What does that mean?' They get lost in the need to know – the need to be sure.' For example, they might think, 'Wait a minute I spent too much time looking at that guy in the locker room. Even though they know that they are 100 percent straight, not gay, they second guess it. 'These individuals suffer from pathological doubt. 'I have treated this many times,' he said. This type of OCD falls under the category of sexual obsessions, according to Jeff Szymanski, a clinical psychologist and executive director of the International OCD Foundation. 'I treat them like any client looking for help, and derive great enjoyment in working with them and all my clients.'īut, he says health professionals need a better understanding of OCD so patients receive proper treatment for a mental obsession, rather than counseling for a sexual orientation crisis that he says has nothing to do with mental illness. 'I have many gay clients and phobia is my business,' he said. This patient was straight, according to Brodsky, but he had intrusive thoughts that were not based on any hard reality in his behavior.īrodsky said a previous therapist had misdiagnosed his patient as gay, and at the patient's request, sent him off to reparative therapy, a controversial method that has not been proven to be effective and can be harmful. 'He had some sort of feeling that he was attracted to other guys.'
