Hi u/susitoni! Thanks for joining us today. These are great questions!

I definitely believe in the power of lifestyle changes in reducing mental health issues. I take a holistic approach to my therapy and believe that you need to treat not just the mind but also the body. Psychiatry too often tries to create an arbitrary distinction between the two areas, when the more studies that are done the more is revealed about how the things you put into your body affects how you feel. Did you know that there is an estimated 90% of our serotonin (which is one of the neurotransmitters responsible for positive mood) is located in our gut? Which means that the things we eat play a big role in how we feel.

Consuming caffeine can set off a lot of the symptoms that we typically associate with anxiety especially in folks who are more sensitive to it like a fast heart rate, jitteriness, racing thoughts, insomnia, stomach upset, etc. For my clients who have anxiety, I will ask them about their caffeine consumption and bring more awareness to the link between caffeine and anxiety. In terms of dietary changes, there is also an increasing body of evidence that eating a diet high in processed foods can contribute to low mood, low energy, and inflammation of the immune system over the long term. While I'm not a nutritionist, and don't make recommendations to my clients about specific dietary plans, I do discuss this in our sessions with clients who struggle with healthy eating and I try to help them bring more mindfulness to their food choices. There's a great book on this topic called Eating Mindfully by Susan Albers that I recommend.

In terms of the difference between intrusive thoughts and thoughts that have something to do with OCD: intrusive thoughts can be a component of OCD they are the "O" in the OCD because it stands for obsessions. However, intrusive thoughts can also be a component of a number of other mental health disorders including generalized anxiety, depression, trauma, among others. The key thing about how they operate with OCD is that people have intrusive thoughts and then they have some sort of compulsion they engage in that helps them momentarily try and make the thought go away. This can include rituals like handwashing, checking doors, counting, but can also be more subtle like googling symptoms or asking for reassurance repeatedly.

Hope that helps!