Living With OCD
Living With OCD  
Podcast: Short Wave
Published On: Tue Jun 10 2025
Description: Roughly 163 million people experience obsessive-compulsive disorder and its associated cycles of obsessions and compulsions. They have unwanted intrusive thoughts, images or urges; they also do certain behaviors to decrease the distress caused by these thoughts. In movies and TV, characters with OCD are often depicted washing their hands or obsessing about symmetry. Dr. Carolyn Rodriguez says these are often symptoms of OCD, but they're not the only ways it manifests – and there's still a lot of basics we have yet to understand. That's why, in this encore episode, Carolyn looks to include more populations in research and find new ways to treat OCD. If you're interested in potentially participating in Dr. Rodriguez's OCD studies, you can email ocdresearch@stanford.edu or call 650-723-4095._Questions about the brain? Email us at shortwave@npr.org – we'd love to hear your ideas for a future episode!Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy