Max Maisel, PhD | OCD and Anxiety Specialist

There’s a lot of misinformation out that about what effective treatment looks like and feels like for OCD and anxiety. The truth is, that recovering from these two disorders requires therapy that is flexible, creative, targeted, and change focused, all within the context of a safe, trusting therapeutic relationship. Remember, it’s okay (and encouraged) to give your therapist feedback about what is working and what is not working. Be your own advocate…you are worth it! #ocdrecovery #ocdsupport #anxietyhelp #anxietyrelief #ocdtreatment

A key pivot to regaining control from OCD or anxiety is learning how to wisely respond to intrusive thoughts of worries. Using non-engagement responses like these will help teach your brain how to become BORED of intrusive thoughts. Save this post for a quick reminder of how to respond effectively when anxiety or OCD pops up! #anxiety #anxietyhelp #ocdproblems #ocdhelp #anxietyrelief

Top Tips to Get the Most Out of Anxiety Therapy Therapy can be life changing, but the biggest gains often come from how you use therapy between sessions. Here are some top tips: 1. Be honest�Talk about the fears, compulsions, avoidance, shame, and patterns you usually want to hide. Therapy works better with the full picture. 2. Be active, not passive�Therapy is not just talking at someone. Ask questions, reflect, practice, and engage in the process. 3. Do the work between sessions�Use the tools in real life. Practice exposures. Notice patterns. Change habits. Progress often happens outside the office. 4. Give feedback�If something isn’t helping, say so. If you want to focus on something specific, bring it up. Good therapy is collaborative. 5. Expect discomfort�Growth can feel uncomfortable. Facing fears, tolerating uncertainty, and changing habits may feel hard before they feel freeing. 6. Focus on patterns, not just feelings�Instead of only asking “How do I feel?” also ask “What am I doing that keeps this going?” 7. Be patient and consistent�Healing is rarely linear. Some weeks feel great, others frustrating. Stay with the process. 8. Apply what matters to your real life�The goal is not to feel perfect in session. The goal is to function better, live fuller, and be less controlled by anxiety. Save this if you’re in therapy now, or send it to someone who could use it. #anxiety #anxietysupport #anxietytips #anxietywarrior #anxietyrecovery

Anxiety has a way of making everything feel urgent. It can make you feel like every thought needs an answer, every feeling needs to go away, and every “what if” needs your attention right now. When that happens, try asking yourself: 1. Is there an actual problem happening right now? 2. If yes, is there anything useful I can do right now? Sometimes there really is something to handle. Sometimes it’s anxiety sounding the alarm too early. And sometimes there isn’t anything to solve in this moment. The work is to allow the uncertainty, let the noise be there, and come back to what’s in front of you. Worrying and problem solving are not the same thing. Save this for the next spiral, or send it to someone whose mind tends to run wild. This is general education, not personal mental health advice. #anxiety #anxietysupport #anxietyrecovery #anxietytips #ocdtips

Don’t fall for OCD’s thinking traps! While you can’t rationalize your way out of OCD, we can identity and label thinking traps (also called “distortions” or “thinking errors”) in the service of sitting with uncertainty and practicing letting go of control. This is a great post to save and refer back to if you find yourself stuck in an OCD spiral. #ocd #ocdawareness #ocdrecovery #ocdhelp #ocdtreatment

When you notice you are acting in “lazy ways”, there is always a reason why. If you jump to the label “I’m lazy”, you miss out on the opportunity to understand psychological factors that are leading you to act this way. Usually, when there is something that we need or want to do but keep putting it off, there is an emotion, sensation, or memory we are avoiding. Putting it off in the short term gives us temporary relief and a nice sense of control, but the unaddressed problem makes us feel worse and more defective the longer we punt it. Using mindfulness and tools from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can help you slow things down and gain a better understanding of the emotional and psychological landscape that leads to unhelpful behaviors like procrastination or avoidance. Shout out in the comments something you’ve been avoiding and would like to commit to! Mine has been recording more IG videos 😂 #anxietysupport #acceptanceandcommitmenttherapy #anxietysupport #anxietytips

One of the biggest shifts in overcoming public speaking anxiety is understanding this: what we resist tends to stick around. When you try to fight the nerves (i.e., the racing heart, shaky voice, tight chest), you actually teach your brain that those sensations are dangerous. That usually makes the anxiety stronger, not weaker, and it can snowball into more fear and less confidence when you’re speaking. A different approach is to practice with the sensations instead of against them. For example, intentionally getting your heart rate up (through exercise or movement) and then practicing speaking while your body feels activated. You’re basically showing your brain, “Hey, I can handle this.” Over time, your brain stops linking those sensations with danger. So when you’re up there for real, the anxiety has a much harder time taking over and you’re free to focus on what you actually want to say. #anxiety #socialanxiety #socialanxietytips #anxietyrecovery

Learning how to differentiate an uncontrollable intrusive thought from a controllable mental response is a total game changer. Once you bring awareness to an intrusive thought or worry, you can use your wise inner voice to make more intentional choices about what to do with that thought. For example: You have the thought, ‘What if I made a mistake in that email?’ Instead of spiraling, your wise inner voice says: �‘Ah, there’s that worry again. I don’t need to figure this out right now.’ And you gently bring your attention back to what you were doing.” If you have trouble discerning intrusive thoughts from wise responses, make sure to save this post for moments when you feel stuck. #ocd #intrusivethoughts #ocdrecovery #anxietytips #ocdsupport

Like in Wizard of Oz🧙‍♂️, Anxiety wants you to “pay not attention to the man behind the curtain!” The truth is, anxiety uses smoke and mirrors to keep you running. Fortunately, we can take power back by slowing down, looking anxiety, and seeing what it’s really about. Save this for the next time anxiety gets loud and let me know in the comments which slide resonates most with you.🤓 #anxiety #anxietytips #anxietywarrior #anxietytherapy

What confuses my clients most often is the idea of control. There are certain internal experiences (i.e. thoughts, feelings, memories, sensations) which we have little to no control over. In fact, much of anxiety or OCD treatment is all about learning how to let go of control. However, we can (and should!) control the helpful and controllable aspects of our psyche. These include your inner narrator (the part of you that can literally “talk to yourself”) and what you focus your attention on. If you practice using your inner voice to respond to automatic anxious thoughts or feelings with kindness, compassion, and open acceptance, anxiety won’t be able to help but loosen its grasp. There are also some awesome ways to practice controlling your attention in helpful, non-avoidant ways. I’ll be posting more videos on this soon. #anxiety #anxietysupport #anxietyrecovery #anxietytips #ocdawareness

I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw a kid at the part try to run from a friendly, slobbering golden retriever, only for the dog to get even more excited and continue to chase him. He soon realized that if he stopped and chased the dog, the dog would be the one running from HIM! What a beautiful metaphor for anxiety treatment. Anxiety requires you to run away for it to take hold. It thrives off of resistance. Without resistance, anxiety will pass…although, if you are waiting for it to pass, that’s unfortunately another form of running…it’s tricky stuff! If we can identify the moments we are being chased, we could start pivoting towards being the chaser. #anxiety #anxietysupport #anxietyrecovery #acceptanceandcommitmenttherapy

Anxiety and OCD are in cahoots. Anxiety creates uncomfortable sensations (e.g. increased heart rate, tingling, tension, buzzing, numbness dizziness, etc). OCD hyper fixates on those sensations, which creates more anxiety, leading to more frequent and intense scary sensations, and a stronger need to hyper fixate on them. This is how anxiety and OCD can keep you trapped in a viscous cycle of nervous system activation, hypervigilance, and fear. Fortunately, an understanding and awareness of how this cycle operates can provide you with valuable opportunities to step back and change how you relate to loud, noisy, and often uncomfortable anxiety-induced sensations. #anxiety #anxietysupport #anxietyrecovery #ocdrecovery #ocd