Paige Pradko Therapy

11/05/2025

👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼 PDF: What to do when Panic Strikes: FACE Fear
https://paigepradko.co...​

MORE HELP for PANIC ATTACKS Here
👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼 https://www.paigepradk...​

👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼 Panic Attacks Self Assessment
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Panic can be triggered by just about anything in the world or in our mind or body. In people with panic disorder, it is very common for physical symptoms or thoughts themselves to trigger a panic attack.

How do you break the panic cycle?

All humans experience anxiety and panic attacks at times. Our brains can overreact and trigger our natural alarm system, our fight or flight or freeze response. This is normal and we can’t stop our brains from being triggered or experiencing anxiety.

But you can change your thoughts, interpretations and predictions and you can certainly change your behaviors or how you respond to anxiety and panic.

Your brain learns by what you do and what you tell yourself. If you tell yourself what you are feeling is dangerous and threatening, and do certain behaviors to monitor yourself, try to calm down, relieve your symptoms, keep yourself safe, check on bodily symptoms, avoid activities and places that might amp up your anxiety, you are teaching your brain that anxiety symptoms are dangerous.

11/03/2025

👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼   PDF: What to do when Panic Strikes
https://paigepradko.com/facefear

Recovery from PANIC ATTACKS:
👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼  https://www.paigepradko.com/panic

👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼   Panic Attacks Self Assessment
https://www.paigepradko.com/panic-quiz

👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼   Help for Health Anxiety
https://www.paigepradko.com/healthanx...

In this video I describe how to treat driving phobia or driving anxiety, often experienced by people that are also suffering from agoraphobia. Agoraphobia is an intense fear of becoming overwhelmed or unable to escape or get help, and it is often triggered by leaving places outside of their homes, like driving or traveling by public transportation. Although some people can  have driving anxiety without having agoraphobia.

To recover from anxiety and a phobia, you exposure yourself to what you fear. That sounds simple, right? But, there actually is a lot to consider. Let me review a few basics on how to do exposure therapy.

You may use
• real life (in vivo) or situational exposures. Those would be driving exposures.
• You may use imaginal exposures like scripts or even virtual reality exposures.
• And, you may use interoceptive exposures.

Situational or real-life driving exposures are always going to be best here, but I often have my clients working on interoceptive exposures as well if they have panic attacks or are afraid of how high anxiety symptoms feel in their body. I have a panic course at paigepradko.com where I take you through an easy-to-follow program on how to do interoceptive sensitivity reduction exercises and exposures if you are interested.

10/31/2025

Pure O OCD and struggling from unwanted, intrusive thoughts is exhausting. Why you have these thoughts is a combination of your biology and how you respond to your thoughts.

First, DO YOU NEED HELP for Pure O and OCD?

If you are exhausted and frustrated with OCD, I can help you.
Find out more about my course called, FREE from Pure O & OCD:
https://www.paigepradko.com/ocd

If you are wondering if you have OCD,
here is a link to a FREE SELF ASSESSMENT:
https://www.paigepradko.com/ocdquiz

Here is a PDF GIFT for you.
The Top 10 Things to Know to Practice ERP for OCD, Phobias & Anxiety: https://www.paigepradko.com/erp

In video I describe unwanted, intrusive thoughts, Pure O OCD and why you have intrusive thoughts. Suffering from unwanted, intrusive thoughts is a disorder of over control not under control. Under control disorders are known as impulsivity disorders. Disorders of over control like OCD include doubt and uncertainty.

 If you try to control your thoughts, which none of us can do, and you want 100% certainty and absolutely no doubt, you then have the perfect formula for developing intrusive thoughts.

 Impulses and intrusive thoughts are complete opposites. People with impulses act first and think later. People with intrusive thoughts have control over their behaviors and are over thinkers. People with OCD and Pure O are not impulsive people.

First, just to clarify, Pure O is a coined term and not a diagnosis used to describe people that have OCD with obsessions only. But, as you may know, there are compulsions that reinforce the OCD cycle. The compulsions are mainly mental compulsions that are more difficult to notice and include mental activities like ruminating, analyzing, trying to neutralize negative thoughts with positive thoughts, praying, counting, wishing the thoughts away, etc.

So how does an unwanted, intrusive thought become pure O or an obsessive thought? And if everyone has intrusive thoughts, why doesn’t everyone have pure O OCD?

Some people are also more genetically susceptible to developing Pure O or OCD than others.  But the answer lies in how you respond to your thoughts.

10/29/2025

How & Why Do Compulsions Begin?

DO YOU NEED HELP WITH OCD & ERP?

👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼 If you are tired of your OCD and need help treating it with ERP so that you can feel better, I can help you.

Find out more about my COURSE for OCD here:
https://paigepradko.com/ocd.

👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼 Here is a link to a FREE SELF ASSESSMENT for OCD:
https://www.paigepradko.com/ocdquiz

👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼 Here is a GIFT for you. A PDF for The Top 10 Things to Know to Practice ERP for OCD, Phobias & Anxiety:
https://www.paigepradko.com/erp

Here are 4 techniques or Tips to help you stop your compulsions

1. First, write down all of your compulsions. Identify every physical or mental compulsion that you are doing or have done. You have to know everything you are doing in order to stop.

2. Second, become aware of yourself when you have an urge to compulse. Noticing the urge is your opportunity to teach your brain that nothing bad happens when you do not give into the urge and do not do the compulsion. I realize I am making this sound so simple, yet understand how very difficult it is. Every time you resist is a victory, one more lesson for your brain.

If you didn’t notice your urge, but caught yourself in the middle of performing a compulsion. Challenge yourself to stop, mid compulsion. This is a victory too. It is almost like waking up in OCD land and reconnecting with reality in the here and now.

It helps my clients if they use my I. A.M. method here.

10/29/2025

10/29/2025

DO YOU NEED HELP WITH OCD & ERP?

👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼 If you are tired of your OCD and need help treating it with ERP so that you can feel better, I can help you.

Find out more about my COURSE for OCD here:
https://paigepradko.com/ocd.

👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼 Here is a link to a FREE SELF ASSESSMENT for OCD:
https://www.paigepradko.com/ocdquiz

👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼 Here is a GIFT for you. A PDF for The Top 10 Things to Know to Practice ERP for OCD, Phobias & Anxiety:
https://www.paigepradko.com/erp

Here are 4 techniques or Tips to help you stop your compulsions

1. First, write down all of your compulsions. Identify every physical or mental compulsion that you are doing or have done. You have to know everything you are doing in order to stop.

2. Second, become aware of yourself when you have an urge to compulse. Noticing the urge is your opportunity to teach your brain that nothing bad happens when you do not give into the urge and do not do the compulsion. I realize I am making this sound so simple, yet understand how very difficult it is. Every time you resist is a victory, one more lesson for your brain.

If you didn’t notice your urge, but caught yourself in the middle of performing a compulsion. Challenge yourself to stop, mid compulsion. This is a victory too. It is almost like waking up in OCD land and reconnecting with reality in the here and now.

It helps my clients if they use my I. A.M. method here.

10/24/2025

Here is the link for the FREE Self Assessment for Health Anxiety

https://www.paigepradko.com/healthanx...

If you are suffering from Health Anxiety and want peace of mind and to get back to enjoying your life, I can help you.

I have an online course and an interactive, private group that will help you get back to feeling like your old self again. Let’s start working together today!

AS A GIFT TO MY YOUTUBE COMMUNITY, enter the code: YTTENOFF for a 10% savings.

Sign up here:
Rapid Recovery from Health Anxiety: A Step-by-Step Guide to Stop Worrying and Reclaim Your Life
https://www.paigepradko.com/healthanx...

Why Health Anxiety is like OCD:
Although there are different types of conditions that cause health worries, Health Anxiety resembles OCD in that there is a self-perpetuating Cycle to the disorders.

According to the American Psychiatric Association (2013), Health Anxiety is a preoccupation and fear of having a serious, life threatening illness based on misinterpretations of bodily sensations.

But, this definition is vague and general. In my office, I see primarily 4 different types of conditions related to health worries.

Undiagnosed Panic Disorder
Contamination OCD
Somatic Symptom Disorder
Illness Anxiety Disorder.

Knowing what category of illness worry you are experiencing will help you understand what is happening and how to treat it.

Although there are some differences in the treatment of panic disorder and OCD, both anxiety disorders and OCD are maintained or fed by a self-perpetuating cycle. In other words, your own behaviors or how you respond to your anxiety is what keeps the disorder going.

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10/22/2025

Agoraphobia is a condition similar to being thrown in jail for a crime you didn't commit. It robs people of some of the most basic freedoms and joys that life can bring. Wouldn't you do everything possible to free yourself, to fix the injustice?

Agoraphobia is a large-scale, complex anxiety disorder, typically associated with panic disorder. Triggering events can include public transportation, being in enclosed spaces or large open spaces,  being away from home, standing in line, or being in a crowd.

The worst part is that it often makes one feel hopeless and helpless. They often want to live a full life, go places, do things, but they feel trapped by panic and fear.  If this is you, then hear this message:

THERE IS HOPE.

I have personally known and worked with people crippled by agoraphobia. With directed therapy, and sometimes medication, they were able to calm their body's physiological response to triggering stimuli, and learn the skills required to overcome agoraphobia. Several of my past clients are actually World travelers now and are enjoying life to the fullest. But, their success was fought for, and it wasn’t easy, nor did it happen overnight. It is a process that takes determination, perseverance, and a commitment to keep working at it regardless of the setbacks and ups and downs of recovery. But, nothing is more important than getting your life back.

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10/22/2025

Here is the link for the FREE Self Assessment for Health Anxiety
https://www.paigepradko.com/healthanx...

If you are suffering from Health Anxiety and want peace of mind and to get back to enjoying your life, I can help you.

I have an online course and an interactive, private group that will help you get back to feeling like your old self again. Let’s start working together today!

AS A GIFT TO MY YOUTUBE COMMUNITY, enter the code: YTTENOFF for a 10% savings.

Join here:
Rapid Recovery from Health Anxiety: A Step-by-Step Guide to Stop Worrying and Reclaim Your Life
https://www.paigepradko.com/healthanx...

Welcome back! This is part two in a series on Health Anxiety. If you have not seen the first video, go ahead and watch Part 1 here:

 --    • Health Anxiety OCD , ...    --

As you may know, Health Anxiety can take on many distressing forms including the persistent fear of having a life threatening illness or physical sensations that cause the false belief that something is terribly wrong with one’s heart, brain or other organs in the body.

In this video, I'm going to be showing you the five methods that I've found most effective for helping those who suffer from Health Anxiety.

Remember, the first step is recognizing the patterns that reinforce this negative cycle. The next step is following the steps you can take right away after watching this video!

Here is the link for the Calming the Body Series I referenced in the video:
   • Playlist  

Remember to hit subscribe so that you can learn all kinds of awesome techniques and strategies to reduce anxiety and depression and improve your overall wellbeing.

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10/20/2025

Here are 10 tips to help you with ROCD:
1. Recognize that your doubt is ocd. Doubt may show up as what-if questions or even emotional numbing like it did for Rob.

2. The relentless confusion and the urgency to take action is also OCD. You don’t have to figure it out now. Allow the discomfort and the anxiety to just be there unattended and let time pass.

3. Use the I. A.M. method to help you with any compulsive urges or compulsions:

a. The (I) stands for Identify. Identify the intrusive thought, the doubt or the urge. “There you are OCD.” You can even name it or label it. This helps to separate you from your ocd.

b. The (A) stands for Allow. Just allow whatever is there to be there. You are not pushing it away or frustrated and you are not engaging in any compulsions to reduce your discomfort.

c. And the (M) stands for shifting your focus or attention in the moment to something else. It helps if you have something that you can do. This is what people do that have recovered from OCD.

4.  You could plan more intentional ERP (exposure and response prevention) to trigger your core fears.

5. You could write, record and listen to scripts about your imagined, worst-case relationship scenarios.

6. You could set a timer on your phone for every 60 to 90 minutes during your waking hours. And when the timer goes off you read and linger on your obsessive thoughts on purpose without doing any compulsions to relieve your anxiety.

7. You could put stickers on your devices and throughout your home to remind to you to think of your uncomfortable thoughts on purpose in order to be less reactive to those thoughts.

8. With all of these techniques, it is important to vary them and always practice response prevention and resist your compulsions before, during and after your exposures.

9. And most importantly, practice self-compassion as ROCD causes so much personal anguish and recovery is a process.

10. There is also therapy called inference- based CBT that focuses on resolving the initial doubt and confusion.

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10/17/2025

NEED HELP FOR OCD?
👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼 Go to https://www.paigepradko.com/ocd  

👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼 OCD Self Assessment Quiz
https://www.paigepradko.com/ocdquiz

👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼 Here is a PDF for The Top 10 Things to Know to Practice ERP:
https://www.paigepradko.com/erp

ROCD like all OCD lives in the imagination and the doubt and uncertainty tries to convince you that your doubts are true.

There are some common core fears in people with ROCD. These fears include:

• Making a wrong choice in partners
• Settling in a relationship
• Feeling unhappy, unattracted, or numb in the relationship
• Making a choice that will result in hurt, disappointment, disgrace, embarrassment or ruin.
• Missing out on a better relationship.

The doubts and the fears are there. But IT IS believing the doubts and fears as if they were facts.  And reacting to the anxiety with compulsions and avoidance behaviors that feed and propel the ROCD cycle.

It is important to recognize compulsions so that you can resist them.

Common ROCD compulsions can include things like:
• Ruminating about the “rightness” or “wrongness” of your relationship.
• Comparing your partner to others or to past relationships
• Analyzing traits, especially negative traits about your partner
• Avoiding commitment
• Avoiding steps like being exclusive, moving in together, getting engaged or married
• Possibly frequent break-ups and then getting back together
• Obsessive confessing about your lack of feelings or attraction
• Compulsive Checking on your level of attraction or happiness
• Reassurance seeking from family and friends, therapists or relationship sites

10/06/2025

Pharmacophobia, the fear of taking medications, is a surprisingly common issue affecting many individuals. Research reveals that up to half of patients may avoid crucial medications due to this anxiety. Through my work, I've identified key factors contributing to this fear, including negative past experiences, pseudodysphagia—the fear of swallowing pills—and the influence of health anxiety on the perception of side effects.

My approach incorporates evidence-based therapies such as Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help patients navigate their fears. I emphasize the importance of a supportive therapeutic relationship and patient autonomy in decision-making. For those facing the challenge of pharmacophobia, I offer a welcoming community at WarmHeart Hub on paigepradko.com, providing resources and support for managing anxiety disorders and OCD. My commitment is to help individuals improve their quality of life, with or without medication, as they confront their fears and work towards recovery.

👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼 Health anxiety self quiz
https://www.paigepradko.com/healthanx...

👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼 Join my Community at WarmHeart Hub:
https://www.paigepradko.com/warmhearthub