What pokemon would be good for someone with different kinds of OCD?

Unlike other mental conditions, service pokémon associated with OCD are often more physical in nature. That is, whereas someone with depression may need a pokémon with Sweet Scent or a psychic-type to go about their daily tasks, someone with certain types of OCD may need something a bit more tangible—something that can touch them. The reason why is because many of the issues typically related to OCD—repetitive behavior, dermatillomania, and so forth—need immediate intervention and therefore can’t be solved by the less intrusive methods other service pokémon offer. For that reason, oddly enough, the traditional service growlithe and houndour tend to be the most popular, as they’re trained to recognize these behaviors as not being standard for a human (as it were) and can therefore paw at their owners when they happen to interrupt. Eevee are also popular for this, especially given that they evolve into espeon, who can detect the beginning of these behaviors before they happen.

For the less physical symptoms of OCD, such as anxiety and intrusive thoughts, pokémon with Sweet Scent and psychic-types are indeed used as well, as described in my earlier post on them. (Click here to read that, if you wish.) This would be why some people prefer to use espeon, rather than the traditional growlithe or houndour, but others prefer the comfort of a pet-like pokémon over the comfort of the aura projected by a psychic.

Finally, of course, there is also the fact that OCD is often treated with medication, at which point, many patients with OCD prefer a service pokémon that can also remind them of when to take their next dose. Service growlithe can indeed be trained to do this, but other humans may wish to pair their growlithe with a hoothoot trained to hoot certain patterns (often just loud enough to force their partners to act to get them to stop) when their internal clocks “strike” the moment their partners need to take their medication.

As always, it’s best to work with both your doctor and your local service pokémon agency to figure out what you would need out of a service pokémon. Given that OCD describes a number of different symptoms (some of which may not be solved by a pokémon alone), you may need one or more service pokémon trained to do specific tasks, so it’s best to communicate with the agency and your doctor to find out what symptoms would work with your specific case and treatment plan.