Patterns OCD information library
Understand the pattern, one question at a time.
Start with what you are trying to understand. Evidence-led guides explain the clinical ideas in plain language; personal essays are clearly marked as lived experience.
Understand intrusive thoughts, compulsions, avoidance, and the patterns that can make OCD difficult to recognize.
- What Causes OCD? Genetics, Brain, Learning, and Stress
- What Happens During an OCD Assessment?
- OCD Avoidance: When Staying Away Becomes a Compulsion
Plain-language guides to the many subjects OCD can attach to, from contamination and checking to relationships and morality.
- Just Right OCD: Perfectionism, Repeating, and Incompleteness
- Responsibility OCD: Feeling Responsible for Preventing Harm
- Health OCD vs Health Anxiety: What Is the Difference?
Learn how exposure and response prevention works, what its tools are for, and how treatment is structured.
- OCD Medication: SSRIs, ERP, and What to Expect
- How to Find an OCD Therapist Who Understands ERP
- What to Expect in Your First ERP Sessions
Evidence-led guidance for navigating recovery, setbacks, relationships, work, and ordinary life with OCD.
- OCD at Work: Symptoms, Disclosure, and Helpful Support
- Can OCD Go Away? What Recovery Actually Means
- How to Support Someone With OCD Without Feeding the Cycle
First-person essays from the person building Patterns about OCD, ERP, privacy, and life between therapy sessions.
- When an OCD App Becomes a Compulsion
- Is Patterns a CBT app? ERP, CBT, and what actually helped me
- What I actually wanted from an OCD app