Understanding OCD

OCD is a challenging condition that can affect both your mental and physical wellbeing. While it’s natural to experience occasional worries or repetitive thoughts, when these become overwhelming and start to interfere with your daily life, it may be a sign that additional support is needed.

At Central Minds, we’re here to provide you with understanding, guidance, and effective strategies to help you manage OCD. Whether you’re looking for professional OCD therapy in Hong Kong or simply hoping to better understand how to cope with intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviours, know that support is available—and you don’t have to face this alone.

What is OCD?

OCD involves a cycle of intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviours that can feel difficult to break. While it’s natural to experience occasional worries or routines, OCD goes beyond this, often creating persistent and distressing patterns that interfere with daily life.

These intrusive thoughts—also known as obsessions—can feel overwhelming, leading to compulsions or repetitive behaviours aimed at reducing the anxiety they cause. Although performing these rituals might bring temporary relief, the cycle usually continues, increasing distress over time.

Without support, this ongoing cycle can have a significant impact on both mental and physical wellbeing, contributing to difficulties with concentration, increased anxiety, disrupted sleep, and even depression. Understanding how OCD works is the first step towards learning healthier ways to manage these thoughts and behaviours.

What Are the Symptoms Associated with OCD?

Recognising the signs of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an important step towards understanding what you’re experiencing and finding helpful ways to manage it. Although living with OCD can feel challenging at times, it’s important to remember that support is available, and things can improve.

Common Obsessions (Intrusive Thoughts)

• Fear of Contamination: Frequent worries about germs, illness, or feeling ‘unclean’.
• Doubt and Uncertainty: Repeated concerns about whether everyday tasks, like locking the door or switching off appliances, have been completed properly.
• Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts: Distressing thoughts or images that feel out of character and difficult to control.
• Need for Symmetry or Order: A strong urge for things to feel ‘just right’ or to be arranged in a very specific way.

Common Compulsions (Repetitive Behaviours)

• Checking: Repeatedly checking locks, appliances, or safety measures to ease feelings of doubt.
• Cleaning and Washing: Excessive handwashing or cleaning routines to reduce worries about contamination.
• Counting or Repeating Actions: Performing certain actions a set number of times to feel safe or prevent imagined negative outcomes.
• Seeking Reassurance: Frequently asking others for comfort or confirmation that everything is okay.

Emotional and Physical Effects

• Anxiety and Unease: Feeling unsettled or anxious due to intrusive thoughts or the need to carry out certain behaviours.
• Fatigue: Feeling physically and mentally tired from managing ongoing thoughts and routines.
• Sleep Disturbances: Finding it hard to fall asleep or stay asleep because of worry or mental rituals.
• Muscle Tension: Experiencing tightness or discomfort in the body, often around the neck and shoulders, from ongoing stress.

If you’re noticing these patterns in your daily life, it’s a sign that some extra support might help. With the right strategies and professional guidance, many people find that their symptoms become more manageable and their quality of life improves.

Remember, you don’t have to face this on your own—help is available, and positive change is possible.

What Causes OCD?

There’s no single cause, but factors may include genetics, brain chemistry, personality traits, and life experiences. Stressful or traumatic events can sometimes trigger or worsen symptoms. Whatever the cause, it’s important to know that support and treatment are available.

What Does Treatment Look Like for OCD?

Managing OCD can feel overwhelming at times, but with the right approach and support, it is possible to find relief and regain a sense of balance in daily life. Treatment often involves a combination of self-care strategies and professional guidance, helping you build healthier ways of responding to intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviours.

Self-Care Strategies

• Physical Activity: Regular movement, such as walking, swimming, or yoga, can help release tension and improve overall wellbeing. Exercise also boosts endorphins, which naturally lift your mood.
• Mindfulness and Relaxation Techniques: Practices like mindfulness meditation and deep breathing exercises can help you stay present and reduce the intensity of intrusive thoughts. Over time, these techniques can support a calmer, more balanced mind.
• Healthy Lifestyle Choices: Looking after your body plays an important role in managing OCD. A balanced diet, restful sleep, and limiting caffeine or alcohol can help stabilise your mood and make intrusive thoughts feel less overwhelming.

Professional Support

Working with a qualified therapist can make a significant difference in learning how to manage OCD. Therapy often focuses on understanding the patterns of obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours and developing healthier, more manageable ways to respond to them.

Therapy can be short-term or ongoing, depending on what feels right for you. There is no fixed path—what’s most important is finding an approach that suits your needs and provides the right level of support.

Central Minds therapists will help you to:

• Understand Obsession and Compulsion Cycles: The first step often involves exploring how intrusive thoughts trigger certain behaviours. By gaining insight into these patterns, you can start to interrupt the cycle in a more compassionate and effective way.
• Develop Healthier Responses: Once these patterns are recognised, your therapist will support you in practising new ways to respond to distressing thoughts—this might include Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) techniques, or other cognitive strategies that gently challenge unhelpful thinking.
• Build Coping Skills: Over time, therapy helps you develop a toolkit of practical skills to manage intrusive thoughts and reduce the urge to engage in compulsive behaviours. These tools can help you feel more confident and in control, even in challenging situations.

Many people find that, through therapy, they experience a greater sense of ease and resilience, with improved overall wellbeing. While managing OCD is a journey, you don’t have to walk it alone. With support, things really can get better.

Types of OCD Therapy Central Minds Provide

At Central Minds, we understand that living with OCD can feel exhausting and isolating at times. That’s why we offer a range of evidence-based therapies designed to help you manage intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviours with greater ease and confidence. Everyone’s experience with OCD is different, so we work alongside you to find the approach that feels right for your unique situation.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

CBT is a widely recognised and effective treatment for OCD. It focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and developing healthier, more balanced ways of responding to them.

• How It Helps:
  CBT supports you in breaking the cycle of obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours by helping you reframe negative thinking and gradually reduce rituals that no longer serve you.
  

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)

ERP is a specialised form of CBT and is considered the gold standard for treating OCD. This approach gently exposes you to the thoughts or situations that trigger anxiety while helping you resist the urge to perform compulsive behaviours.

• How It Helps:
  Through gradual and supported exposure, you learn that anxiety naturally decreases over time, and that it’s possible to manage distressing thoughts without relying on compulsions.
  

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT focuses on helping you accept intrusive thoughts without letting them control your actions. Rather than trying to eliminate these thoughts, the aim is to develop psychological flexibility and live a life guided by your personal values.

• How It Helps:
  ACT encourages a kinder, more accepting relationship with your thoughts and feelings, helping you move forward even when things feel challenging.
  

Mindfulness-Based Approaches

Mindfulness helps you stay present and observe intrusive thoughts without reacting to them. By bringing awareness to the present moment, you can reduce the hold that these thoughts have over your daily life.

• How It Helps:
  Mindfulness techniques support emotional regulation, lower anxiety, and create space for more compassionate self-care.

Meet our therapists specialising in working with OCD in Hong Kong

Bhavna Bharvani

Clinical Counsellor, Relationship Counsellor

Specialises in working with individuals, couples and LGBTQIA+ folks on healing from trauma, improving relationships, building emotional resilience and overcoming self-limiting beliefs

Bhavna is a US-trained Licensed Professional Clinical Counsellor. As a couples therapist, she helps partners navigate challenges, improve communication, repair past wounds and resentments, and strengthen their emotional connection.

Shirley Hung-Truchot

Psychotherapist, Couples Therapist, Perinatal Specialist

Specialises in helping new moms with perinatal and postpartum symptoms and helps couples identify and break negative patterns, communicate their feelings and needs in a healthy, productive way, and learn to respond, repair, and reconnect emotionally with one another

Shirley is a Canada-trained Psychotherapist and Couples Therapist with over 10 years of extensive experience in providing couples therapy, marriage counselling, and individual counselling. She has worked across a variety of settings including hospitals, university counselling centers, and community mental health centers in Toronto, Canada with individuals and couples with mental health distress and relationship issues.

Meet Our Full List Of Counsellors Here!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About OCD

What is OCD, and how is it different from general worry?

OCD, or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, involves persistent intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviours or mental rituals (compulsions) aimed at reducing anxiety. While it’s normal to worry from time to time, OCD thoughts tend to feel distressing, intrusive, and difficult to control. Compulsions are often performed to relieve this discomfort, but the relief is usually temporary, which keeps the cycle going.

Is it possible to have OCD without obvious compulsive behaviours?

Yes, this is sometimes referred to as Pure O (Purely Obsessional OCD). In these cases, compulsions may be cognitive rather than physical—such as excessive rumination, mental checking, or seeking reassurance from others. Even if the behaviours aren’t visible, they can still have a significant impact on emotional wellbeing.

Is medication necessary for treating OCD?

Not everyone with OCD needs medication, but for some, it can be a helpful part of their overall treatment plan. This is a very personal decision and one that should be discussed with a qualified healthcare professional. Therapy is often the first recommended approach, with medication considered if symptoms remain difficult to manage.

Can OCD go away on its own?

While symptoms may improve at times, OCD typically doesn’t disappear without some form of intervention. The good news is that with the right therapy and coping strategies, many people experience significant relief and go on to lead fulfilling, balanced lives.