S2C1. Is There a Miracle Cure for OCD? Can OCD be cured?

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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there is no miracle cure for OCD. People often get into extensive research, watching videos, reading blogs and books, listening to podcasts, trying supplements, trying various psychiatrists and psychotherapists, and alternative healing methods like Ashwagandha, St. John’s Wort, psilocybin, or other types of therapeutic interventions such as hypnotherapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) or even electroconvulsive therapy (ECT, also called shock treatment)—to find a miracle cure for OCD.

People self-medicate. On social media forums, they ask for names, dosages, and other information about medicines that have helped others so that they can take the same. This is not merely unhelpful but perhaps also dangerous. Unhelpful because the people they talk to are other sufferers and not experts; dangerous because people calibrate the dosage, start and stop medicines as per their whims, and are generally non-compliant. At the whisper of a side effect, they would want to alter the dosage or drop one pill or add another. They will do everything except ERP, with which they have the best chance.

This is understandable, because ERP is the most difficult method to treat OCD. But whether you like it or not, it is also the most effective. No amount of reading blogs and books, watching videos, and listening to podcasts will help, unless you decide to take action. That is like trying to learn how to swim by doing everything but jumping into the pool. It won’t help—you will have to jump into the pool. You will have to tolerate the fear of drowning. You are allowed to seek help to learn. You are allowed to even use floats until you are ready to swim on your own. But jumping into the pool is a must. Similarly, jumping into ERP is a must to learn how to manage your OCD. All said, ERP is still the best form of treatment for OCD. That is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

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