No, breakOCD is not a replacement for professional therapy.

breakOCD gives users access to evidence-based self-help tools personalized for their experience, as well as a network of professionals with OCD expertise in India.

The app works best when users pair self help, education, and professional help.

Yes, the evidence-based tools on breakOCD can help with all major OCD themes including but not limited to:

• Contamination OCD

• Harm OCD

• Relationship OCD

• Sexual OCD

• Religious OCD

• Moral OCD

• Health OCD

• POCD

• Sensorimotor OCD

• Symmetry OCD.

• Pure OCD.

We recognize that intrusive thoughts come in various forms and attack a person’s core values, leading to compulsions/rituals of different forms. We are also aware that the themes of these thoughts can switch.

We focus on the underlying patterns rather than the specific content of thoughts. This means that whether someone struggles with fear of illness, death, harm, sexual thoughts, blasphemy, perfectionism, symmetry, etc, the same evidence-based principles apply.

breakOCD helps users identify their personal patterns, track their symptoms, practice skills, and get specialized help to manage OCD in India.

OCD and anxiety share some features, including intrusive thoughts and significant distress, but they are clinically distinct conditions that respond to different treatments. Anxiety tends to involve worry about real-world threats that, while disproportionate, relate to genuinely possible outcomes. OCD involves intrusive thoughts that feel deeply contrary to the person's own values, combined with compulsive behaviors or mental rituals aimed at gaining certainty or relief. The key difference is the compulsion. OCD is maintained by the cycle of intrusion, anxiety, and compulsive response. General anxiety treatment is not sufficient for OCD. ERP, specifically designed for OCD, is required.

One of the most common fears that comes with OCD is the fear of being misunderstood, or even worse, the fear of being judged.

At breakOCD, all our therapists are carefully handpicked as professionals with experience treating OCD in India.

They have heard a multitude of experiences and understand how difficult and isolating intrusive thoughts can be.

Our therapists use the gold standard for OCD treatment - Exposure and Response Prevention Treatment (ERP)- as well as EMDR (for people who have experienced trauma along with OCD).

The cost of OCD therapy in India varies depending on whether you see a psychologist or psychiatrist, their level of experience, your city, and the type of treatment involved. As a general guide, sessions with OCD-trained psychologists in Indian metro cities typically range from ₹1,500 to ₹4,000 per session, while psychiatrist consultations may vary further.

On breakOCD, you can filter specialists by price, language, treatment type, and gender to find the right fit for your budget and needs. We are committed to making OCD-specific care more accessible in India, and our platform includes options across a range of price points.

If cost is a barrier, speak to one of our specialists about session frequency and self-help tools that can reduce the number of sessions needed while maintaining progress.

breakOCD was founded in 2025 by Armaan Raheja, who lived with severe OCD for over ten years before receiving the correct diagnosis and evidence-based treatment. After experiencing firsthand how fragmented and inaccessible OCD-specific care is in India, Armaan returned from studying psychology in the United States to build the resource he wished had existed.

breakOCD was built with the guidance of a panel of leading psychiatrists and psychologists across India who specialize in OCD treatment.

Read the founder story here.

ERP, or Exposure and Response Prevention therapy, is the gold standard treatment for OCD and is recommended by leading clinical bodies worldwide including the International OCD Foundation.

ERP works by gradually helping a person face their feared thoughts or situations, which is the Exposure part, while resisting the urge to perform a compulsion in response, which is the Response Prevention part. Over time the brain learns that the feared thought is not actually dangerous and does not require a compulsive response. Anxiety rises and then naturally falls on its own, without the compulsion ever being performed. Repeated enough times, this process fundamentally changes the brain's response to intrusive thoughts.

The Response Prevention element is particularly important because it is compulsions and rituals that maintain and strengthen the OCD cycle. Every compulsion performed teaches the brain that the thought was worth responding to. ERP interrupts that learning.

breakOCD integrates ERP principles throughout the app, helping users delay compulsions, sit with discomfort, and challenge avoidance in small, manageable steps. We always recommend working through ERP with a trained specialist for the best outcomes.

Yes. Several of our therapists and psychiatrists specialize specifically in treating OCD in children and adolescents, and are experienced in adapting ERP for younger age groups.

OCD frequently begins in childhood or early adolescence. In India, it is often misunderstood by families and schools as behavioral problems, excessive religiosity, or anxiety, which delays proper diagnosis and treatment. Early intervention with the right specialist makes a significant difference to long-term outcomes.

For the self-help tools within the breakOCD app, we ask that users under the age of 18 use them under the supervision of a parent, guardian, or treating therapist.

If you are a parent concerned about your child, our specialists can help you understand what you are seeing and what the right next step is.

OCD very rarely resolves on its own and typically worsens over time without proper treatment. This is because the compulsions that provide short-term relief actually strengthen the OCD cycle each time they are performed, teaching the brain that the intrusive thought required a response. Without intervention, the cycle tends to expand: more triggers, more compulsions, more avoidance, and a progressively smaller world. The good news is that OCD is one of the most treatable mental health conditions when the right approach, specifically ERP, is applied consistently. Many people experience significant improvement within weeks of beginning proper treatment.

Some clinicians on the breakOCD panel are trained in EMDR and offer it as part of their practice. You can see which clinicians offer EMDR on their individual profiles in the app.

ERP works by gradually exposing a person to their OCD triggers and preventing the compulsive response, teaching the brain that the feared outcome does not require a compulsion to manage. EMDR works differently, focusing on reprocessing distressing memories so they lose their emotional charge. The two approaches address different aspects of distress and can complement each other in the right clinical context.