DISORDERS AND TREATMENT

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a mental health disorder that affects people of all ages and walks of life, and occurs when a person gets caught in a cycle of obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are unwanted, intrusive thoughts, images, or urges that trigger intensely distressing feelings. Compulsions are behaviors an individual engages in to attempt to get rid of the obsessions and/or decrease his or her distress. Most people have obsessive thoughts and/or compulsive behaviors at some point in their lives, but that does not mean that we all have “some OCD.” In order for a diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder to be made, this cycle of obsessions and compulsions becomes so extreme that it consumes a lot of time and gets in the way of important activities that the person values. (iocdf.org) Krista utilizes evidence based treatments for OCD: Exposure and Response Prevention and Inference Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

 Body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB) is a general term for a group of related disorders that includes hair pulling, skin picking, and  nail-biting.  These behaviors are not habits or tics; rather, they are complex disorders that cause people to repeatedly touch their hair and body in ways that result in physical damage. (bfrb.org) 

Types of BFRBs: 

  • Trichotillomania – Hair Pulling

  • Excoriation Disorder – Skin Picking

  • Onychophagia – Nail Biting

  • Onychotillomania – Nail Picking

  • Trichophagia – Hair Eating, Trichobezoars (hairballs) can form in the stomach or bowel,  which can cause life threatening complications.

  • Dermatophagia – Skin Eating as a result of Skin Picking

  • Lip Biting

  • Cheek Biting

  • Tongue Chewing

  • Trichotemnomania – Compulsive hair cutting

  • For more information, please visit BFRB.org 

    Krista utilizes the most recommended treatment by the TLC foundation for BFRBs: the Comprehensive Behavioral Treatment (ComB)

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is a distressing psychological condition where a person becomes very preoccupied with one or more features in physical appearance, e.g. nose, skin, hair, etc. Any body part could be the focus of concern in BDD.

People with BDD engage in time-consuming, repetitive behaviours to 'fix' or hide the perceived flaw’s which are difficult to resist or control (e.g extensive grooming regimes, mirror checking, reassurance seeking, camouflaging, seeking cosmetic surgery etc).

BDD can seriously affect a person's daily life, including work, education, social life and relationships. As a result, social anxiety, isolation and depression are very common in BDD.

Krista uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Exposure and Response Prevention which is seen as the primary way to treat BDD.