Depression as a Compulsion
Understanding OCD, Depression, and Mindfulness
Depression often coexists with disorders like OCD, affecting 25-50% of individuals with OCD. Depression is more than just sadness - it's persistent and can present differently for each person. Studies show over 40% of Americans struggle with depression, worsened by the pandemic. Grief and trauma can also contribute, highlighting the importance of addressing mental health.
This episode, hosted by Erin, a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and OCD Specialist, aims to raise awareness about OCD, highlighting that it is more complex than commonly portrayed. The episode explains the relationship between OCD and depression, noting that a significant percentage of those with OCD experience depression.
Erin addresses various forms of depression, including Major Depressive Disorder, teen depression, and postpartum depression, emphasizing the importance of professional diagnosis and treatment.
Additionally, the episode explores depression as a compulsion within OCD.
Learn about the misconceptions surrounding depression and the benefits of mindfulness.
Erin announces the launch of a private podcast focusing on mindfulness meditation, aiming to provide listeners with strategies to find peace amidst chaos. The content is designed to be educational and supportive, please seek appropriate care. You are not alone.
00:00 Raising Awareness: Understanding OCD Beyond Stereotypes
00:35 Depression and OCD: A Deep Dive
01:08 Meet Erin: Your Guide to Overcoming OCD
01:33 Celebrating Mother's Day and Preparing for the Episode
01:51 Depression: Misunderstandings and Realities
04:25 Life's Unexpected Storms: A Metaphor for Resilience
06:57 Introducing Mindfulness: Your Armor Against Life's Storms
09:33 Depressive Symptoms and Major Depressive Disorder Explained
16:17 Addressing Teen Depression: Signs and Solutions
19:01 Postpartum Depression: Understanding and Support
21:57 Depression as a Compulsion: A New Perspective
26:38 Wrapping Up: Resources and Encouragement
References:
Depression and OCD
Can OCD cause depression?
-
We're partnering with NoCD to raise awareness about OCD. OCD is more than what you see on TV and in the movies. Imagine having unwanted thoughts about your relationship stuck in your head all day, no matter how hard you try to make them go away. That's Relationship OCD. It comes with unrelenting intrusive images, thoughts, and urges about your partner or loved one.
Breaking the OCD cycle takes effective treatment. Go to NoCD. org. to get evidence based treatment. Did you know that between 25 to 50 percent of folks with OCD will also experience depression? That's a pretty high number if you're someone who has OCD or you have a loved one with OCD. In today's episode, I'm going to be talking about depression and all things about depressive symptoms and how it shows up when you also have OCD.
And hang around until the end of the episode where I talk about depression as a compulsion. Hi, I'm Erin, licensed clinical mental health counselor and OCD specialist. I'm also a Christian, Catholic, Wife, mom to three, and small business owner. Helping those who are overwhelmed by stress to climb out of that valley and enjoy the view.
Reheat your coffee and pop in your AirPods to learn how to boss up to OCD. Let's start off today's episode by wishing the mothers a happy early Mother's Day. I hope that this Mother's Day is pleasant, wonderful, and you get all the accolades that you deserve. In preparing today's episode, there are a lot of things that I want to share, because with depression, it's one of those things that mental health conditions that is also widely misunderstood.
Like everyone feels sad or lonely from time to time. That's a normal part of our human condition and our rollercoaster of emotions. But if you have depression, those feelings go on for long periods of time. And just like with OCD, depression can show up differently for different people. In pulling together some quotes, I went out to youthdynamics.
org. All of these links are going to be in the show notes for today. If you want Want to take a look at any of these references and in the quote It's from an unknown source, which says people think depression is sadness that it's crying and dressing in black But people are wrong Depression is the constant feeling of being numb.
It's being numb to emotions being numb to life You wake up in the morning just to go back to bed again And there are surveys out there showing that over 40 percent of Americans are struggling with depression in addition to other mental health related conditions. You know, honestly, in thinking about what we have all gone through with the pandemic, that number is not all that surprising.
During the pandemic, depression skyrocketed. And over the years, you've probably experienced some level of grief or trauma as no one is immune to any of these life circumstances. In speaking of grief, next week I'm going to have a friend come on the show. Her name is Dr. Heather Taylor, and she's a psychologist out in Washington State.
She and I are going to have a conversation about grief and normalizing the conversation around grief. With May, it's Mental Health Awareness Month. In keeping the theme of this podcast and getting the right kind of treatment and breaking the stigma, grief really fits in that bubble of honoring Mental Health Awareness Month.
Depression can have genetic factors or environmental factors contributing to the sadness. Because as we know, life can throw us curveballs. Things can happen out of nowhere. So last week, I was at my kid's baseball game. I'm cheering him on from the sidelines. and then out of nowhere come rolling in these dark, ominous clouds.
Before you know it, we're in a heavy downpour. Rain is hitting us full force. The kids don't care about getting wet, and so they want to keep on playing baseball. Everyone is scrambling to find shelter to get out of the rain, but the rain had other plans. You know when you've been in that rain that's like a sideways rain.
Yeah, soon enough, we're all soaking wet, my hat is dripping water like a leaky faucet, and the umpires finally call the game and just say, no, we're done. Of course, we're all just drenched, but we're making a run back to the truck. It's a mad dash. It feels like chaos. Huh. And. We finally get everything loaded, because if you're a baseball parent, you know that when you roll up to the baseball field, you've probably got one wagon overloaded.
It's overfilled and you've got bungee cords keeping everything locked in to your wagon. So imagine you're hauling butt in the pouring rain with this wet stuff. It's so heavy. You're trying to dodge puddles but there's just No option. You just gotta, you're just in it now. So we get to the truck, we get everything loaded, close the doors, and I just can't help but bust out laughing.
Oh man, from that mad dash to finally being in the truck. It was just hilarious. So let's pause for a moment and think about life's unexpected storms. Just like how the preacher was talking last Sunday about going through storms, like, how do you handle it? Do you do X, Y, and Z when you're going through a storm?
Sudden rain showers catch us off guard and they leave us feeling uncertain, scared, and we're drenched with doubt. But here's the thing. We can weather life's storms. with resilience, with gratitude, and a sense of humor. One of the most powerful tools in managing these challenges and the storms of life is mindfulness.
Imagine if you're in the middle of a downpour in your life. You're in that storm, yet you're able to center yourself. You're able to have a moment of calmness, clarity, and get relief from that sideways rain. So imagine that you have a shield of armor to help you as you go through the storm. That's the power of mindfulness.
We're getting closer and closer to the launch of my private podcast on mindfulness meditations. And believe me, after that rainstorm, I definitely had to do a lot of my own mindfulness. And so in the private podcast, I'm going to have guided practices and it's going to be between 17 to 20 episodes. Where you'll learn to find peace during the chaos and embrace each moment with a fresh new perspective and be fully present.
The reason I'm doing the Private Mindfulness Podcast is because mindfulness is a practice. It's not a one and done thing. It's a continual new way of thinking that this podcast will be designed to help you learn how to really incorporate mindfulness. So don't let life's storms wash away your joy. I will have a link in the show notes for you to get access to the early bird pricing.
The early bird pricing if you buy today. I assure you that this pricing is going to be cheaper than what's going to be out there to the public once the podcast is officially launched. So it's just a heads up that you can get a discounted price on that private podcast now. This is May 2024, and I plan to launch that podcast this summer.
So not much time left if you're wanting that early bird pricing, and that price will help you get the private podcast for one whole year. If you're looking for that perfect Mother's Day gift, totally recommend the private podcast on mindfulness. Let's talk about depressive symptoms and how they show up.
This question comes from Lorena in Taylorsville, North Carolina, who asked, What's the difference between depression and major depressive disorder? And in answering her question, the diagnostic book just calls it major depressive disorder, and then as the therapist, doctor, provider, Or, whoever is treating you, they will mark your depression as mild, moderate, or severe.
And so it depends upon how severe your symptoms are impacting your life, or in other words, how badly they're creating complications in your life. I'll give you a high overview of major depressive disorder as it reads from the diagnostic book that therapists use. And, oh, side note, do not self diagnose yourself.
Go to a medical provider to get proper diagnosis as well as proper treatment. Okay, so it reads as having five or more symptoms that are present during a consecutive two week period. The same two week period. And they represent a change from how you were acting and behaving previously. So first, Sign or symptom could be a depressed mood most of the day nearly every day like where you feel sad, you feel empty, you feel hopeless, or other people can notice that you're more tearful than your typical self.
For kids and teens, maybe they're not tearful. They could be angry or irritable or easily frustrated. Second sign or symptom is if you have a lowered interest. or enjoyment in your daily activities. So it's like, maybe you used to enjoy going to your kids ballgames, or you used to enjoy going out for a walk, or you used to enjoy going to church, or you used to enjoy going out with friends and getting a coffee.
Those things are not feeling as enjoyable as they once did. Maybe you dread them. Third sign is experiencing weight loss when you're not trying to diet, or you're having weight gain when you're not intending to gain weight. And so the way we look at that is if you're noticing a change in your appetite, whether your appetite is going up or down, that's a key piece of information to tell your medical provider.
In kids, it could be that they are not gaining weight at the interval or they're not the appropriate weight at their developmental age. Uh, another sign here, number four, is that you are experiencing insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day. What that means is that you're having a hard time sleeping. So maybe you're having a hard time getting to sleep or you're over sleeping.
One side note I've heard along the way is that anxious people have a hard time falling asleep, but then depressed people will wake up before their alarm. So that seemed like a very odd tidbit, which maybe it just depends. Well, obviously it does depend on the person, but anyhow, number five is looking at your physical motions.
So I don't know about you, but have you ever noticed that sometimes you just move slower? That's what this is talking about in part number five, where Other people are noticing, hey, you're kind of like in sloth, slow motion right now. Opposite could also be true, where you're moving in fast motion. It really just depends on the mood, but again, it's got to be a different set of signs than how you normally are.
We're partnering with NoCD to raise awareness about OCD. OCD is more than what you see on TV and in the movies. Imagine having unwanted thoughts about your relationship stuck in your head all day, no matter how hard you try to make them go away. That's Relationship OCD. It comes with unrelenting, intrusive images, thoughts, and urges about your partner or loved one.
If you think you may be struggling with Relationship OCD, there's hope. NoCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. NoCD therapists are trained and experienced. Exposure response prevention therapy. The gold standard treatment for OCD. With no CD you can do virtual live face-to-face video sessions with one of their licensed specialty trained therapists.
It's affordable and they accept most major insurance plans. Breaking the relationship OCD cycle takes effective treatment To get started with no cd go to no cd.com/savage. Number six is feeling tired or just that loss of energy nearly every day. Number seven is feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt.
So you're feeling a lot of guilt or you're feeling like you're not worth anything, like you're not going to amount to anything. Number eight is a Lowered, huh, and as I'm recording, it's starting to have a downpour of rain. Oh my goodness, the irony. Okay, number eight is a lowered ability to concentrate or make decisions.
And this is, showing up for you nearly every day during this two week period. Number nine is recurrent thoughts of death. Not just a fear of dying, but it could include repeating thoughts of suicidal ideation or thoughts of not wanting to live or ending your life. If you ever find yourself in a place where you're not wanting to live or you're thinking about suicide, there is the National Suicide Hotline available to you with crisis counselors online 24 7 and you can reach them by dialing 988.
Now, when it comes to OCD, there are times when you can experience harm OCD, where you have a fear of accidentally hurting yourself or hurting yourself to the point of ending your life. That fear is very common when dealing with OCD. And I'll have a whole entire episode on that at another time. Yeah.
Let's shift and talking about teens and youth. If you're a parent and you've got a teenager, their depression could look like just having a persistent, feels like never ending mood of sadness, emptiness, hopelessness. Perhaps they're not wanting to go out with their friends as much as they once did, or they've got those sleeping problems that I talked about and you've noticed that they've had a change in their sleeping routine.
What's the most interesting for depression in teenagers is how depression doesn't just manifest as sadness. Especially in teens. In teens, and I know it may seem like, Oh, this is the rite of passage as a teenager where you have mood swings and you get angry. But, no. It needs to be a different shift from how they are normally.
Or, if they're normally depressed, just angry all the time, it could be untreated depression. Anyway, depression in teens can manifest as irritability, which means they're easily frustrated. They're having those mood swings or the outburst of anger, even over small issues. If your kid used to love to hang out with their friends, but now they're not wanting to do that, or they used to love to play soccer, but now they don't have an interest, that could be cause for concern.
You may notice that your kid is turning to drugs, or maybe they're considering using marijuana or alcohol as a way to cope with their depression. Some physical signs of depression besides the weight loss or weight gain, you may see that your kid is self harming and I understand how alarming and scary that can be.
So if you notice any signs of self harming or they're talking about not wanting to live, even if it Seems like it's not super serious. I highly encourage you to take them to a therapist or their primary care doctor, or even the ER. If it's very serious, or you really don't know what to do, take them to the ER.
That is always an option, but take them to a provider so that they can get assessed and they can get the help that they need. And that way you'll know. a game plan or a path forward. And you're not in this alone. With depression, it can bring on some physical symptoms. So that could look like headaches, stomach aches, or body aches.
Now let's shift for a second to postpartum depression. You may have heard of postpartum depression happening in moms and I have done an episode on postpartum OCD, and that was back in episode four, if you want to take a listen to that. Another interesting fact when it comes to postpartum depression is that It doesn't necessarily last for just one year.
There was a study published in the National Institutes of Health that shared that some women experience high levels of postpartum depression for almost three months. years after giving birth. Man, that's rough. And you think about the symptoms of postpartum depression. I mean, some of it comes just from naturally being a mother, where you have exhaustion and difficulty sleeping and probably consumed with worry about your kid.
If you're also suffering from OCD, I want to give you affirmation here that all parents, including new parents, Parents may have sudden or unwanted thoughts about harming their baby. Yeah, I understand that can sound alarming, but about half of all parents, and that includes moms and dads, have intrusive thoughts just like this.
That stat came from PubMed Central, and it was published in the British Journal of General Practice. Because remember, we all experience intrusive thoughts. It's just that someone with OCD has thoughts that hang around a little bit too long or they're too sticky and we can't get unstuck from them. For that postpartum mom who is experiencing depression, either you're noticing it or you're seeing it in your loved one where they are more tearful than usual, they're having ups and downs, it's like a whole roller coaster of mood, appetite, their sleep is all over the place, they have a hard time making decisions, they can't concentrate.
And as moms, it can be easy to put yourself on the back burner and that could show up like you're not taking your shower as often as you would like. Or you're not keeping up with your personal appearance or hygiene. Like maybe you're not exercising or even shaving your legs. I mean, you know, that's like one of those personal upkeep deals that it's really annoying.
If I'm being honest, but maybe you're not keeping up with it because you just don't feel like it. There was another quote by an unknown source that said, You don't understand depression until you can't stand your own presence in an empty room. In wrapping up today's episode, let's talk about depression as a compulsion.
This happens when you are in the thick of OCD and your intrusive thoughts are telling you that Oh, if you're happy, something bad is going to happen as if there's this karma or some bad omen, this dark cloud, right? Speaking of all the weather metaphors today, like there's this dark cloud hanging over you.
And if you have any. Type of sunshine or bright day. Something bad is about to happen around the corner. Does that sound familiar? Yeah, so as a result, you're not even allowing yourself to be happy or to be present or to have even Gratitude. Yeah, even gratitude can be difficult So it's hard for you to be thankful for things because if you're grateful for it That's showing some sign of positivity and that positivity will be Unhelpful.
That's the message that your OCD is telling you. That's the message that your obsessions and intrusive thoughts are telling you. So you find yourself trying to stay in check and saying like, oh don't get too happy, don't get too excited, because if you do something bad is going to happen. So these compulsions are designed to keep you safe and to prevent something bad from happening.
It's putting yourself in between a rock and a hard place. Because you are keeping yourself miserable or unhappy or depressed to prevent something bad from happening, even though you're already in an undesirable situation. So if you're already suffering, why not try therapy where you, yes, you're going to be uncomfortable because you've got to work through some stuff.
Yeah, at least you're working through stuff in a way that's going to help you feel better in the long run. So is it really serving you to hang on to these compulsions of depression? You know, the compulsion being like, don't be too happy. Don't be thankful. Don't be optimistic. Is that really helping you overall?
Now logically you can recognize, no, this is not helping me. And you're very scared to make any changes. But are you willing to live this way for the next five years? No? What about the next five months? Mmm, not really. What about the next five weeks? Probably not that either. What about the next five days?
Five hours? Five minutes? Five seconds? If you said no to any of those questions, it sounds like you're ready for a change. Some of the bravest people I know are those that go through therapy because they are willing to do the work, to be open, to be vulnerable, to be uncomfortable, and do it anyway. And it's so cool to see you guys on the other side when you're like, wow, I could not have done this five months ago.
It could be as simple as turning on the faucet one time and washing your hands in a nonchalant kind of way. In terms of depression, you're able to have a gratitude jar in the middle of your dining table and you're happy about it. You're happy about pulling a slip of paper out of that gratitude jar and reading something that you're grateful for.
You love bringing in those, reminders of the joys of life and you're not afraid of it anymore. Depression as a compulsion is a thing. And some of you may not have recognized that could be a compulsion. And I'm here to tell you that it, in fact, is. We're partnering with KnowCD to raise awareness about depression.
OCD is more than what you see on TV and in the movies. Imagine having unwanted thoughts about your relationship stuck in your head all day, no matter how hard you try to make them go away. That's Relationship OCD. It comes with unrelenting, intrusive images, thoughts, and urges about your partner or loved one.
Breaking the OCD cycle takes effective treatment. Go to NOCD. org. to get evidence based treatment. All right, go check out the private podcast pre sale because again, you're going to get that early bird price and you're going to lock in that price for one whole year access to the private podcast. Link is in the show notes.
Next week, I will be back with my friend, Dr. Heather Taylor. She's the host of a podcast called grief is the new normal. I can't wait for y'all to hear all the details on that conversation. Happy Friday. And again, happy mother's day to all the moms out there. Thank you for listening to another episode of bossing up.
This information is intended to be helpful and not a substitute for professional counseling. If you're struggling with any mental health challenges, I encourage you to seek help from a qualified therapist or health care professional. If you enjoyed today's episode, please take a moment to rate and review the show.
Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and don't forget to check out the affiliate links in the show notes for more information! For handpicked recommendations that can brighten your day. Your support through these links helps keep the show running and provide valuable content. You're not alone in your journey.
Stay strong, stay resilient and keep bossing up. See you next time.
-
✨Content is proudly sponsored by NOCD. Go to NOCD.com/savage to get evidence-based treatment from US locations & abroad!
➡️If you're located in North Carolina or Virginia, Book Your Consult with Erin to schedule your free 15-minute video call. 🎥 Erin is now accepting new clients for an intensive outpatient program!
➡️Love the podcast? Awesome! Treat Erin to a coffee! ☕️
➡️Want more? 👏
Snag a spot on Erin's email newsletter to get extra tips, tricks, & insider info. 📧
Shop Erin's store for OCD-themed merch to brighten your day. ☀️
➡️Handpicked rec's for you:
Thrizer simplifies your insurance benefits for out-of-network care.
Descript offers powerful tools for editing audio & video, making it easy to polish your podcast.
Needing passive income? Open a high-yield savings account with SoFi & get $25 for opening an account with my link! 💸
*These are affiliate links, which means I may get a kickback (at no additional cost to you) if you purchase after clicking.
➡️Please rate the show with five stars, & select "Write a Review" to let others know what you loved most about the episode! ✍️ When you leave that raving review, shoot me a message to get your special bonus! 🎉
