Primarily obsessional obessive compulsive disorder

You mentioned something about this curing your OCD.

Yeah, I have something which is called Pure O, purely obsessional OCD.

What this means is that an idea comes to my mind and it doesn't leave.

And then I think about it 2,000 times a day.

... examples of how it can come out, but it can come out in so many other forms.

What is Pure O OCD?

Pure O, I'm so glad that you brought that up.

So a lot of times, people do experience obsessive compulsive disorder, but they don't necessarily resonate with these physical compulsions like hand washing or-

Mm-hmm

... seeking reassurance.

And so what they do struggle with are these mental and unobservable compulsions.

So Dr. Steven Phillipson actually coined the term Pure O because in his practice, he was seeing all of these individuals in group really struggling with OCD, but they weren't doing these typical behaviors-

That being said, let's go.

So today, I'm talking to Louis Urbanowski, who is a comedy writer, um, who has what he describes as Pure O himself, and has used his OCD in his writing as something to give him an outlet, something to help him challenge his OCD, um, and to use his brain in a positive way, and it's really useful the way that he talks about it.

He gives advice around how you can do this with your own OCD, around what helped him with his OCD, around what his partner did to support him, and kind of if you're someone concerned about someone with OCD, ways that you can support them.

Um, it's a really lovely interview and it's really inspiring, and we hope you like it.

I was got confused with that.

So, and there was a lady called Jess Marriner, and I saw her clip.

And it's, she said something like, "Yeah, Pure O," 'cause I've always told people I've got Pure O OCD.

'Cause I, I-

Because now you're looking at it, you don't like the outcome, and then you play that game in your head.

This is big for people with pure O. I have a whole podcast on that, which is the obsessive piece of OCD.

Yes, pure O is still OCD.

Treated very similar to as you would any other compulsion.

Pure O is just the compulsions, but on the inside.

Reassurance checking.

God, using AI as therapy, stop doing that.

So you need that instant reaction, not a thing.

And that can definitely happen, and that can definitely be extremely debilitating.

But Dr. Steven Phillipson, if anyone else wants to look him up, he was the one who actually kind of came up with this concept of Pure O.

Mm-hmm.

And it was because in his practice, he saw all these people really struggling with similar themes, and they were very much debilitated, but they didn't have these overt, obvious rituals that the others did.