How to Survive Halloween with OCD
Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday, and in this episode, we'll chat about how to enjoy it as an adult, even if you have OCD. We'll cover everything from dealing with contamination fears to the paranoia about needles in candy (seriously, who even thinks of these things?). I’ll share my personal strategies for calming OCD and grounding techniques to keep you present. Plus, I’ll give you some exposure exercise tips, like the joys of watching spooky movies without the sound to ease anxiety. Oh, and if you're terrified of blood, don't worry – I've got some hilarious exposure stories and even a blood exposure video. Stick around to hear about how early treatment can prevent OCD spirals, and get a sneak peek of next week's guest, a psychiatrist ready to dish on OCD meds. Let’s make this Halloween unforgettable and keep that OCD at bay!
01:13 OCD and Halloween: Managing the Struggles
05:57 The Cycle of OCD and Seeking Treatment
07:42 Exposure Therapy with Halloween Movies
14:11 Preparing for a Fun Halloween Night
14:38 Understanding the OCD Nightmare
15:37 Staying Present in the Moment
19:26 Facing Blood Phobia and Halloween Triggers
23:32 Worst Case Scenario Script
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[00:00:00]
Very excited about today's episode because it's going to be about Halloween. My most favorite holiday ever. Like Halloween is such a fun holiday because you get to dress up and eat candy like How much more fun can I get? Now, you know, Halloween kind of competes with Christmas because of the presents.
[00:01:00] But when you're an adult, oh my gosh, Halloween is where it's at because you don't have to like to buy presents for other people. You can just dress up, have fun, go to parties, eat candy. It's a blast. Not so much fun if you have OCD. So that's what we're going to be chatting about today is how you can truly enjoy the, uh, Halloween, fun, and the spooky season without all the drama that OCD brings.
So in today's episode, I'm going to be chatting about how you can calm down those OCD struggles , and you know, more specifically the OCD contamination. and worried about maybe getting sick. But you know, what comes to mind for me is, you know, how people put needles in candy, like that is super scary. So we're going to talk about how we can manage those fears during this time, because like that fear is real and I'm also going to share with you a couple of exposure ideas to help you get ready and prepared for the season or for your little trick or treating escapade.
[00:02:00] Hang around for the full episode, because I think it's just going to be fun. I love Halloween. you're watching on YouTube, you will notice I've got my witch hat earrings, love Halloween. And if you love Halloween too, you can give me a shout out on LinkedIn. Tell me your favorite Halloween story. Yeah, if you want to hit me up on LinkedIn, that's where you'll find, find me a lot. You can also comment on my YouTube videos with your questions and I can answer you there.
[00:03:00] So I got this question from someone who shared that their spouse all of a sudden is gay. quote unquote, got worse and they got worse in the sense with their OCD where they were compulsively washing dishes and felt like the dishes couldn't stay on the counter for any length of time. Like those dirty dishes needed to get handled like pronto.
So, the question was like, can OCD pop up in adulthood? And can OCD all of a sudden get worse? To answer that question, yes, on both sides, because What I am finding is a lot of OCD sufferers, they are saying, I can handle it. I can pull myself up by my bootstraps and trudge through the crap and I'll be fine. Like, no big deal. Or they're probably saying like, I'm too scared to change what I'm doing because like, the fears will come true and all the things.
00:04:00] But anyway, long story short here, People are putting off treatment, and then all of a sudden, bang. They find themselves in an episode, and I kid you not, I'm working with a client who is in the midst of coming out of their OCD episode, and they share that They had never experienced an episode like this in all their life. And when this OCD episode happened, they felt unprepared. They didn't know what to do. So super thankful that they reached out to me and we started working together and they've got a handle on how to move through their OCD episode and they're starting to come down with the anxiety and the stress and they're starting to smile and laugh again and it's so wonderful. Yeah, what tends to happen is, again, people will put off treatment and that's why I keep saying schedule a consultation. Get somewhere because you never know when that OCD episode is going to hit.
[00:05:00] I'm not saying that as a scare tactic, even though this is like a Halloween episode, but for real, like I'm here to help and I'm not the only therapist out there who's ready and willing to help. , but we'll be super grateful to work with you and help you on your OCD journey, no matter where you are. And, you know, people put off their treatment and there are way too many people coming into treatment when they're, like, desperate. You know what I'm saying? Like, we've all had those days where we feel like we're at our lowest point and we don't know what to do. And that's when sometimes people are reaching out and, you know, definitely get them in as soon as possible.
But wouldn't it be better? Much more helpful if you'd already had a couple of sessions under your belt or you already knew what to do if an episode Like that popped up. But anyway, so people putting off treatment can be a problem.
[00:06:00] Another thing is when you have OCD You know, it's got the cycle. All right, and you're always looking for that magic answer to stop the obsessions, or to stop the fear of, like, what if X, Y, and Z happens, and you haven't found that answer yet. So anyway, the cycle continues and it will continue to grow. Your OCD will never be satisfied. It won't. It won't. It's kind of like this snowball effect where it gets bigger. just want to give you the emphasis of like how OCD can grow over time. And then when you really value or love or cherish something, OCD will have a heyday with it and really attack it. Now the third point I want to bring up about these OCD episodes and them coming up all of a sudden is how inflammation in the brain can really play a role in OCD.
[00:07:00] If you've had any viruses or a noticeable change with maybe joint pain or fatigue or, you know, autoimmune related conditions speak to your healthcare provider to rule out inflammation. So anyway, there are a lot of factors that can contribute to OCD and yes, it is possible in summary that OCD can appear out of nowhere or it just kind of like rears its ugly head like, bang, here I am. Hello. And you're like, where did you come from? Yeah, so it's no fun to be in that book. All right, so I hope you guys are getting excited for Halloween.
With Halloween, we've got all the fun Halloween costumes, Halloween blow ups, and Halloween movies. I tell you, the Halloween movies are the best exposures because most of the time when you watch the Halloween movies, like, from a place of
exposures in therapy.
[00:08:00] Like those movies look so silly after a while. And yet we've all noticed that with scary movies anyway. The main characters seem to do ridiculous things that gets them in trouble and you're like, what are you doing? What are you thinking? And so whenever you're watching this for an exposure exercise, it's so nice to hear you laugh it off. , like for example, the scream movies with Monica. I can't even think of a real name right now. You know, the girl from Friends, Monica. I love Friends. She's in the Scream movie, and she gets stabbed by the dude. And it's like, why did you not just use the gun right beside you? Like, why? What are we doing? I don't know. But anyway, , in doing exposures like that, the way we start, let's say someone has a fear of knives, right? , so we're going to go to the screen movies because those are like all about stabbing people. if this is triggering to you, you can just hit the skip
for about the next 30 seconds.
[00:09:00] I do encourage you to hear it out just so you can get started with the exposure part, but anyway. So what we do is we identify a scene that might get the person at an eight, eight or nine. Some people do feel a 10 out of 10, but they're still in their seat. They're not, truly panicking like they think they will whenever we begin to watch some of these like movie clips.
So anyway, I'll start it with just showing them the visual of what we're going to watch, like just the still image. They're like, okay, yeah. So, you know, we kind of wait there, stay there. Then the other way we start to level it up. So as you can see, we're doing this general ramp up to Making it more and more upgraded or complicated for them.
Not for them specifically, but for their OCD.
[00:10:00] All right. Cause that's what we're after. We're there to be a boss to the OCD. So anyway, we then go into Playing the clip without sound and I may just do like a little 10 second clip or 20 30 up to a minute I really don't show a lot of movie clips in session because you can do that on your own as long as You say you're willing to do so, right?
Well, we may watch the movie clip without sound, then we'll go back and watch it with sound, and we'll repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat those short clips until the person's like, wow, this doesn't even bother me anymore. And it's so fascinating that you are able to accomplish that within like 20 minutes. But you know, we've already put in some groundwork ahead of time as far as coping skills, calming skills. All the things. But anyway, Halloween movies are the best exposure clips ever. All right, so let's talk about the actual trick or treating, your night out,
and how you want to experience the evening.
[00:11:00] Okay, when you have OCD, you love your routines, you love predictability, and Halloween can kind of take all of those out of the question. From You know, fears of your kids getting kidnapped, fears of contamination. things being in the candy, like the needles. Before we get into that, I want to share with you one of my funniest Halloween memories. And this was like during COVID, you know,, I guess it was 2020 whenever, yeah, there was still a lot of social distancing happening and it was just a very, you know, stoic gray time, but then Halloween came and it felt like We could be outside and see people at least from a distance. It was really fun seeing all the costumes.
But anyway, I remember , someone shooting candy down a pipe to the kids. Like that was their social distancing. My kids loved it, but. Anyhow, my kids are all dressed up. They're little. So little, in fact, that my youngest was in a stroller and my other two were walking.
[00:12:00] They had on their masks. They were hilarious because they had, oh gosh, they had their mask on and it's dark and I'm like, hey boys, watch out for the ditch. And it was like slow motion, like dominoes falling in a ditch. they could not see through their mask and on top of that they were like so in awe of this pipe shooting candy making thing that they were like, oh my gosh I gotta have it. So they're like running up to this house, totally not seeing the ditch, and boink, one, boink, two. And I'm like, oh my gosh. Back to back. It was so hilarious. Oh my gosh, the things kids do for candy. So. For the other moms out there, how frustrating is it that you have to remind your kid after every house that they need to say thank you? So exhausting.
[00:13:00] Anyway, my kids falling in a ditch because they had those masks on. It was just super hilarious. They were like, oh no. , anyway, they were little.
[00:14:00] All right, so I'm getting ready for your Halloween evening. Let's go ahead and accept that things may not go to plan. All right, things may not look different, and just because it doesn't happen to plan doesn't mean something bad is going to happen. And as the saying goes, just because you feel it, it doesn't mean it's true. So,
In the work I do, part of what we recognize is when your OCD bubble takes you to this place where you feel like you're in a nightmare. You're living out the story for example, it probably doesn't take much for your OCD to get you really amped up, like, with the fear of the candy having peanuts.
[00:15:00] If you or your kid has a peanut allergy. That's a super big one around Halloween or the fear of your kid getting kidnapped or Could be random things right like if you see a white car, then somebody will die like oh, and here's the thing OCD doesn't try to make sense because it doesn't care It just wants to hijack your brain and make you feel afraid but we're not wanting to To ruin this spooky season with fear that is unreasonable and especially unwanted. So let's first of all recognize when your OCD bubble takes you out of reality and you're living that nightmare or you're in that story that you don't want to be in. I encourage you and challenge you to bring yourself back to the present, back to the here and now. And when I'm talking about the here and now, I'm talking about the very, very present moment.
[00:16:00] So, you may be out and walking the streets with your kids. I want you to notice the cool air on your face if you're not wearing a mask. If you are wearing a mask, maybe you'll , feel the air on your hands. Pay attention to the sights. I want you to look at the direct evidence that is happening in the here and now. All right. Are there a bag of peanuts in this person's hand? Candy Bowl. No, not likely, right? So, because those what ifs, like, what if something got in the candy? What if I didn't check? It can run you ragged.
I want you to pay attention to the direct evidence and don't allow yourself to be swept up into that worry land or that OCD bubble. Cross the bridge back into reality.
[00:17:00] l come back to the shallow and if you have a lot of germ fears and you use the hand sanitizer religiously. Okay, let's already start to think about how you can reduce those times that you use the hand sanitizer. So, in all of the OCD work, at least in my practice, , we are delaying, skipping and decreasing those compulsions.
So for the hand sanitizer, you can say, all right, I know I normally pump it like after every house or after every time I touch something. So what if you were to say like, like this week, this weekend, before we go out, I'm going to try to delay using the hand sanitizer for five minutes. Okay. Right? You're going to feel that urge, right?
[00:18:00] Is it going to rise up and you're going to be like, Oh, I really want to like use the hand sanitizer. It's already cold weather y'all and that hand sanitizer is just tearing into your skin. I'm sure your knuckles are already cracked and bleeding by now. Anyhow, point is, Start with your personal best. If five minutes is too much, then start with one minute, okay? And do try to push yourself a little bit here. You'll be very surprised at what you can handle. So, try to delay it, and then maybe try to skip it. Be like, okay, so I won't use the hand sanitizer every time. I'll do it every other time. You know, whatever this looks like for you, and that's why it's so important to get in with an OCD specialist so we can figure out that unique treatment goal for you.
All right. And those unique steps. So with the contamination, you can ask yourself, what would 100 other people do to kind of help you gauge if this is OCD or if it's reasonable?
[00:19:00] And if a majority of 100 other people wouldn't do it, then it's probably OCD. And you want to steer the other direction. All right, now I'll also want you to be gentle with yourself as you're going out and trick or treating. Remember to take slow, deep belly breaths so that you can remind your vagus nerve like, we're cool, nothing bad is happening here. You may get spooked while you're out. There may be creepy costumes or people doing the jump scares
and whatever those things are that you fear. As much as this sounds counterintuitive, I promise you it works. So, you may want to test it out yourself where Let's say
you're afraid of blood and I've got a blood exposure YouTube short out there. If you're interested in taking a look, that was very fun by the way. Love Halloween.
[00:20:00] And I myself, , am not a fan of blood. So when I say that as your OCD specialist, I will not ask you to do anything I wouldn't do myself. I mean, for real, so for real that I did a blood exposure. And y'all, I don't normally look at blood. In this blood exposure, I did a recipe of making fake blood and you'll just have to go watch the video for yourself to see what happened. Alright, but let's say you have a fear of blood and we know that people will dress up and have costumes that contain blood. So go ahead and maybe check out my blood exposure video or look up some medical videos that contain blood so that you can kind of get adapted to it or look up those costumes Or go to the , Spirit Halloween store and look at the costumes that have fake blood just to get yourself acquainted with it and whenever you do these exposures, it's right, it's not about white knuckling it, it's about being present and allowing yourself to get to that place where you're like, Oh, this, this ain't a big deal.
[00:21:00] It's fine. I'm good. Looks like for you. So a lot of my patients, They're coming to the conclusion of, well, if it's not happening, then I don't have to deal with it. And I love that one because that is so true. That's very focused on the here and now. So like with the blood phobia, maybe it's not just about the sight of blood.
Maybe it's the fear of there's HIV in the blood. Or there's rabies in the blood. Like, contamination can just be such a plethora of stuff where Halloween can very much trigger it because all of these opportunities for OCD to rob you of the fun could happen. So anyway, , with the blood, is there any evidence that there is HIV in it, or that it's contaminated with rabies. There is not any direct evidence.
[00:22:00] These are small steps that you can do now, and if you need that extra help, totally reach out. Would be happy to help. And your family knows you best,
and you may already be in a place where your family's like, oh my gosh, just get over it already. What if you could kind of recruit your family to help you? I'm going to tell you exactly what you need. So what you need, like let's go back to the hand sanitizer example. Let's say you're going to tell your spouse, Hey, I am going to use my hand sanitizer less while we do the trick or treating. So how about You hold the hand sanitizer and you make sure that I only use it every other house or whatever that or with the blood exposure. Maybe you are having a hard time even looking up a scary movie so you could ask your spouse, Hey, can you find a scene that has blood? Okay, because you need to get your brain used to seeing the blood in order for you to not feel as triggered to the thoughts of blood having HIV, blood having rabies.
[00:23:00] So your spouse may be very willing to help because they want you to get better. They do. And ultimately they're in your corner. It may not feel like it sometimes, but they are. They really are. Because if this helps you feel better and be happy, they're going to be more than willing to help. The other exposure tip you could consider is the worst case scenario script. But again, like some of these things can feel too intense if you're by yourself. So, if it's feeling too intense, you're not alone.
But the worst case scenario scenario. Again, what we want to do is help your brain feel like this is old news and we're not going to do any compulsions. So while it may seem
uncomfortable
[00:24:00] to talk about your worst case scenario, by the time you repeat it several times and you are working through it and processing it with your OCD specialist, your brain will become less activated by the words because sometimes people get to a place where they're like, Oh, it's just. Words, like it's just words on a paper and these words truly have no impact on my well being or my life or my health, et cetera.
Overall, I want you to be kind to yourself.
And tell yourself that you're doing a good job whenever you're pushing outside of your comfort zone. All right. So all in all, we talked about today how OCD can pop out of nowhere. And we talked about the reasons why it's important to get into treatment, to help you with those episodes and to help you feel prepared in case that does happen to you, whether it's today, tomorrow, or 10 years from now, you will at least know the strategies to
[00:25:00] help you win a big OCD episode may happen. We also talked about the fun Halloween experiences with the costumes and blow ups and how Halloween movies are epic gold for OCD exposures. We also talked about a few strategies to help you on your trick or treating night. And again, I encourage you to seek support, get help from an OCD specialist. You know, this episode is not a substitute for counseling. These episodes are to help give you an introduction and an insight into the work. And if it still sounds like too much, just tell your therapist. That way you can start wherever you are ready and willing to start. It's all about your success
and all in all with those contamination fears, look for the direct evidence. Okay? Stick with that. Okay.
[00:26:00] Stick to the facts, keep it simple, and have fun! Have fun! I hope you get your favorite Halloween candy and you enjoy the night. Come back next week where I'm going to have a special guest. It's a psychiatrist. So a psychiatrist is someone who prescribes medicine. So I'm going to be asking him all of those questions about how long does it take for medicine to work? What can we expect from these medicines and how does medicine help with OCD therapy? I mean, it was such a great conversation. I can't wait for you to hear it. So come back next week so you can tune in for that. All right. Thanks for being here. See ya. [00:27:00] [00:28:00]
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