Dr Celin Gelgec

23/10/2025

Many people confuse health anxiety with OCD — but the difference lies in what each is trying to escape.

Health anxiety fears illness. OCD fears uncertainty.
Both orbit the same invisible core: death anxiety.

Health anxiety says, “I need to know I’m healthy.”
OCD says, “I need to know — full stop.”

One searches for reassurance from doctors, tests, Google, Reddit rabbit holes, and spends hours on ChatGPT…
The other can do the same while searching for a feeling of absolute certainty that never arrives.

For clients, recovery means loosening the grip on control — letting life happen without endless checking or analysis.
For clinicians, it means targeting the function of OCD. Because if you treat health anxiety like OCD, or OCD like health anxiety, you’ll miss what’s driving the behaviour.

Recovery isn’t about feeling safe.
It’s about living fully while you feel unsafe.

21/10/2025

When people first present for OCD treatment they’ll say that they want recovery from OCD — but what they’re really searching for is relief from OCD. And that makes sense. When your mind is screaming doubt, relief feels like safety. What clients quickly learn is that OCD recovery isn’t about escaping discomfort — it’s about learning to carry it differently.

Comfort says: “Make the anxiety stop.”
Recovery says: “Let it come — I’ll do what matters anyway.”

We mistake relief for progress.
We call avoidance “self-care.”
We label anxiety as “unsafe.”

But recovery isn’t peace — it’s permission.
Permission to live, love, and act with doubt in the room.
To build a life that’s bigger than the next compulsion.

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) don’t aim to make anxiety disappear. They teach us to build a life around uncertainty, not in spite of it.

For clinicians, our role isn’t to calm the storm — it’s to hold the fort while clients learn to stand in it. To be the anchor when their world feels like it’s coming undone.

If you’re chasing calm, you’ll stay stuck.
If you’re chasing meaning through your own values, you’ll move.

20/10/2025

“Maybe” is one of the most powerful tools in OCD recovery.

When you’re doing exposures, your mind will scream for certainty — What if it’s true? What if I’m a bad person? What if something terrible happens? The urge to fix, check, or find reassurance feels impossible to resist.

But real progress begins when you stop trying to prove your thoughts wrong and start practising “maybe.”
Maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not. Maybe I’m safe, maybe I’m not. Maybe I’ll never know.

“Maybe” isn’t weakness — it’s acceptance. It’s how you stop arguing with your mind and start choosing your values over your fears. That’s when exposure and response prevention (ERP) really works — not when you feel calm, but when you move forward despite uncertainty.

18/10/2025

Words cannot express how grateful I’m feeling not only to our team who made this event come together, but to our amazing OCD community who came out to support each other today. Over 100 people came together at The Tan track in Melbourne this morning for the Million Steps for OCD Melbourne walk pioneered by the .

Before we headed off to walk, we shared messages of hope, we shared reasons why we’re walking, and we heard from the amazing Emma who bravely shared with us her lived experience with OCD.

Before I sign off I want to express a heartfelt thank you to my colleagues , Catherine McGrath, Jenny Placek, Anna, and Lindsey for having all hands on deck and making this event come together.

Thank you also to Felicity who helped us get our marketing sorted, to Emma for being so brave in sharing her lived experience with our community, and importantly, a huge thank you to Yasmin Arkinstall and .cripps for being our ambassadors and spreading the word. Without your efforts we would not have been able to grown from last year.

May we be bigger and louder next year! 💫🤩🎉🙌🏼💥

17/10/2025

16/10/2025

Meta-OCD is when OCD turns inward. You start obsessing about whether you really have OCD, whether your intrusive thoughts mean something deeper, or whether you’re doing ERP therapy the “right” way. You might even constantly check your progress, asking, am I getting better or worse?

This type of OCD is driven by the same trap as every other theme — the search for certainty. You analyse, reflect, monitor, and Google for answers, believing clarity will bring relief. But it never does. Each time you check, you strengthen the belief that uncertainty is unsafe.

OCD recovery doesn’t come from feeling certain. It comes from allowing doubt. Letting progress feel uncertain. Letting discomfort exist without trying to solve it.

Maybe you’re getting better. Maybe you’re not.
That uncertainty is recovery.

13/10/2025

“Maybe I’m not anxious — maybe I’m just a perfectionist.”

It’s a line we hear all the time in therapy rooms. But beneath the surface, OCD and perfectionism run on very different engines.

Perfectionism is about standards, control, and identity — driven by a need to perform well or feel competent.
OCD is about responsibility, risk, and relief — driven by a need to neutralise doubt, guilt, or perceived threat.

The rumination looks the same, but the function is what matters.
Perfectionism asks, “What did I do wrong?”
OCD asks, “What if I did something wrong?”

One tries to improve performance.
The other tries to eliminate uncertainty.

As clinicians, this difference changes everything — especially how we conceptualise rumination, reassurance seeking, and the role of exposure and response prevention (ERP).

Because if it’s about proving worth, it’s perfectionism.
If it’s about preventing catastrophe, it’s OCD.

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12/10/2025

Still think OCD is quirky and cute? Imagine having thousands of thoughts like these and more every day? OCD is not an adjective. People with OCD and their families deal with the mental torture of OCD every single day. It’s not a cute quirk or a love of tidiness. It’s not a condition to describe being perfectionistic.

OCD is one of the most debilitating mental health conditions in the world as documented by the World Health Organisation. So as we kick off OCD week this week, let’s do better and not describe ourselves as being “OCD” or refer to your own way of doing things as “my OCD”.

11/10/2025

Clinician self doubt (aka imposter syndrome), is not a flaw. It helps us grow. So how do we deal with it? Swipe across for more or read ⬇️.

The other day a colleague shared with me that they were starting to doubt themselves at work and asked: “How do you deal with it?”.

I told them that truthfully I still get nervous before presentations, workshops, lectures, supervision sessions etc, and that I especially get nervous before recording podcast episodes!

You would think that after working in the field of OCD for 15 years you would be full of confidence. But the truth is, most reflective clinicians walk the line between confidence and doubt. The trick is not to fall off.

After reflecting with them, I noticed that my nerves weren’t around the knowing of content, but around my values. I often find myself thinking…
Will this help other clinicians out there who want to work in this area?
Will clients find this helpful?
Will this knowledge I’m sharing be well received?

When I asked my colleague whether their doubt was around content or values they answered in a similar way, with anxiety around whether or not they’re being helpful.

We both acknowledged something we’ve known for awhile. As clinicians, we carry a sense of responsibility. We want to help our clients and their families live an OCD free life. We want to be effective.

So how do we ensure we stay on track? For me, I try to stay on track by utilising supervision, asking for feedback from clients and supervisees, checking in with colleagues, and ensuring I’m staying on top of research and methods to ensure that the work I do and talk about remains evidence based.

It sounds like a lot, but oddly enough it’s the reassurance we need to keep going. I say oddly enough because reassurance seeking is something we try to avoid in OCD treatment! 😅

Continued in comments…

09/10/2025

It’s world mental health day today and we’re looking forward to our walk for OCD which kicks off next week! Join us on October 18th at the Tan Track Melbourne to raise much needed awareness for people and families impacted by OCD. We’re walking to bridge the 11-14 year gap between onset of symptoms and diagnosis. Why will you be walking?

08/10/2025

“What if nothing is real?” No, you’re not just being deep. You might be experiencing Existential OCD.

The Loop
Existential OCD makes you question everything:
“What’s the point of life?”
“How do I know I exist?”
“What if my thoughts create reality?”
And instead of passing through — the questions stick.

Why it’s not just philosophy
Most people can ponder a question and move on.
With Existential OCD, you can’t.
You chase certainty.
You analyse, seek reassurance, distract — and the relief never lasts.

The Compulsion Trap
Googling for answers
Asking others for meaning
Ruminating for hours
These mental compulsions feed the doubt — and the cycle tightens.

The Science Bit
Existential OCD isn’t about being too smart or too curious. It’s about anxiety hijacking your need for certainty. The harder you try to solve it, the deeper you sink.

The Way Out?
Notice the urge to figure it out
Label it: “I’m thinking about my existence”
Refocus on what matters in the present
You can learn to live with not knowing — and still feel free. You don’t need to “solve life” to start living it.
If this sounds familiar, you might be dealing with OCD — and it’s treatable. If your clients are struggling with existential OCD get in touch for supervision - admin@melbournewellbeinggroup.com.au

06/10/2025

Are you a experiencing symptoms of OCD? Therapy can feel very overwhelming when you first start. You may not have all the answers but you don’t need to. Slow it down, take your time and be curious with your therapist to work it out together. It can be hard because we want to get to the end already. Years of pain and suffering can bring feelings of shame and frustration. You will get there one step at a time.