Breaking Free from OCD, Anxiety & Stress with Matt Codde

Most people with OCD focus on the visible rituals — washing, checking, or avoiding. But the compulsions that most often keep the loop alive are invisible: they happen entirely inside your head. In this episode, Matt Codde, LCSW, breaks down the five mental compulsions that he sees most often in his work with OCD and anxiety clients — behaviors like rumination, mental checking, mental reviewing, mental reassurance, and mental neutralization.
If you've ever wondered why your OCD isn't getting better even though you've cut back on physical rituals, this episode is for you. Matt explains that 80–90% of most people's compulsive behavior is mental — and most therapists never even address it. Understanding these patterns is the first step toward breaking the loop for good.
Matt also explains why the distinction between the intrusive thought (the obsession — outside your control) and everything you do afterward (the compulsion — within your agency) is the key insight that empowers real recovery.
🧭 What You’ll Learn in This Episode
✅Understand why 80–90% of OCD compulsions are mental, not physical — and why most therapists miss them
✅Learn the critical difference between an intrusive thought (the obsession) and the mental behaviors you do in response (the compulsion)
✅Identify rumination, mental checking, mental reviewing, mental reassurance, and mental neutralization in your own experience
✅See why searching for an intrusive thought actually creates it — the white bear effect explained
✅Understand why even "correct" self-talk (like repeating "this is OCD") can become a compulsion when done with the wrong intention
✅Discover why the Triple A Response is the first tool Matt uses to address mental compulsions with every client
✅Learn why breaking the OCD loop requires more than stopping compulsions — and what to do with the underlying pressure instead
🚀 Resources to Help You Heal:
📥 FREE Recovery Guide
Start your journey to freedom from OCD and anxiety with expert tools and step-by-step guidance.
👉 Download now: https://www.restoredminds.com/start
📖 Get a Copy of Our Book: From Stuck to Unstuck
Learn practical strategies to overcome fear and reclaim your life.👉 Buy now: https://a.co/d/1WEvonT
📘 Taking Back Control (TBC) Program
Learn how to apply these principles daily and dissolve anxiety at the root.
👉 Apply Now: https://www.restoredminds.com/tbc
🎧 Subscribe & Connect for More Support:
✅ Subscribe to our YouTube channel for weekly episodes, tools, and coaching content.
👉 https://www.youtube.com/restoredminds
✅ Leave a Review on your favorite platform to help others discover this life-changing content:
👉 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3NJI2zD
👉 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/46AiT30
✅ Ask a Question for a future episode:
👉 https://www.restoredminds.com/assessments/2147654461✅ Download the Book – From Stuck to Unstuck
👉 https://www.restoredminds.com/book
Follow Matt Codde, LCSW on Social Media:
🔹 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattcodde.restoredminds/
🔹 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattcodde.restoredminds/
🔹 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/restoredminds/
🔹 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthcodde.restoredminds
📸 If this episode helped you, share it on Instagram Stories and tag us!
⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 — What This Episode Is About: Why Mental Compulsions Keep OCD Alive
01:30 — The OCD Loop: Suppression, Resistance & Spiraling
03:58 — Obsession vs. Compulsion: The Critical Distinction
08:00 — Mental Compulsion #1: Rumination
09:13 — Mental Compulsion #2: Mental Checking
10:38 — Mental Compulsion #3: Mental Reviewing
11:12 — Mental Compulsion #4: Mental Reassurance
12:49 — Mental Compulsion #5: Mental Neutralization
DisclaimerThis content is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Consult a licensed professional for personalized support.

If you've been dealing with relentless intrusive thoughts — about harm, sexuality, religion, or relationships — and every attempt to fight them has made things worse, this episode is for you. Pure OCD (also called Pure O or purely obsessional OCD) is one of the most misunderstood presentations of OCD, and in this video, Matt Codde, LCSW, sets the record straight.
Here's the truth: Pure O is a myth. There is no form of OCD without compulsions — because the compulsions in Pure O are mental. Ruminating, analyzing, mentally reviewing, thought-blocking, and seeking reassurance are all compulsions. They feed the loop just as powerfully as any physical behavior. If this sounds like you — or someone you love — understanding this one reframe changes everything.
Matt walks through the common subtypes — harm OCD, sexual intrusive thoughts, religious/scrupulosity OCD, relationship OCD, and health anxiety — and explains why people with Pure O so often end up looking in the wrong place for help. Most importantly, he outlines the recovery path: identifying the mental compulsions, applying the AAA Response, and ascending out of the fear loop into genuine freedom.

🧭 What You’ll Learn in This Episode
✅• Understand why Pure OCD is a myth — and why that actually frees you
✅•Learn the hidden mental compulsions that keep the intrusive thought loop alive
✅•See why harm, sexual, religious, and relationship OCD all follow the same pattern
✅•Discover why people with Pure O keep seeking help in the wrong places
✅•Understand how ERP absolutely applies to Pure O — and why it works
✅•Learn the AAA Response framework for breaking the mental compulsion loop
✅•See what genuine recovery from Pure O looks like — and why it's possible for you
🚀 Resources to Help You Heal:📥 FREE Recovery Guide
Start your journey to freedom from OCD and anxiety with expert tools and step-by-step guidance.
👉 Download now: https://www.restoredminds.com/start
📖 Get a Copy of Our Book: From Stuck to Unstuck
Learn practical strategies to overcome fear and reclaim your life.
👉 Buy now: https://a.co/d/1WEvonT
📘 Taking Back Control (TBC) Program
Learn how to apply these principles daily and dissolve anxiety at the root.
👉 Apply Now: https://www.restoredminds.com/tbc
🎧 Subscribe & Connect for More Support:
✅ Subscribe to our YouTube channel for weekly episodes, tools, and coaching content.
👉 https://www.youtube.com/restoredminds
✅ Leave a Review on your favorite platform to help others discover this life-changing content:
👉 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3NJI2zD
👉 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/46AiT30
✅ Ask a Question for a future episode:
👉 https://www.restoredminds.com/assessments/2147654461✅ Download the Book – From Stuck to Unstuck
👉 https://www.restoredminds.com/book
Follow Matt Codde, LCSW on Social Media:
🔹 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattcodde.restoredminds/
🔹 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattcodde.restoredminds/
🔹 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/restoredminds/
🔹 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthcodde.restoredminds
📸 If this episode helped you, share it on Instagram Stories and tag us!
⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 - What Is Pure OCD?
01:08 - Pure O Is a Myth — Here's Why
03:14 - Common Subtypes: Harm, Sexual, Religious OCD
09:52 - Mental Compulsions — The Hidden Loop
16:47 - Why People Seek Help in the Wrong Places
17:57 - The AAA Response — Breaking the Loop

⚠
This content is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Consult a licensed professional for personalized support.

A real OCD recovery story: How Jaro broke the fear loop after 10+ years — and what finally worked.
If you've been struggling with OCD for years — trying therapy, reading books, understanding everything intellectually, but still feeling stuck — this episode is for you.
Matt Codde, LCSW, sits down with Jaro, a member of the Taking Back Control (TBC) program, for an honest conversation about his 10+ year journey with OCD: from compulsive behaviors he couldn't explain, to fear-based decisions that damaged relationships, to finally breaking the loop and experiencing what real recovery feels like.
Whether you're just beginning your OCD recovery journey or you've tried everything and feel hopeless, this episode offers real insight into what it takes to get to the other side.

🧭 What You’ll Learn in This Episode
✅Understand why intellectualizing about OCD is not the same as recovering from it
✅Learn why talk therapy can actually make OCD worse (the reassurance trap explained)
✅See why group recovery creates breakthroughs that solo work cannot replicate
✅Discover how the fear loop shows up across different themes over a lifetime
✅Learn what 'expanded consciousness' and embodied healing actually feel like in practice
✅Understand the 'good person' persona driving OCD and how healing it creates real transformation
✅See why recovery is a practice, not a destination — and what that means for your journey
🚀 Resources to Help You Heal:
📥 FREE Recovery Guide
Start your journey to freedom from OCD and anxiety with expert tools and step-by-step guidance.
👉 Download now: https://www.restoredminds.com/start
📖 Get a Copy of Our Book: From Stuck to Unstuck
Learn practical strategies to overcome fear and reclaim your life
.👉 Buy now: https://a.co/d/1WEvonT
📘 Taking Back Control (TBC) Program
Learn how to apply these principles daily and dissolve anxiety at the root.👉 Apply Now: https://www.restoredminds.com/tbc🎧
Subscribe & Connect for More Support:
✅ Subscribe to our YouTube channel for weekly episodes, tools, and coaching content.
👉 https://www.youtube.com/restoredminds
✅ Leave a Review on your favorite platform to help others discover this life-changing content:
👉 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3NJI2zD
👉 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/46AiT30
✅ Ask a Question for a future episode:
👉https://www.restoredminds.com/assessments/2147654461✅ Download the Book – From Stuck to Unstuck
👉 https://www.restoredminds.com/book
Follow Matt Codde, LCSW on Social Media:
🔹 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattcodde.restoredminds/
🔹 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattcodde.restoredminds/
🔹 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/restoredminds/
🔹 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthcodde.restoredminds
📸 If this episode helped you, share it on Instagram Stories and tag us!
⏱️ Timestamps•
00:00 — What This Episode Is About
•01:10 — Jaro's Background: 10+ Years With OCD
•06:28 — The Breaking Point: When Fear Damaged a Relationship
•11:23 — Why Talk Therapy Didn't Help•
16:33 — What Changed in TBC: Group, Embodiment & Consciousness
•27:36 — Where Jaro Is Now & Advice for Anyone Stuck
⚠️ Disclaimer
This content is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Consult a licensed professional for personalized support.

One of the most common questions Matt receives is: "How long will OCD or anxiety recovery take?" In this episode, he gives an honest, clinically-grounded answer — and it's not what most people expect.
Rather than a specific timeline, Matt reframes recovery as a journey that depends entirely on your clarity of purpose and your willingness to keep going no matter what.
Matt shares that his own path from the onset of OCD to feeling genuinely free took over a decade — but that the entire Restored Minds mission exists to condense that timeline for you. The goal of Taking Back Control is to give you everything he learned (including what not to do) so you can bypass years of trial and error.
If you're stuck wondering whether you'll ever get better — or comparing your timeline to others — this episode is for you. Matt offers two key principles that have consistently accelerated recovery in people he's worked with: knowing what you actually want (not just what you don't want), and releasing time as a metric altogether.

🧭 What You’ll Learn in This Episode
✅• Understand why no one can give you a specific OCD or anxiety recovery timeline
✅•Learn why knowing your "why" dramatically accelerates the healing process
✅•See why focusing on what you want (not just escaping what you don't) changes everything
✅•Discover the mindset of relentlessness that Matt credits with his own recovery
✅•Understand why letting go of time as a metric is itself a recovery skill
✅•Learn what spiral ascension means and how it reframes your recovery journey
🚀 Resources to Help You Heal:
📥 FREE Recovery Guide
Start your journey to freedom from OCD and anxiety with expert tools and step-by-step guidance.
👉 Download now: https://www.restoredminds.com/start
📖 Get a Copy of Our Book: From Stuck to Unstuck
Learn practical strategies to overcome fear and reclaim your life.
👉 Buy now: https://a.co/d/1WEvonT
📘 Taking Back Control (TBC) Program
Learn how to apply these principles daily and dissolve anxiety at the root.
👉 Apply Now: https://www.restoredminds.com/tbc
🎧 Subscribe & Connect for More Support:
✅ Subscribe to our YouTube channel for weekly episodes, tools, and coaching content.
👉 https://www.youtube.com/restoredminds
✅ Leave a Review on your favorite platform to help others discover this life-changing content:
👉 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3NJI2zD
👉 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/46AiT30
✅ Ask a Question for a future episode:
👉https://www.restoredminds.com/assessments/2147654461✅ Download the Book – From Stuck to Unstuck
👉 https://www.restoredminds.com/book

Follow Matt Codde, LCSW on Social Media:
🔹 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattcodde.restoredminds/
🔹 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattcodde.restoredminds/
🔹 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/restoredminds/
🔹 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthcodde.restoredminds
📸 If this episode helped you, share it on Instagram Stories and tag us!

⏱️ Timestamps
• 00:00 — What this episode is about: how long OCD recovery takes
• 00:44 — Why Matt won't give you a specific timeline
• 01:50 — Matt's own recovery journey: over a decade, and what changed
• 03:26 — The #1 thing that expedites recovery: knowing your "why"
• 04:55 — Why letting go of time is the key to moving through it faster
• 06:00 — The relentlessness mindset that accelerates real recovery
⚠️ Disclaimer
This content is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Consult a licensed professional for personalized support

If you've been working on your OCD or anxiety for months — or even years — and still feel stuck, this episode is going to reframe everything.
Most people believe recovery means the intrusive thoughts stop. The anxiety disappears. They finally feel "normal." But chasing that version of recovery is exactly what keeps so many people trapped. In this episode, Matt Codde, LCSW breaks down what real OCD and anxiety recovery actually looks like — and why it has nothing to do with eliminating thoughts or fixing external triggers.
At the core of OCD and anxiety is chronic resistance to emotion. Fear isn't a disease — it's a human experience. And when you understand that recovery is about becoming non-resistant to emotion rather than eliminating it, everything changes. The loop doesn't break from the outside in. It breaks from the inside out. Matt also addresses why ERP is so often misunderstood, why OCD themes keep switching, and why recovery is better understood as an ascension in consciousness rather than a linear path from broken to healed.

🧭 What You’ll Learn in This Episode
✅ Understand why the common idea of OCD recovery is actually keeping you stuck
✅ Learn what non-resistance means and why it's the foundation of real recovery.
✅ See why OCD themes keep switching — and what that tells you about the real problem
✅ Understand why you can't force acceptance from a place of resistance
✅ Learn how consciousness and emotional states relate to OCD and anxiety recovery
✅ See what the OCD loop actually looks like — and how to dismantle it from the inside
✅ Understand why fear is not a chronic condition — and why that matters for your recovery
🚀 Resources to Help You Heal:
📥 FREE Recovery Guide
Start your journey to freedom from OCD and anxiety with expert tools and step-by-step guidance.
👉 Download now: https://www.restoredminds.com/start
📖 Get a Copy of Our Book: From Stuck to Unstuck
Learn practical strategies to overcome fear and reclaim your life.
👉 Buy now: https://a.co/d/1WEvonT
📘 Taking Back Control (TBC) Program
Learn how to apply these principles daily and dissolve anxiety at the root.
👉 Apply Now: https://www.restoredminds.com/tbc
🎧 Subscribe & Connect for More Support:
✅ Subscribe to our YouTube channel for weekly episodes, tools, and coaching content.
👉 https://www.youtube.com/restoredminds
✅ Leave a Review on your favorite platform to help others discover this life-changing content:
👉 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3NJI2zD
👉 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/46AiT30
✅ Ask a Question for a future episode:
👉 https://www.restoredminds.com/assessments/2147654461✅ Download the Book – From Stuck to Unstuck
👉 https://www.restoredminds.com/book
Follow Matt Codde, LCSW on Social Media:
🔹 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattcodde.restoredminds/
🔹 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattcodde.restoredminds/
🔹 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/restoredminds/
🔹 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthcodde.restoredminds
📸 If this episode helped you, share it on Instagram Stories and tag us!
⏱️ Timestamps
•00:00 — What This Episode Is About
•01:28 — What Recovery Really Means (And What It Doesn't) •03:38 — The Role of Emotional Resistance in OCD
•07:00 — Fear Goggles: How Fear Distorts Your Reality
•09:20 — Why ERP Is Often Misunderstood
•11:52 — Recovery as an Ascension in Consciousness
•14:00 — How to Begin Breaking the Loop