Daring to Challenge OCD: Overcome Your Fear of Treatment & Take Control of Your Life Using Exposure & Response Prevention

If you have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), you may suffer from obsessive thoughts and anxiety, and use compulsions to alleviate your distress. You know, more than anyone, how debilitating this condition can be. But you may also be reluctant to start treatment due to fears and misconceptions regarding therapy--particularly exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy. You may even think of a number of reasons not to go, or to drop out, but if you are committed to getting better, you need to take that important step toward healing.

ERP is a proven-effective treatment that can help people with OCD break free from the constraints of their disorder; however, starting treatment can feel frightening. Many people wonder what treatment will be like and how they will ever face some of their worst fears. They want to hear from others who have successfully completed therapy. In Daring to Challenge OCD, anxiety specialist Joan Davidson, PhD, gives a thorough overview of ERP, what to expect during treatment, and offers gentle guidance to help you finally overcome the common fears and obstacles that can stand in the way of getting the help you need. Three clients with different OCD symptoms share their personal stories and insights about OCD and treatment.

If you are considering treatment, you may ask yourself, What will my therapist expect me to do? Will treatment be too difficult for me to handle? Will I be asked to do things that put me at risk?What are realistic expectations for recovery? This book will demystify treatment for OCD so that you can face your fears and start changing your life. And if you are a therapist helping clients build motivation to engage in ERP, this book offers real treatment stories and exercises for clients, making it an invaluable resource for therapists and wonderful suggested reading for clients building motivation to commit to treatment.

Joan Davidson, PhD, is codirector and founding partner of the San Francisco Bay Area Center for Cognitive Therapy and assistant clinical professor in the clinical science program at the University of California, Berkeley. For over twenty years she has worked as a cognitive behavioral clinician specializing in the treatment of adults with mood and anxiety disorders. In addition, she teaches, writes, and provides clinical consultation and supervision to students and licensed professionals. Davidson is founding fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy and an Academy of Cognitive Therapy Certified Trainer/Consultant. She is the coauthor of A Transdiagnostic Road Map to Case Formulation and Treatment Planning: Practical Guidance for Clinical Decision Making (New Harbinger, 2014), as well as The Essential Components of Cognitive-Behavior Therapy for Depression (American Psychological Association, 2001) and videotape series of the same name.

Foreword writer Jeff Bell is author of Rewind, Replay, Repeat: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and When in Doubt, Make Belief: An OCD-Inspired Approach to Living with Uncertainty. He serves as a national spokesperson for the International OCD Foundation and is founder of The Adversity 2 Advocacy Alliance. Bell lives in Benicia, CA.