencing symptom onset. But why?

A lack of education and stigma make OCD less visible in the medical community as well as culturally. Host Anita Rao talks with writers and married couple Nicole and Mike Comforto about how they found out about Mike’s OCD diagnosis and how the disorder and subsequent treatment affected their marriage. You can check out more of their story via their Substack Hey Honey.

Anita also talks with writer and journalist H.T., whose OCD symptoms started in kindergarten, about the ways in which OCD has shaped her interactions with friends, family and dates.

A special thank you to Dr. Monnica Williams for contributing to this episode. Dr. Williams is the clinical and training director for the Behavioral Wellness Clinic in Tolland, Connecticut, which also houses the New England OCD Institute. She is also the Canada Research Chair in mental health disparities and a licensed clinical psychologist in the United States and Canada.

And thank you to Alexandra Reynolds for sharing her story with us.

Please note: This episode originally aired on April 28, 2023.

Three Things You Didn’t Know About OCD

1. OCD compulsions don’t just show up as hand-washing or rearranging. Other common compulsions are:

  • Checking (Did anything terrible happen? Did I hurt someone?)
  • Repeating (body movements, activities)
  • Mental compulsions (praying or mentally reviewing events to prevent harm)

2. OCD is a cycle of behavior that gets harder to break if untreated. Parts of this cycle may be more outwardly visible than others.

A diagram that is in the shape of a square. At the top it says "Obsessions" and underneath that "fears, intrusive thoughts" with an arrow to the right of that leading down to the right side of the square, which says "Anxiety" and underneath that "feeling the need to react" with an arrow underneath that and leading to the bottom of the square, which says "Compulsions" and underneath that "actions or mental rituals to reduce the anxiety" with an arrow to the left of that pointing up to the left side of the square, which says "Relief" and underneath that "temporary, reinforces compulsion" with an arrow leading up and back to the top of the square.
https://www.souletherapy.com/single-post/how-to-tell-if-you-have-ocd-and-what-to-do-about-it
A commonly-used graphic to describe the cycle of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

3. Research shows that 50% of OCD cases are initially misdiagnosed. Why? Several reasons, including:

  • Lack of information and training for mental health professionals
  • Confusion with other mental illnesses
  • Fear of disclosure (when symptoms are taboo, shame-inducing)
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Embodied Embodied Radio ShowMike ComfortoNicole Comfortoobsessive-compulsive disorderInterpersonal relationshipsRelationshipsRomantic Relationships
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Kaia Findlay
Kaia Findlay is the lead producer of Embodied, WUNC's weekly podcast and radio show about sex, relationships and health. Kaia first joined the WUNC team in 2020 as a producer for The State of Things.
See stories by Kaia Findlay
Anita Rao
Anita Rao is an award-winning journalist, host, creator, and executive editor of "Embodied," a weekly radio show and podcast about sex, relationships & health.
See stories by Anita Rao
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