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OCD Challenge is an online, interactive, behavioral program designed to help people suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The program was built by psychologists who are leaders in the field of behavior therapy and have a specialization in the area of OCD. OCD Challenge has three Modules: Assessment, Gaining Awareness and Intervention. Users will be guided through the Modules and taught skills and strategies for managing their OCD behavior. OCD Challenge uses the principles of exposure and response prevention (the treatment of choice for OCD) to help the user to confront and challenge their OCD. OCD Challenge is not therapy and there is not a therapist on the other end of the computer telling you what to do. Instead, OCD Challenge is a program built to interact with the user in a way that is interesting, useful, and moves the user toward change. OCD Challenge is offering 6 months free use of its website with the promo code “POMA” to anyone who is interested. You can access the website at ocdchallenge.com. For a virtual tour of the website go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzR88HLawAg.

OCD can destroy lives without proper treatment. But that’s okay because the acronym is funny, edgy, and makes for great jokes on silly and cute holiday sweaters. Many individuals and organizations have shared their disappointment and frustration with a Christmas sweater available now in Target stores across the US that declares whoever wears it a sufferer of “OCD: Obsessive Christmas Disorder.” Let’s help Target understand why this OCD sweater is more than just a silly joke. Continue messaging, tweeting, and emailing Target to let them know how their sweater furthers the stigma and obstacles OCD sufferers too often face in accessing treatment. Get in the holiday spirit by tweeting @Target with a photo of you in your favorite ugly Christmas sweater to show Target you’d rather your holiday spirit come dressed in hideous shades of red and green with way too many details and embellishments rather than an inaccurate and dismissive message about OCD. Let Target know this holiday season, you’d rather wear ugly sweaters over lame ones.

OCD is not curable, but it is manageable. The purpose of this personal story is to document one human’s struggle with a very real, and surprisingly common, mental health condition. To read this story, click here to go to NAMI’s website.

Researchers at Butler Hospital and Alpert Medical School of Brown University are seeking adults (18 or older) to participate in an online study evaluating a mobile smartphone app as a self-help treatment for OCD. Each participant will receive free access to the mobile app and be asked to complete four online surveys over 12 weeks. If you are interested in learning more or to find out if you are eligible, call 401-455-6541. Click here to download a flyer containing all the information.

Darin Dougherty, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital and the OCD Institute at McLean Hospital is featured in a recent MIT Technology Review article for his work treating OCD with electric stimulation (MIT Technology Review, October 2015). To read the article, click here.

Written for OCD Awareness Week as part of a collaboration between The Mighty and the IOCDF, people with OCD seize the opportunity to share what OCD is really like, outside of often negative or inaccurate portrayals of OCD that tend to dominate news cycles (The Mighty, October 2015). To read the article, click here.

A study of mental illness literary by the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) in Singapore found that nine out of ten respondents believe that those with a mental disorder “could get better if they wanted to,” while half also saw mental illness as a sign of “personal weakness.” Researchers say this stigmatizing mindset often prevents people from seeking treatment (Straits Times, October 2015). To read the article, click here.

Even for people with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), cognitive-behavioral therapy outperforms anti-psychotic medication in some hard-to-treat patients, finds a recent study by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and New York State Psychiatric Institute published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (Columbia University Medical Center Newsroom, October 2015). To read the article, click here.

Rose Bretécher, author of a new memoir about her experiences with pure OCD, explains how her new boyfriend’s accidental discovery of her therapy homework actually revealed the surprisingly positive (and therapeutic!) sides of embarrassment (The Guardian, September 2015). To read the article, click here.

The IOCDF is proud to announce its new website regarding OCD in kids and teens. The foundation’s goals in building this website are to educate the general public about OCD, facilitate education and training of mental health professionals, pediatricians, and school personnel, support research into the causes of and effective treatments for pediatric OCD, and improve access to resources for those with OCD and their families, as well as clinicians and school personnel. To access this website, go to ocfoundation.org/ocdinkids/.