Aaron Tropper

My maiden attempt at a top rope climb started smoothly enough, as I optimistically contemplated the 40 foot wall. Tying the figure-eight knot through my harness, the one that my life would soon depend on, made thing slightly more real. Still, for a while it felt almost natural — until around 25 feet up, when the wall began to slope outward. Suddenly I was climbing at an angle, weight pulling away from the rock, defying every instinct that had kept my ancestors alive. A lump formed in my...

If you're familiar with OCD treatment, you know that Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is the gold standard. It's extensively researched, highly effective, and forms the backbone of evidence-based OCD therapy. However, some researchers have proposed an alternative approach called Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT). It's an intriguing framework that challenges some fundamental assumptions about what OCD really is – but here's the catch: despite its theoretical appeal,...

The term "Pure O" OCD, or "Pure Obsessional" OCD, was once a popular way to describe a form of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder dominated...