The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - Understanding OCD: Symptoms, Treatment, and Daily Challenges - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi there, it's Marianne here. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to quickly let you know about something exciting that's happening right now. If you've ever wondered how to create income that works for you, rather than constantly trading your time for money, then you'll love the Race to Recurring Revenue Challenge with my business mentor, Lisa Johnson. This challenge is designed to help you build sustainable income streams. And whether you're an aspiring psychologist, a mental health professional, or in a completely different field,

Starting point is 00:00:32 the principles can work for you. There are also wonderful prizes to be won directly by Lisa herself. And if you join the challenge by my link, you can be in with a chance of winning a one-to-one hours coaching with me, Dr. Marianne Trent. Do you want to know more? Of course you do. Head to my link tree, Dr. Marianne Trent, or check out my social media channels, or send me a quick DM and I'll get you all the details. Right, let's get on with today's episode. Do you really know what OCD is? Spoiler alert, it is not just about being neat and tidy.

Starting point is 00:01:09 In this episode, we uncover the truth about OCD, the distress it causes and the treatments that can help. If you or someone you care about struggles with intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviours, this is one you're not going to want to miss. Hi, welcome along. I am Dr. Marianne and I'm a qualified clinical psychologist. Now, OCD does get spoken about by lots and lots of people, but often in quite a throwaway manner. This is not that. You know, I spend a great deal of my time as a clinical psychologist and providing therapy for people who are really, you know, have their lives very much affected by the far-reaching implications of OCD. So this episode is all about what it is, how it can take hold. And, you know, we're trying to normalize and validate people's experiences so that they are more able to grapple with this and to be able to take control. If you find this helpful, wherever you are watching or listening,

Starting point is 00:02:27 please do like, subscribe, drop some comments and give this video some love. I will look forward to catching up with you on the other side and I hope you find it really, really useful. Hi, I just want to welcome along our guest for today, Faye. Hi, welcome along to the podcast. Hi, thanks Marianne. Thank you for having me. Thank you for having me. Thank you for pitching your idea for the episode to us. Before we crack on with our content,

Starting point is 00:02:57 thinking about OCD and striving for careers, could you tell the audience and myself a little bit about you, please, Faye? Yeah, so my name's Faye. I am a psychological wellbeing practitioner, or PWP for short, very recently qualified. So just to give a brief overview, I work with people with common mental health difficulties, depression, anxiety, OCD, you know, those sorts of things. Yeah, and that's what I do as a full-time job. I've worked in mental health for a few years now in various different roles before I got into doing the PWP work. And I am someone who also lives with OCD. So that's a very important part of, you know, my role and me as a person as well. Thank you so much.

Starting point is 00:03:39 If people did want to hear more about what PWPs are and, you know, how they can train as one and what the reality of working as a PWP is like they can listen to the episode I recorded that was out very recently actually with Ben Olofsson but let's hear a little bit more about you and OCD so when did that first become apparent maybe not to yourself maybe to other people when was that first in your life? So it's interesting I think with OCD obviously what we often think of it is it can be really apparent to the people around you but my OCD tended to manifest in more sort of mental compulsions rather than physical so it wasn't always obvious to the people who were around me. I think probably you know looking, it started maybe when I was around 17, 18 years old, but I didn't get sort of diagnosed until later on, until I was,

Starting point is 00:04:32 you know, around 21, 22. So it was a bit of a journey to kind of, you know, come to terms with that, you know, what was going on. I didn't know a lot about OCD at the time that I started experiencing it so for me it was very difficult to kind of have that inward battle and feel like you're the only person in the world who's experiencing this just not knowing what was going on was really scary so when I sort of started to think that maybe this might be OCD I remember sort of googling a lot of my symptoms at the time and it would come up with all these different OCD forums and I thought well that can't be me because I don't you know excessively wash my hands, I'm not like very particular about where I put things. So I brushed it off for a really long time and you know the more I sort

Starting point is 00:05:21 of got into that googling spiral you know as as people with OCD often tend to do, it was becoming a bit more apparent to me that actually, you know, maybe OCD is something a bit more than just sort of, you know, cleanliness and orderliness. So, yeah, that's when I kind of started to notice. Yeah, you make such a brilliant point there that it's not just about, you know, switching on and off light switches or, you know, getting the gas dials on your hob just right. You know, what OCD is and how I explain it to clients that I work with. I should also say that you and I have never worked together therapeutically. This is a professional chat. So I hope that this feels OK, but please let me know if it doesn't and we can cut any bits out that that don't work for you as I explain OCD to to everybody really whether it's my clients or just

Starting point is 00:06:11 people I chat with OCD is you know an impulsive and intrusive thought that all of us might have it might be a really logical thought about something that becomes distressing and it's then the activity that you take to kind of neutralize and to bring that distress down with a belief that that will somehow help that to not happen or that it will make the likelihood of something else happen so for example somebody has a thought that oh it's it's cold out there. It's dark. And then they think, you know, it's a sense they make of that. Oh, you know, my loved one is actually still out at the moment. Then they begin to make, you know, their attributions to that. You know, I'm worried that something might happen to them because it is so cold and so dark. Gosh, that would be awful. That would be horrendous. Or maybe I'll, you know, I'll have to sit and do this all, you know, 15 times until it feels right. And I'm sorry for anyone listening to that on MP3. I was clicking a pen there, if you're not watching it on YouTube. I was clicking, you know, a multi-colour pen, but

Starting point is 00:07:22 it's that sense of until it feels right or until it feels manageable and that might be different on different days and what we know is that that can change so what initially kind of placates that and brings the distress down doesn't always work or the one strategy stops working over time and then you kind of have to ramp it up and that's when it really begins to impact on your well-being and sometimes your functioning and your ability to to look after yourself and and strive for normal basic functions let alone a career does that encapsulate your experience of OCD? You understand they feel different? Yeah, no, I completely agree with what you've said there.

Starting point is 00:08:10 And, you know, the main thing is, and I think as explained quite nicely there, it's the compulsion that is the part that can really begin to take over your life. You know, it's not the the thoughts themselves although they are really distressing the compulsions are really what sort of has a big impact on sort of well-being functioning if you are you have a compulsion that you need to do over and over and over again and you can't you know move on to something until that compulsion feels right or it feels that you've done it enough times or you know that anxiety has eventually lowered it impacts on everything you know it impacts on your ability to work it can impact on your ability to you know there were

Starting point is 00:08:55 times and and you know lengthy periods of time where I struggled to get out of bed because I was going through these mental compulsions in my head and it took me so long that by the time the anxiety had lowered you know it could have been minutes hours later and the thing is that you know that anxiety does eventually lower but oftentimes what happens then is you know you've done that compulsion you feel better and a few minutes later there's a new intrusive thought and you have to go through the whole process again so it can be extremely time consuming and I think that is when sometimes it can start to become apparent to the other people around you as well that something's not quite right yeah distress is the word that probably isn't always spoken about enough with OCD this is

Starting point is 00:09:42 deeply distressing and you know it's not a case of as often people will try and help you. Come on, just stop it. Just stop it. It's not that easy. This is deeply distressing. And, you know, often it will crop up. You know, I heard you say that it was around 17. And I know that's a really key time for for mocks, for AS levels, for A levels, perhaps for kind of college stuff but also you know people's health might falter a parent's health might falter and then it puts that stresses those cracks on or maybe the anxiety of having to kind of be independent get around to college there can be so many things at whatever time of life it is that kind of yeah leave that vulnerability for OCD to be able to get in and

Starting point is 00:10:26 even when in recovery and in remission or in between chunks of OCD it's really important to kind of look after well-being and self-care to to try and safeguard from finding its way in again as a strategy because it it's like you, if we're thinking of externalizing it, it's like it almost whispers to you, you know, this is going to make it better. This is going to make you feel better. This is going to help. And it kind of seduces you.

Starting point is 00:10:56 And before you know it, it's your best friend again and it's telling you lots of stuff. But it's just really hard, you know. And I realized when I was recording an episode, actually when I was doing some clinical work with a client, it wasn't a podcast, that I had been doing something for 20 years or something like that for 20 years. Since my finals at uni, I'd been folding the clothes I sleep in

Starting point is 00:11:22 and putting them under my pillow just right so that I wouldn't, I would do okay in my finals. And then it was only when I was with them and we were talking about the kind of normal stuff that we do that I realized I'm still doing that, you know, and I've never had an OCD diagnosis, but this is, you know, this can be, this can crop up in normal life. Clearly wasn't affecting my functioning, but it's so easy for things to happen. Even kind of superstition, beliefs about superstition, not passing on the stairs, you know, that is rooted in OCD, you know, and it's, yeah, it's, it's, it's, you know, omnipresent. Could you tell us a little bit about mental compulsions, please? Maybe not your own if that feels too intrusive or personal, but just as you've picked up along the time. Yeah, absolutely. So mental compulsions covers, you know, a whole range of behaviours. And I think

Starting point is 00:12:20 the important thing to know about compulsions is they can be very different and they vary from person to person I know a big one for me was kind of this feeling of having to sort of tell people you know sort of confession so I had a period where I was very focused on sort of being kind of morally correct and everything being perfect and never telling any kind of lies or anything like that so it could be something as you know inconsequential as I told someone oh this person was wearing a pink shirt and then a few minutes later I realized oh actually that person was actually wearing a blue shirt and that would take up you know that would cause me so much distress to the fact that I had not completely told the truth that I would have to go back and correct myself and say to this person actually I was wrong I didn't tell the truth that person was actually wearing a blue shirt not pink

Starting point is 00:13:13 shirt and that would be what I would have to do to kind of you know I suppose bring that anxiety down and make me feel better so you know that is a huge part of it also you know maybe asking for reassurance around things counting sort of inside your head is a huge mental compulsion for a lot of people sort of going over things mentally reviewing and you know there's a huge subset I suppose of OCD around maybe false memories so kind of thinking having an intrusive thought and believing that thought has actually happened in the past or you know you've done something wrong or you've done something bad and having to mentally sort of go back to that you know moment in time and review it and think you know

Starting point is 00:13:55 what have I done here did I do everything correctly have I done something wrong and just going over that events over and over again so there's a lot of different mental compulsions and they're not always visible to others or very apparent to others. That is a lot, isn't it? And I imagine it's quite hard to go to sleep as you're ruminating and processing over all of that. So it must really impact on every aspect of your life, your physical health, your mental health your ability to to do anything how do you strive for a career when you've got that level of kind of anguish going

Starting point is 00:14:33 on on a minute by minute basis sometimes it's a load of question really and I think part of me I've always wanted to work in mental health but this was something that I was very passionate about and I cared a lot about so I think that always helps at the time you know at my worst periods when it when you know when I'm talking about these compulsions that I was doing this was you know the a few months long where it went on for for quite some time and it was impacting my functioning but at that time I was actually finishing off my undergraduate degree. We were in sort of that period of Covid, the initial Covid period where it was locked down and you know you couldn't go outside and see people so everything

Starting point is 00:15:16 had moved online. It was incredibly incredibly difficult, I won't sugarcoat it, I was doing my you know final year exams for university getting around to do my dissertation I would find myself incredibly pressed for time a lot of the time you know I wasn't studying and actually there was a period of time where I did fail a lot of my exams because I could not get out of bed I could not get to the point of, you know, studying or even going to my lectures. I missed a lot of lectures because of this. And I eventually actually, you know, reset one of the exams that I failed. And because I failed it a second time, I was dismissed from the university. But this was sort of after my second year. So, you know, kind of getting kicked out essentially from uni

Starting point is 00:16:06 because of the, you know, the level of distress that I had and the fact that I couldn't really function very well. And at that time, I didn't know what was going on. I did not know that this was OCD. So it was incredibly difficult and it's not easy to kind of strive for that at times. And there were times that I felt like kind of just given up and, you know, thrown in the towel and saying,

Starting point is 00:16:28 maybe this isn't for me, you know. There were times that I thought that maybe I was just lazy or, you know, I couldn't, I wasn't as smart as other people. Why was I failing everything? You know, why couldn't I just, you know, get up and do these things? But it was because these compulsions and this distress was taking up so much time and so much energy that I did not have the energy for for anything else yeah gosh

Starting point is 00:16:51 I'm so sorry to hear about that and you know OCD takes so much from the people that it affects you know but actually that's also a real financial impact as well that that's two years of funding that you have presumably have to repay and and then to get yourself to where you are you need to ultimately do another degree perhaps all three years again like and you know I was as you're talking thinking about my experiences in this weekend I'm actually going to go and see my undergraduate friends. We're going to go and have a lunch and shopping date together. But it would have been, I don't know, like you lost out on those relationships with people. I hope you might still be in touch with them, but you lost the chance to be carefree and to do what everyone else who was your age was likely doing at that time because you were so distressed and so consumed by this that's a really big deal yeah absolutely you know I do think back on those

Starting point is 00:17:54 times and it is unfortunate that you know the time that I spent inside at home you know just not being able to get out of bed because I was all consumed by OCD and I think the biggest part of it for me was the not knowing not knowing what was wrong with me feeling like I was the only person in the world that was dealing with this and you know there was something really really wrong with me because I couldn't do the the things that other people were doing and you're right I really kind of struggled with you know making relationships with other people because I couldn't spend that time I was never fully present in moments where I maybe would have liked to been so it did have a huge impact on just sort of my university life and then obviously kind of going

Starting point is 00:18:43 back to university you know through Covid that added another layer onto it where you couldn't you know you couldn't go out and meet new people so it did have a huge impact on you know that that period of my life. It sounds like there was some missed opportunities along the way actually Faye perhaps after your A levels or whatever secondary education you were doing and perhaps student support should have really brought you in to think about what was going on because of the high number of missed lectures and just where you were hitting the mark academically compared to what your potential was perhaps and do you have a sense of what might have made a difference yeah no I think you're

Starting point is 00:19:28 right and I think you know you don't want to kind of dwell too much on it and you know in the past because you know these things have happened now and I often look back on it and think that was the best thing that actually could have happened for me in that time because this is where I am now but I think you're 100% correct and you know mental health support you know I think quite famously throughout secondary schools and you know moving up into higher education isn't always the best so you know a bit of support probably would have you know gone a long way I think in in that instance I think also as well just acknowledging the fact that it wasn't so obvious to even to myself that you know particularly what was wrong or to other people so people may have asked and I may have just said you know I'm fine and everything's okay because I

Starting point is 00:20:21 wasn't really sure what was going on so it's interesting that you bring that up but this is why it's so important to cultivate that awareness around OCD and bring it more into you know just the public lexicon and you know just get that understanding because what people think OCD is is a very very limited what what it really is and you know everything that OCD encompasses and it's still used you know to this day quite you know in in quite a flippant way where people like you know I'm a little bit OCD or because they you know they like to clean and that has a huge impact on the people who are actually struggling with OCD because they don't get the chance to learn what this is and they might be going through the same struggles that I did where they they're having these thoughts they're having these compulsions

Starting point is 00:21:10 but because they're not in line with what they know about OCD they they internalize it and they keep it to themselves and they they don't seek out diagnosis knowledge that actually it can take years and years and years I think it's something between you know up to 14 years it can take someone to to get an OCD diagnosis and I think a huge part of that is to do with the fact that it's so misunderstood and it could just having that knowledge and raising that awareness could go a really long way in in supporting people. on people absolutely um you know the pathologization of of OCD being so common in people is something I've spoken about in on my socials but it's not you know OCD needs to impact on function risk you know well-being you know needs many, many problems. But if actually you really just like a very clean house, but you're able to do all of your things without denting your well-being,

Starting point is 00:22:12 you know, that is not OCD. That might be some reliefs around cleanliness, you know, and you know, what dirt is might be a fear about what other people would say about you but if if you are able to be entirely functional get everything done your well-being is radiant your house smells like you know stacy solomon wax melts or whatever like uh you know and you're not a risk to yourself or others you don't always have to have risk to yourself or others for OCD, but it can become that because it's so distressing that sometimes people don't want to live anymore because it's so, we can't dial back time for you. But, you know, people listening to this podcast, perhaps working in student services, can become more aware. Perhaps working in higher education, like, oh, this could be a possibility. How could I gently explore this? You know, and, you know, red, raw or bleeding hands is a really easy way in or it can help join up the dots. But without that,

Starting point is 00:23:27 it can be really, really difficult to kind of help work out what's going on. But also, you need to feel like you trust the person you're speaking to and that it feels safe to have that conversation. But it sounds very much like you were really trying to just keep yourself to yourself to get through each day. Yeah, absolutely. And another thing about OCD and what's not spoken about so much is those intrusive thoughts that might be actually a bit more taboo, you know, thoughts around safety. People might have thoughts ofoo you know thoughts around safety people might have thought of you know a really common one is that fear of losing control so people might have a big fear around sort of knives because they think you know if I'm near that I might lose control and I might you know I might

Starting point is 00:24:18 harm myself I may harm someone else and to to have those kind of thoughts and to not know why you're having them and to not know that that is a really common symptom of OCD is incredibly incredibly distressing and no wonder like as you said people do get to the point of you know wanting to take their own lives because they think something is seriously wrong with them and they're they're a risk to themselves or to others when actually you know it it's not congruent with with how you actually feel with your values it's very much you know OCD latches on to the things that you really care about so if you really value you know your family it may be that you then have intrusive thoughts of something bad happening to them or causing them harm and that is why those thoughts become so overstressed then because you you care about that

Starting point is 00:25:13 and you don't want that to happen you know so I think it's difficult in that sense because you don't want to voice those thoughts to other people because you're scared of what they're going to say you know absolutely and whenever I'm working with anyone about intrusive thoughts and how powerful they can be but also how we can't control them I kind of get this out which is like a sand you know you're looking at the sand coming down and you can't control it you know you might have to watch it but if we were to try to take well have to watch it. But if we were to try to take, well, I can see through it. If we were to try to predict what's going to happen

Starting point is 00:25:52 or to make plans for what might happen if that bit falls or, you know, it really demonstrates quite nicely how intrusive, impulsive thoughts work. But that we need to just get better at watching the leaves in the stream and you know knowing that we will have these thoughts but if I was to throw you a tennis ball for example you don't have to catch it or you can catch it and put it down or you can throw it to somebody else you don't always need to take action with that and

Starting point is 00:26:23 keep it with you and like before you know it you've got 18 tennis balls up your jumper that you're trying to kind of juggle and balance you know we've we've got to learn that we've got choices of what to do with our impulsive trusive thoughts we just have to be able to build those stabilization skills and the distress tolerance skills to not judge ourselves, to know that we are capable of really wild thoughts, really wild ideas. And this is always where I sit for therapy. And whenever I'm working with anybody, I'm not going to say it on camera

Starting point is 00:26:57 because I don't want it to be used out of context. But every time I'm working with a new client, I come up with a new possible awful scenario that I could reap, you know, havoc on my local environment using what I can see. So I'm not going to say it because I don't want it to suddenly go, you know, Dr. Trent says that. But we are capable of generating things and the very, you know, when we're look at compassion focused therapy, which I know is often key for people with OCD, we are still humans and humans, you know, were in gladiatorial battles and going and watching all of that violence and, you know, cheering for it. And, you know, all of the stuff that's kind of happened in kind of Nazi concentration camps, you know, that's humans have done that to other humans. We're capable of coming up with stuff that generates us thoughts, but we don't always need to run

Starting point is 00:27:58 with those thoughts and those ideas. And that can be really bad and it says you know so if you don't act upon the thoughts it says nothing about you you know and that's really powerful could you tell us about some of the approaches that have been instrumental for you overcoming or kind of containing the OCD yeah absolutely the first thing that I actually found really helped before I actually did any therapy for OCD was I did a lot of mindfulness meditation and I did that religiously. I, you know, I would do that every day. I did it for a couple of years, you know, without fail, I would meditate for at least 10 minutes every day. And with O OCD the reason that mindfulness is so helpful and it's as you've just mentioned it's kind of seeing those thoughts you know acknowledging them they're there they've they've

Starting point is 00:28:56 popped into your head but a thought is just a thought and there doesn't have to be any kind of meaning attached to that thought so just observing it okay and letting that thought go because eventually it will you know we have I don't know how many thoughts thousands upon thousands of thoughts in just one day so that is just one of many and it will pass eventually if we just you know see it acknowledge it and let it go the obviously the reason that OCD becomes so distressing is because we attach a lot of value to those thoughts a lot of meaning to those thoughts and we try and get rid of them but you know a really common analogy is that one of you know if I were to say don't think of a pink elephant the first thing

Starting point is 00:29:43 you're going to think about is a pink elephant so you know trying to kind of battle those thoughts and push them away can be really counterproductive so mindfulness was a really useful technique for me and just kind of letting those thoughts and not you know having it out with them just seeing them and saying okay it's here and it will pass and eventually they do so it's it's really useful and it tied them really nicely to you know I did eventually start doing a bit of exposure and response prevention therapy which is you know the main kind of thing that they use in the NHS for treating OCD which is you know essentially kind of exposing yourself to you to the thought or the thing that makes you feel that anxiety, makes you feel that distress, and not carrying out your compulsion. So the behavior that you

Starting point is 00:30:32 would do to bring that anxiety down. So mindfulness, I found, worked really well, kind of hand in hand with the ERP therapy to kind of make me become a bit more tolerant of that anxiety and make me feel a bit more comfortable in just knowing that it will pass and I don't have to act on anything I don't have to do anything to make that anxiety go away it just will so that was a huge thing and that's been you know absolutely fundamental in in treating my OCD. Good I'm pleased that you found something that's really helped to take control actually to take control back and I know sometimes people are so distressed that actually medication helps take the edge off to be able to tolerate any distress at all or any more distress about not doing the the activity because there's always so much distress anyway.

Starting point is 00:31:26 But the idea of upsetting the apple cart is too much. So sometimes medication can help people to take the edge off to then be able to tolerate the therapy. But for anybody watching this, I want them to know this is not going to be flooding. This is not going to be us cutting you off. Cold turkey. You're not doing that anymore.

Starting point is 00:31:49 You just got to tolerate it. It isn't that. That would be so inhumane. You know, we need to build up so that the distress is tolerated and then build upon those blocks. But also know that with any setbacks, sometimes we need to work a little bit backwards before we can then work forwards again. This is compassionate, this is humane, this is working with you, not against you. And, you know, that is really important that really somebody's buying into not wanting to suffer this way anymore and to find a way back to more balance, more well-being, less problems,

Starting point is 00:32:28 less risks. Because people deserve to have richly rewarding lives where they have careers, where they have intimate relationships if they want them, where they have friendships, where they can tolerate being around their own children or other people's you know and just that life feels like it's worth living and it feels there's a point in it you know yeah absolutely and a really you know something that i always say to clients that i work with now who who come in with with OCD or with you know intrusive thoughts compulsions is that the therapy for OCD is difficult you know you do have to put a lot of work into that and you know it can be really distressing at times what was harder for me than you know doing the exposure and response prevention therapy was actually living day-to-day

Starting point is 00:33:26 with with OCD so that was a choice that I had to make was am I you know gonna commit to this and do it and have the support of someone there who's you know helping and guiding me through it or you know do I kind of live with this and with it becoming worse and worse you know with every passing day because as you mentioned earlier on it comes to a point where we kind of habituate to those compulsions almost and we have to do more and more to make ourselves feel better so the OCD only gets worse do I continue with that or do I you know commit to this therapy and you know this moment of the stress knowing that actually this is this is going to be really useful for me yeah absolutely and reaching out

Starting point is 00:34:13 to ask for help can feel like a really brave step but it's really really important and people do get better from OCD you know it might be that you use those strategies every day but people get better from OCD you know it might be that you use those strategies every day but people get better and do have that meaningful enjoyable life thank you so much for sharing your your wise insights with our audience is there anything I haven't asked you that you think is important that that we do cover that we think about yeah I think a huge thing that is really important and something that I didn't know sort of a few years back was that OCD is treated you know really widely throughout the NHS you know I remember going through a phase where you know I thought that this was really uncommon

Starting point is 00:35:06 disorder and it was going to be really difficult to get help but actually you know the the talking therapy services you know throughout the NHS across the UK they all will bring you in and treat you for for OCD and the practitioners there they do have an understanding of OCD so I know it's really incredibly scary and incredibly difficult to to reach out for that support and you don't you don't always want to tell someone what's going on in your own head but just please be aware that you know there are trained professionals out there who who know what you're going through who who will understand, who will listen to you and will, will give you the help that you need. Yeah, absolutely. And yes, don't feel like you're struggling alone because, you know, people are just trying to make the best of worlds with these wild, tricky brains that we've got, you know, we're just humans and, you know, that's just how it is.

Starting point is 00:36:06 Thank you so much. Wishing you well with your work as a PWP and beyond whatever that looks like for you. And keep up with that mindfulness. Keep doing that. I will. I will. Thanks, Marianne. Thank you. You too. Thank you so much to our guest faye i did forget to mention um where you can

Starting point is 00:36:31 catch up with faye if you want to connect with her she is on linkedin and she is faye with an e so f a y e wilson more about her and what she does. Mainly follow her journey in her career too. Please, if you are struggling with OCD or you care about somebody who is, please do book yourself a GP appointment or, you know, encourage someone that you love to do that. Maybe offer to go with them if that would be useful. You can also come and connect with me on my social media channels where I am Dr. Marianne Trent. Absolutely everywhere. And I've got a sprinkling of different content that goes in different places as well. So do come and follow me everywhere. And of course, we've got the free Aspiring Psychologist Community Facebook group where you can come and watch the exclusive videos called Marianne's Motivation and Mindset, which happen weekly on Fridays. If it's your time and you're in the psychology profession, you're ready for the next step, please do also check out the Aspiring Psychologist membership. And if you found this video helpful, I know that you'll really find the one I did with Alexandra on OCD and complex trauma to

Starting point is 00:37:47 be really useful as well. I will link that in the show notes and it will be on screen at the end of this for you to just click through and watch as well. Please also consider the Aspiring Psychologist Collective book, the Clinical Psychologist Collective book, and the brand new kid on the block, An Autistic Anthology, which is real life stories of people with autism diagnosis, talking about their experiences working in mental health. Thank you so much for being part of my world. Do be kind to yourself. If you're looking to become a psychologist, then let this be your guide. With this podcast at your side, you'll be on your way to being qualified. It's the Aspiring Psychologist Podcast with Dr. Marianne Trent My name's Jana and I'm a trainee psychological wellbeing practitioner.

Starting point is 00:38:56 I read the Clinical Psychologist Collective book. I found it really interesting about all the different stories and how people got to become a clinical psychologist. It just amazed me how many different routes there are to get there and there's no perfect way to become one. And this kind of filled me with confidence that no, I'm not doing it wrong and put less pressure on myself. So if you're feeling a bit uneasy about becoming a clinical psychologist I'd definitely recommend this just to put yourself at ease and everything will be okay. But trust me you will not put the book down once you start.

The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - Understanding OCD: Symptoms, Treatment, and Daily Challenges - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

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