Did you know that you can support OCD SoCal’s programming through your online purchases at no additional cost to you? Amazon is TRIPLING THE DONATION AMOUNT to 1.5% when customers make their first eligible smile.amazon.com purchase from March 12 – 31 (usually Amazon donates 0.5% of all purchases to OCD SoCal). To get started, you can either (1) go to smile.amazon.com and select “OCD Southern California” as your preferred charity, or (2) shop through the link below.

OCD SoCal invites you to join us for our 2018 OCD Southern California Conference to be held on Saturday, March 24, 2018 from 10:30am-5:00pm at Mariner’s Church in Irvine, CA (Life Development Building, 2nd Floor, 5001 Newport Coast Drive, Irvine, CA 92603). This conference is an opportunity to learn more about obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and its treatment, provide support for individuals with OCD and their families, and gain practical knowledge about a variety of issues that may arise with OCD and related disorders.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE AND EVENTS
*Click here for a printable version of the schedule and click here for parking directions/map

Registration, Continental Breakfast, and Exhibitors (10:30am-11:15am)
Please plan to arrive early for registration. A light continental breakfast will be provided. During this time, local treatment centers will be present with information about resources for OCD and related disorders. 

Professional Networking Breakfast (10:30am-11:15am)
Local clinicians and researchers are invited to attend our professional networking breakfast prior to the conference. This will be an informal meeting for professionals to become acquainted and to allow for conversation regarding the needs and opportunities available in the Southern California OCD and related disorders community.

Keynote (11:15am-12:30pm)

The Crazy Game, by Clint and Joanie Malarchuk
We are honored to have the Malarchuks as our keynote speakers! Clint, a retired NHL goalie, and his wife Joanie presented a powerful keynote speech at the 2015 IOCDF conference. They both are Mental Health Advocates and speak professionally around the country on OCD, PTSD, depression and their own struggles with mental health. Clint’s memoir, The Crazy Game: How I Survived in the Crease and Beyond, was published in 2014. Clint was awarded with an Honorary Doctorate from Nipissing University this past June for his Advocacy and Charity work.

UNSTUCK: An OCD Kid’s Movie
For the younger members of the audience, we will be showing the short film, “UNSTUCK: An OCD Kid’s Movie” and several short videos of children and teens with OCD. The Youth Keynote will occur in parallel with the main Keynote address.

Lunch (12:30pm-1:30pm)
Lunch is included in the conference registration cost. There will be time and space during lunch to meet people in your local region as well as to discuss leadership opportunities with OCD SoCal.

Breakout Session (1:45pm-2:45pm and 3:00pm-4:00pm)
*all sessions are repeated so participants can select from the following topics (see detailed description of each session here): 

What’s in your pillbox: Q & A on OCD Medication
Sean Sassano, MD

Training Family Members to become ERP Coaches: An Experiential Workshop
Gerald Tarlow, PhD & Jennifer O’Connor, PhD

OCD Recovery: We Conquered OCD and You Can Too!
Ethan Smith, Chris Trondsen, MFTT, and panel of speakers recovered from OCD

Leaning into Your Anxiety: A Guide for Clients in Understanding How to Effectively do Exposures
Naomi Zwecker, PhD, Ally Sequira, PhD, & Ken Goodman, LCSW

ERP for OCD Subtypes and Related Disorders
Rodney Boone, PhD, Martin Hsia, PsyD, Tselane Gardner, MFT, Curtis Hsia, PhD, Stephanie Davis, PhD, & Danielle Jackson-Grillo, MFT

 Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Mindfulness and ERP 
Kimberley Quinlan, MFT, Kelley Franke, MA, & Matthew Codde, LCSW

Closing and Q&A (4:00-5:00pm)
OCD SoCal will be presenting an exciting wrap up event following the afternoon breakout sessions! Speakers from all sessions will summarize their talks and take audience questions.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Click here to complete online registration through our Event Brite page. Seating is limited, please register prior to event. Cost is $25 for adults 18+, $15 for teens 12-17, and free for children 11 and under. Continental breakfast and lunch will be included in the registration cost. Conference capacity is limited to 220 people so please register ASAP as we are we are likely to sell out based on the success of last year’s conference! Registration will remain open while seating/space is available.

OCD SoCal does not want cost to be a limiting factor for individuals who are interested in attending this event. Due to the generosity of donors, we are pleased to offer Lee Baer Memorial Scholarships to cover the cost of registration. We are also looking for volunteers to assist with the conference on the day of the event. Please email us at (info@ocdsocal.org) for more information about either the Lee Baer Memorial Scholarship and/or volunteer opportunities.

If you do not wish to pay by credit card via Event Brite: Please email us at info@ocdsocal.org to RSVP. Assuming space is still available, we will confirm your registration and ask you to send a check postmarked prior to the conference to the following address:
OCD SoCal
2514 Jamacha Road
Suite 502-35
El Cajon, CA 92019

WHEN: Saturday, February 24 from 10:15am – 2:30pm

WHERE: Renewed Freedom Center 1849 Sawtelle Blvd, Suite 710, LA, CA

RSVP TO RESERVE SEATING (limited!): By 2/19 to ClorisBrown@RenewedFreedomCenter.com or via our website

**REGISTRATION and STUDY ENROLLMENT 10:15-11:00am

WHY: Genetics play a role in OCD and, once identified, will help us guide treatment recommendations! You can enroll in genetics research during the event. Participation involves study questionnaire completion, a short interview, and a small blood donation (4-5 teaspoons). $50 compensation provided.

WHO: Anyone aged 7 or older with OCD or a Related Disorder (hair pulling, body dysmorphic disorder, skin picking, or hoarding and family members (you do not need to have a formal diagnosis or be in treatment).

EARLY ENROLLMENT: We encourage you to pre-enroll in the study by completing questionnaires at: keck.usc.edu/gpc-ocd

Visit the event website to learn more about this event, topics, and speakers and to RSVP!

My OCD journey began when I was about 15 years old although I had already been struggling with an eating disorder for about two years. Before OCD, I traveled really often, had a lot of friends and had no issues in school.

One day during my junior year of high school, I walked into my first class of the day. The bell hadn’t rung yet so the classroom was mostly empty when I took my seat. A few minutes later, the bell rang and, as my peers started to walk in, I started to feel really anxious, and all these images of myself getting sick in front of the entire class began to flood my mind. I was shaking and I felt nauseous so I went to the bathroom and stayed in there for a few minutes until I calmed down. Once I thought I felt better I went back to class, but the moment I walked in all the same intense images came flooding back, so I grabbed my cellphone and walked outside to call my mom.

My mom took me home, and I spent the rest of the day in bed assuming that I’d feel better the next day. The next morning when I woke up for school the same images were replaying in my mind over and over. Assuming that I was still sick, I stayed home from school, because why else would I be thinking about throwing up? On the third day, I had my mom take me to school, but the moment I got out of the car I started to feel an overwhelming amount of fear, dizziness, nausea, and my thoughts were racing uncontrollably. I literally started running across the football field at school to get to my mom’s car before she got too far from the campus, and I asked her take me home but she decided to take me to the doctor instead.

They did an EKG as well as some other tests but found nothing medically wrong with me, so they sent me home without any answers. Things just continued to spiral from there. I spent weeks attempting to walk into my classes then immediately having to walk out or just having to skip school entirely. I was convinced that I was going to throw up and no one was going to tell me differently.

Within a month, these same thoughts and emotions began happening when I would hang out with friends. I just remember repeating this statement over and over, ” I don’t know what is happening to me but I don’t feel well.” These thoughts and feelings slowly started to attach to most public places as well as most social interactions, but things were still somewhat manageable at this point. I was still able to travel and have friends. Of course back then, I didn’t know that everything I was doing to make myself feel better were the very things that were making me worse.

My compulsions at that time included total avoidance of situations, having to sit nearest to the exit as possible so that I could leave quickly “if I got sick” as well as restricting my food intake even more because my OCD told me that if I didn’t have any food in my system, I was less likely to get sick. Between the years of 2006 and 2009, I saw so many different kinds of providers to try to figure out what was going on but not one person ever said the words anxiety or OCD to me, and I was continuing to isolate.

Between the years of 2009 and 2010, my OCD started to take a major turn in themes. I was still terrified of throwing up in public, and I had become very limited in what I could do or where I could go, but my OCD also started to focus on the fear that I would harm myself or someone else, known as “harm OCD.” These thoughts were so crippling that I became housebound for an entire year and, for the last few months of that year, I could not even be left alone in fear that I would act on these unwanted thoughts. My family and boyfriend at the time had to take shifts staying with me throughout the day and even had to prepare meals for me if it involved using a knife. At this time, I wasn’t telling anyone about the thoughts I was having because, like most people with harm OCD, I was terrified of them and I was even more terrified of what having them meant about me as a person. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t stop thinking these thoughts or why I couldn’t get these horrible images out of my head.

In the beginning of 2011, my mom happened to watch a show on TV that talked about OCD, and she immediately recognized the similarities between what the show was saying and what I had been expressing for years. I started treatment that same week. I cannot put into words how relieved I was when I was finally given a diagnosis, and when I discovered that millions of people struggle with the same thing I do. I knew that the treatment was going to be difficult, but I was ready to claim my life back. I started an intensive outpatient program and a few months later I started attending the weekly support groups at The Gateway Institute.

Once I had really tackled harm and intrusive thought OCD, I experienced a shift in my OCD once again but this time it was to relationship OCD. For me, that looks like worrying about “saying or doing the wrong thing and ruining relationships beyond repair.” Even though this was a new theme that I had to get familiar with, I already had the tools to address the OCD in the correct way by using Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). Almost six years later, I still attend the groups on a weekly basis because I value the accountability and the support in my ongoing recovery. Some of the closest friendships I have are with members of my support group, and I love being able to encourage them just as much as they encourage me.

Recently, I have returned to school to pursue my Master’s Degree in Psychology to specialize in OCD so that I can continue to use my story to promote hope to those who are still struggling. I am beyond grateful for my recovery because I am able to experience life on my terms rather than on OCD’s terms and because I was able to claim my life back. When you start treatment, you’re often asked to come up with a “why” which is your personal reason for wanting to get better. Your “why” is your source of motivation for when you’re in the thick of battling your OCD and, trust me, having one is really important because there comes a time (or ten) when you will question the treatment, we all do. My “why” was to be able to travel again. Even though I was no longer housebound a few months into treatment, it still took me a long time to get to the point where I could fly to a different country; I eventually did and have several times since. I wholeheartedly believed that I was never going to travel or have any kind of “normal” life again but I do and now I travel as often as I can to make up for all the time I lost. Going through treatment not only gave me my life back, it also taught me a lot about who I am as a person and that my OCD does not define what kind of person I am.

Being an advocate and sharing my story has become my passion. My hope is that after hearing my story you’ll realize that you can overcome OCD, too. It’s okay to be scared, we all were scared, but you’re not alone. If so many of us can do it, so can you, and we’re all here to help one another.