2025

In my experience, the impact OCPD has on our interpersonal connections is felt most acutely in the context of our romantic relationships. The intimacy that is intrinsic to romantic relationships can lay bare our deepest thoughts and feelings, and requires fostering trust and vulnerability to be truly seen. Because of this close, sustained proximity our

As an over-intellectualizer, I find it way too easy to fall into the trap of thinking about OCPD only in psychological terms, to the degree that I forget that I’m not just a brain but a whole body as well. It’s been interesting to spend some time reflecting on how OCPD directly impacts my physical

As someone who identifies with all 8 of the diagnostic criteria for OCPD (yay for being an overachieving perfectionist! 😜) the ones about money/frugality and hoarding initially felt like they were sort of tacked on. They also seem, to me, to be more culturally contextual and ambiguous. After all, what is “money” other than an

Time to tolerate some distress! I’ve been working on distress tolerance and emotional resilience over the past few months in therapy and I’m here to (begrudgingly!) declare that it’s working. 😒 I’m still constantly reminding myself that the goal of learning skills in therapy is not to predict and eliminate future problems or pain but

Break out your best notepad and writing utensils because we’re about to make some lists! 😋 It brings me a special kind of joy that the DSM decided to place “Is preoccupied with details, rules, lists, order, organization, or schedules to the extent that the major point of the activity is lost.” as the first

Hi All, I finally gained enough time and mental energy to contribute some of my own thoughts to the our upcoming discussion topic: OCPD & Family Dynamics. The first thing that stood out to me is the need to define what constitutes a “family” to begin with. The Better Help article below offers six main

Cale’s Note: Less time than ever to create these posts. Grieving the loss of my former capacities for sure… ChatGPT Response Prompt: Summary of grief. Grief is a deeply personal and often nonlinear emotional response to loss, most commonly associated with the death of a loved one but also triggered by other significant life changes

Cale’s Note: For those of you following along for the past several meetings, it’s becoming increasingly comical how optimistic I’ve been thinking I’ll have the time to generate more thoughtful, human posts. Alas, I’m going to lean into acceptance and embrace “it is what it is” until, one magical day, I have more time to

Placeholder Note: In my post for our last topic I was optimistic that I’d get ahead of things and that did not pan out! 😅 Thank you ChatGPT for once again distilling this topic down for me. ChatGPT Response Prompt: “Write a 500 word explanation of attachment styles and add how they might relate to

General Update: Another topic, another ChatGPT delegated post. I’ve been overwhelmed with work lately but hope to get back on top of things over the next couple of weeks and return to some personal reflections on the discussion topics. The good news is I’ve updated the calendar for the next four sessions so you can