Diet Changes That Help OCD
This episode is full of food ideas that you can accomplish on your own to boost the way you feel, bring up your energy, and give you better gut health. *Always check with your doctor about any diet and supplement changes.
Links mentioned in today's show:
1. Check out my YouTube channel for today's video episode.
2. The Anti-Inflammatory Food Book where you can get recipe ideas that lower inflammation and improve mood!
3. Connect with me on LinkedIn!
The host, Erin, a licensed clinical mental health counselor and OCD specialist, discusses the misconception that therapy is only for severe mental health issues and emphasizes the accessibility of therapy for anyone looking to improve their mental wellness. The episode also explores lifestyle changes, particularly dietary adjustments, that can support mental health improvement. Erin stresses the importance of correct therapy, such as exposure and response prevention and cognitive behavioral therapy, for treating OCD. Additionally, the episode covers the anti-inflammatory diet and recommends resources for listeners seeking to make lifestyle changes that benefit their mental and physical health. Erin concludes by encouraging listeners to consider therapy and lifestyle adjustments to manage their OCD and improve overall well-being.
00:33 Welcome to the Episode: Understanding OCD Beyond Stereotypes
01:23 Meet Erin: Your Guide to Overcoming OCD
01:47 New Year, New You: Lifestyle Changes for OCD
03:22 The Importance of Specialized Therapy for OCD
09:25 Diet and Mental Health: Foods to Embrace and Avoid
25:05 Closing Thoughts and Resources
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[00:00:00]--Ad-- 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.com to get evidence-based treatment.
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All right. Welcome to this week's episode!
We're going to be talking more about OCD and some lifestyle changes you can make on your own to help. Improve your symptoms to help improve the anxiety. From the articles, information, and just things I overhear from people, it sounds like there's a lot of folks who feel like therapy is not for them, or they feel [00:01:00] like, therapy is only for people who have severe mental health, diagnoses symptoms, et cetera.
You don't have to have severe symptoms to come to therapy. Because think about it like a resource where you're learning skills to help better take care of your mind and your mental wellness.
<Podcast Intro>
Okay. Well, we are in the new year, lot of people are probably hitting up the gym. We're coming up to mid-January, so I hope that's still the case. If that was your new year's resolution, [00:02:00] I hope you're still getting after it and pursuing your goals, keep doing you, you know, remember your why and your aspirations for wanting to be healthy. It will pay off.
Think about here's the example.
Okay. Getting back to the example. Think about when you're working out, you don't jump right into lifting heavy weights. You build your strength And so you work your way up and, and working your way. Up you get stronger and stronger. No matter where you are. In terms of how severe your symptoms are, therapy can address. What you're going through and help you become stronger, get a different perspective or help you feel more well-rounded in the way you think about things.
Okay. And for those of you that are listening on the podcast today, I want to give you the heads up that I'm going to be posting a [00:03:00] video on my YouTube channel of said podcast. It will no longer be one of the audio grams. I'm going to give it a try and you'll see me wearing my app state hoodie.
Go mountaineers!My YouTube channel is at the handle of Erin Davis Counseling Services.
And that's E R I N. If you're wondering how to spell Erin.
Now I want to also put out there the reason. I started this podcast was to bring more awareness to the OCD community and break the stigma of getting help for OCD. OCD is, especially, critical in getting the right kind of therapy.
For someone who has OCD, they can tell you that they have probably tried therapy before and it didn't work. It probably didn't work because they didn't get the right kind of therapy. (The exposure and response prevention.)
In addition to the cognitive [00:04:00] behavioral therapy approach, Those are the winning strategies when it comes to OCD.
Not every therapist is trained in exposure and response prevention. In fact, OCD therapists have dedicated training. If you're in that boat of thinking that you can handle your problems on your own, I strongly encourage you to reconsider.
One of the fun facts that I found from Mental Health America at MHAnational.org. It says that anxiety disorders are among the most common mental illnesses in America.
With this podcast. I really wanted to remind people out there that therapy can make your life better. Getting the right therapy is super important. Especially someone with OCD, you can't go to just any therapist.
You may have heard this from other [00:05:00] OCD people where they've gone to therapy and it was harmful because the therapist was not trained in OCD and accidentally made the obsessions worse.
I am super proud to be sponsored by NoCD. Their organization really aligns with my values in trying to get help for the people who need OCD therapy. Even the CEO of NoCD suffered from OCD himself. He didn't start out with an OCD therapist in the beginning because a lot of times and this may have been the case for just about anyone: Once you're experiencing this anxiety or these intrusive thoughts, you're not sure where to turn.
You think: I just need to go to therapy!
It’s kind of like, you know, the car mechanic. You don't know what's going on with your car. But you just, you see a light come on and you need to take it to the shop [00:06:00] and let the shop figure it out.
Hopefully if you are to show up at any therapist’s door and you are experiencing OCD, these intrusive thoughts and the compulsions, et cetera. They can refer you to an OCD specialist.
It can happen where you work in conjunction with an OCD specialist and maybe a marriage counselor, for example. So you're not limited to just one therapist. I know there's probably a lot of debate on that, but you can have more than one therapist depending upon the specialty. But let's not overcomplicate it when it already feels complicated when you have OCD.
I wanted to have this podcast to really ensure that people are aware that there are dedicated professionals out there who treat OCD.
So I got a video from a friend the other day, and it was a reel about these [00:07:00] OCD therapists really broadcasting and being theatrical about ERP. It was, it was a cute video. With this podcast, it’s going to be different than what I saw in that reel. In that reel I saw they're examples of exposures.
Got it. Yes. Some of those examples. I have done myself in order to serve the client, help the client reach their treatment goals. But I will say it's also very triggering just to watch these exposures that they put on the reel. Because it seems very extreme and yes, whenever you get into exposure and response prevention exercises, it can feel extreme, but you're not going to jump to those extreme measures from the very beginning.
When I was watching that reel, I thought:
“How would I sign [00:08:00] up for a therapist that made me feel like I was…”
I mean, so, Trigger alert. Let me put that out there.
“How can I work with a therapist that's going to make me
eat food off of a toilet seat?”Yeah. Okay. Now, I have eaten food off of the floor with a client. Several clients, in fact, to help them reduce their compulsions and their obsessions, right. But with this podcast, the bottom line is I want it to feel inviting that you can come to therapy no matter where you are in your journey. You are not going to jump straight to those extreme measures of exposures.
That's the kind of approach I take with clients when we're doing therapy. We are collaborating on what feels safe and where you can challenge yourself. [00:09:00]
You will feel more comfortable in being challenged when I am there with you. I want this podcast to be a guiding light for people who are looking for therapy, are intrigued or on the fence about therapy and help get you one step closer to scheduling a consult.
All right. Let's get into the meat and potatoes of today's discussion.
For those of you that feel like you can handle your OCD on your own, or even if not, I think it's always helpful to kind of learn about how food can benefit us.
We’re in that new year, new you mindset. A lot of people may be on said diet at this time, but really, I like to think about it as a lifestyle choice. So you're making small changes along the way to benefit your life in the long run.
The reason [00:10:00] that I wanted to emphasize the diet changes today is because that is within your control right now. I can't control if you pick up the phone or submit a form to sign up for an appointment. But hopefully you can go to the grocery store or you can read one of the books I'm going to recommend and start making some changes today it can happen, absolutely can happen, where you make these changes on your own and see a lot of improvement in your symptoms.
Let me put this disclaimer out there while I'm ahead of the game: That I am not a doctor nor nutritionist nor dietician. I highly recommend that you always check in with your doctor before making any diet changes or adding any supplements or vitamins, et cetera to your diet.
So check with your medical provider before you take me up on any of these suggestions. Okay. Are we clear? Good. I hope so.
These suggestions, I'm going [00:11:00] to be sharing with you today are things that I've learned personally, through doctors, friends or experiences through the work I do with clients.
With mental health disorders, sometimes they can be a result of inflammation.
Inflammation is a natural, and necessary response for your immune system when you're experiencing some type of injury or infection. However, if we have some long lasting chronic inflammation that can start to create health issues like heart disease, diabetes autoimmune disorders.
Autoimmune disorders are rapidly growing and are very big problem for a lot of women, especially. Surprisingly our food choices can very much contribute to inflammation. Yeah. They can also help. [00:12:00] It can go both ways.
First, I'm going to talk about the foods that particularly add to the inflammatory response. So let's talk about those for a second.
First of all processed foods, which has most of what we get from fast food restaurants and even the grocery store. With processed foods, they are one of the primary culprits behind inflammation. They normally contain unhealthy fats, refined sugars, artificial additives. Yuck. They can disrupt your nutrients and the balance within your body. Alright. Some examples of processed foods includes chips, sugary snacks, and pre-packaged meals. So like frozen meals. Yeah. They can disrupt your gut [00:13:00] health.
Second is refined sugars. With an excessive amount of refined sugars. You normally find excessive sugar in soft drinks, candy, pastries. They're all linked to chronic inflammation. High sugar intake, it leads to this release of pro inflammatory chemicals. iT not only increased your risk of chronic inflammation, but also increase your risk of slowing down your metabolism or having metabolic problems.
Alright. Number three, trans fats. Trans fats are commonly found in fried foods and commercially baked goods. They are notorious for giving you inflammation. These fats not only contribute to [00:14:00] heart disease, but they also trigger high levels of inflammatory markers in your body.
If you were to get blood work done, your rheumatologists, or even your primary care obviously can see those inflammatory markers, but a rheumatologist, if you don't know, rheumatologist is someone that looks at inflammation in the body and looks at connective tissue diseases like fibromyalgia, for example.
Okay. Number four on the inflammatory list is dairy products. Even though dairy is rich in calcium and protein, certain people may experience inflammation. It seems like the older we get, the less tolerable we are to dairy. Some people may be lactose intolerant, allergic to the milk or the proteins in milk, there can be a lot of digestive issues, and then of course the inflammation part. a lot of my teen clients have mentioned that dairy seems to cause more [00:15:00] acne for them. So there's something to be said about dairy.
Number five. Is red and processed meats. Red and process mates have been linked to inflammation because of their high levels of saturated fats and other like pro inflammatory compounds.
Number six. This one is particularly a doozy. It's gluten. Gluten is that protein found in wheat, barley and rye. A lot of people are sensitive to gluten. There is this autoimmune disorder called celiac disease.
The difference between the gluten allergy and the celiac disease is that the, with an allergy, Yes, Your immune system kind of reacts. There may be some swelling and things going on, but it will eventually calm down. With celiac disease, that's when someone has an auto-immune problem [00:16:00] where their immune system, instead of helping them is actually hurting them. In celiac disease, the white blood cells attack the small intestine and therefore will eventually lead to your intestines being unable to absorb nutrients. So huge problem there for people with celiac disease, If they consume gluten.
Number seven. Okay. Everybody is going to be like, oh no, not again. Number seven is alcohol. I know alcohol is not good for us. Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to more inflammation and liver inflammation or other health problems. Alcohol really throws off the balance of your gut bacteria. There's a lot of research and discussion going on now about the mind, body gut connection. [00:17:00] Because research is showing that there is a huge correlation between a healthy gut and a healthy mental wellbeing.
From another one of the articles I've read, is when you have a healthy gut, you are able to produce serotonin. Serotonin is one of those happy feeling endorphins that we get. People with depression, lack serotonin. Let's say you go to a psychiatrist or your primary care doctor and they give you an anti-depressant which we call an S S R I.
They give you an S S R I, which is a selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor. What that does, I'm just breaking it down in simple terms here. Okay. I'm not a psychiatrist. I'm not a medication provider. That anti-depressant will grab the serotonin and re up it, bring it right back up to your brain [00:18:00] for the use of feeling better. But if you're not making serotonin to begin with, there's nothing to re up and therefore that's why the anti-depressant does not work. So, I mean, it's amazing the connection between the mind and the body.
---Ad---
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 in exposure response prevention therapy, the gold standard treatment for OCD. With [00:19:00] NoCD, 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 NoCD, go to nocd.com/savage.
---End of Ad---
We've talked about the foods that cause inflammation, let's talk about foods that are anti-inflammatory. The foods that bring down inflammation. They can help you with your immune response, reducing that inflammation, supporting a healthy gut, and incorporating these foods into your diet can help positively boost your digestive health and mental health. So it's a win-win.
First item on the list that helps with inflammation is fatty fish. So we're looking at omega threes. This type of [00:20:00] nutrient is found in fish like salmon, mackerel, and sardines of all things. Salmon is amazing. Really makes me want some sushi. These are essential nutrients to help reduce inflammation. And support the production of the neurotransmitters, like serotonin, which again, plays a key role in regulating your mood.
Next are berries. I'm sure you've heard how helpful blueberries can be with their antioxidants, vitamins and fiber. The antioxidants help combat what they call the oxidative stress. The fiber supports the gut health and also promotes the growth of the healthy, beneficial bacteria in our gut. Blueberries in particular have been linked to cognitive benefits and may help alleviate some symptoms of depression. So we're not only talking about OCD here, but also in helping [00:21:00] you with depression.
You might be going through some seasonal depression at the moment. So I encourage you to try out some blueberries.
Next, are leafy greens. With the dark leafy greens, like spinach and kale, they are super rich in vitamins, minerals and nutrients that help with the healthy gut. The greens contain folate, B vitamins, and they also help in reducing your risk of depression.
Number four is turmeric. Turmeric it's that orange. Spice you find a lot of Indian, Asian food. Turmeric and curcumin are anti-inflammatory agents. They help the body with both the gut and mental health benefits.
Curcumin has been shown to manage symptoms of mood disorders as well. [00:22:00] Turmeric is super powerful with its anti-inflammatory. Benefits.
Number five. Probiotics. You can find probiotics in a supplement form, or you can also find them in yogurt. With probiotics, they support gut health. A healthy gut microbiome is crucial for maintaining your overall wellbeing and mental health.
All right, I'm gonna throw in another tip here. BONUS This one is called L-Theanine. L-Theanine is wonderful in reducing stress. You can find it in supplement form and in green tea. We could really learn some things from the cultures that drink a lot of green tea. Green tea is shown to help with heart health, your gut health, all the things.
Okay. If you are someone who has had chronic health problems, you know, I talked about health OCD last week. Let's say you are truly and [00:23:00] legitimately going through some undiagnosed or symptoms that are hard to pinpoint a root cause. I encourage you to seek out a functional medicine doctor, you can go to ifm.org.
A functional medicine doctor is someone who doesn't just give you a pill for a symptom. They actually do a deep dive into why you are experiencing the symptom to begin with. They'll really sit with you, listen to you, hear you out and they give a comprehensive approach to your health and wellbeing. And can be very very advantageous to any health journey you may be on.
--Ad--
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 [00:24:00] 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.com to get evidence-based treatment.
--Ad--
One last piece of advice and recommendation that I'll leave you with is a book that's called the complete anti-inflammatory diet for beginners. It's a book that I use where you've got a whole plethora of options from breakfast to lunch, dinner sides, and dessert and sauces. It's incredible and they're really good recipes.
I'll put a link for that in the show notes. It is an affiliate link, meaning that I may get a small kickback, but it's no additional cost to you. It's a great book to help you eliminate those processed foods, give you an idea of [00:25:00] those anti-inflammatory foods, and how to bring it all together for some nice recipes.
I appreciate you all being here today. Connect with me on LinkedIn. My profile can be found at Erin H. Davis. You'll find me up there. My headline says OCD podcaster a mental health therapist empowering you to break the OCD cycle and beat the voice in your own head.
Thank you for listening to today's episode. This information is intended to be helpful and not a substitute for professional counseling. Before you go, kindly leave me a five-star review and check out the links in the show notes to see the products that can make your small business dreams happen. Take care and see you next time.
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