Expert Psychiatric Care for OCD Treatment in Orlando

Being caught in the cycle of OCD—the intrusive thoughts and the urgent need to perform compulsions—is exhausting and can feel deeply overwhelming. I want you to know that effective treatment offers real hope. My role as your psychiatrist is to provide the specialized medical care you need. As a crucial part of your comprehensive care team, I serve individuals throughout Central Florida, including Lake Nona, Windermere, and the greater Orlando area.

Understanding OCD: Obsessions and Compulsions

OCD involves two main components:

Obsessions: Recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges, or images that are experienced as intrusive and unwanted, causing marked anxiety or distress. Common themes include contamination fears, doubts (e.g., about locking doors), needing things to be symmetrical or "just right," aggressive or taboo thoughts, or fears of harming oneself or others.
Compulsions: Repetitive behaviors (e.g., washing, checking, ordering) or mental acts (e.g., praying, counting, repeating words silently) that the individual feels driven to perform in response to an obsession or according to rigid rules. These are aimed at preventing or reducing anxiety or preventing a dreaded event, but are often excessive or not realistically connected to the feared outcome.

This cycle consumes significant time, causes considerable distress, and can impair social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Effective OCD Treatment: The Importance of ERP and Medication

The most effective, evidence-based treatment for OCD typically involves a combination of:

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP): A specific type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) considered the gold standard psychotherapy for OCD. ERP involves gradually confronting feared thoughts, images, objects, and situations (exposure) while resisting the urge to perform compulsions (response prevention). This is provided by a specially trained therapist.
Medication: Certain psychiatric medications, particularly Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) often at higher doses than used for depression, and sometimes other medications like clomipramine, can significantly reduce OCD symptoms.

My Role in Your OCD Treatment Plan

As your OCD psychiatrist in Orlando, my critical role is to manage the psychiatric aspects of your treatment. This is how My Approach works:

Comprehensive Psychiatric Evaluation & Diagnosis: Conducting a thorough assessment to confirm OCD, rule out or identify co-occurring conditions (like Anxiety or Depression), and understand the specific nature of your obsessions and compulsions.
Expert Medication Management: Prescribing and carefully managing appropriate medications (SSRIs, clomipramine, augmentation strategies) to target OCD symptoms, explaining the rationale, monitoring effectiveness, and managing potential side effects.
Collaboration with ERP Therapists: This is essential. I actively collaborate and communicate with therapists in the Orlando area who specialize in ERP, ensuring your medication plan supports your therapy goals for the best possible outcome.
Addressing Underlying Factors & Support: Discussing potential contributing factors like Adverse Childhood Experiences, managing stress through strategies like exercise, and reducing stigma by addressing mental health myths.

Taking Steps Towards Managing OCD in Orlando

Living with OCD is challenging, but you don't have to face it alone. Combining expert psychiatric care with specialized therapy like ERP provides a powerful pathway toward relief and recovery. ACES Psychiatry is here to provide the psychiatric support component of your treatment plan.

If you are seeking expert psychiatric assessment and medication management as part of your comprehensive OCD treatment in Orlando, contact ACES Psychiatry. We support individuals from Lake Nona, Windermere, Winter Garden, Winter Park, and throughout the region. Schedule a confidential consultation today to discuss how psychiatric care can integrate with your OCD recovery plan. Call 689-208-6454 or use our online contact form.

From my clinical experience, the most challenging part of OCD is that the compulsion—the very thing you do to get relief—is actually the engine that keeps the obsession coming back stronger. The goal of our work is to break that cycle. My role with medication is to give you the leverage you need to resist the compulsion, so your therapist can help you learn that the anxiety will fade on its own without the ritual.