The standard model for understanding OCD is that obsessions cause distress which compulsions reduce. The leading treatment aims to reduce distress over obsessions, so the compulsions are no longer necessary. This is accomplished by addressing ideas about the meaning and importance of obsessions and by exposure to the obsession while the compulsion is prohibited; over time the distress will decline and over repeated exposure the obsession will cause less and less distress. Compulsions wreak havoc with people’s social, work, and family lives. Outside the o-c cycle people often view them as having been unnecessary or at least excessive. Yet in the moment they are very challenging to resist. This talk examines what makes it so hard resist compulsions, drawing on recent theories and recent research on why compulsions persist.

Dr. Purdon is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Waterloo in Canada and is a Registered Psychologists. Her career has been spent studying and treating obsessions and compulsions. She has 65 research articles and numerous book chapters on treatment of OCD. Her self-help book, Overcoming Obsessive Thoughts (co-authored by David A. Clark) has sold over 50 000 copies.