OCD flare

[Guest rpeders3]

Hi all,

I just wanted to write a few thoughts about OCD and ask for your feedback. I'm a graduate student at a seminary in the states and a near life time sufferer of OCD. The diagnoses was made when I was 19 (so about ten years ago) when I was on the verge of entering a psychiatric hospital for depression and intrusive thoughts but the actual symptoms date back to when I was 5 or 6. I'm also recovering from a recent 'relapse' or 'OCD flare up' that was near debilatating. One thing that I'm working on (as classes and work permit) is a book on OCD. There are already so many helpful books on OCD but very few of them are written by actual OCD sufferers. That's one reason why I'm so looking forward to finding a copy of Toates book. Anyway, here are some of my thoughts:

1. OCD is a chronic problem. While it is possible that OCD may never bother any of us again, in all probability we'll probably suffer from OCD our entire lives. Now that's not to say it will always be as bad at it may be currently - it tends to wax and wane, and with treatment (and time) it will get better. I remember reading in 'Over and Over Again' that the trained mind is better than the untrained. We tend to over estimate our OCD attacks. All of us can probably relate our first OCD panic attack; we tend to think our whole lives will always be like that - but it won't.

2. We are superb avoiders. We avoid any and everything that might cause an OCD spike. When it comes down to it, we're afraid of those thoughts or feelings or anxieties. We're afraid of them but they're not afraid of us - ironic isn't it? Part of getting better is acceptance. We have to accept that those thoughts aren't dangerous - that they're the product of a misfire in the brain and they can't harm us or cause us to go crazy. I remember reading a story about a guy who heard a guy outside, coughing and mumbling a strange word over and over again, 'OK, OK, OK, OK.' The guy called the police. When the police arrived, the officer talked to the stranger and it turned out that the guy had a cold and was looking for his lost puppy, 'Jose'. Think about it for a moment. The guy who called the police, a) misinterpreted the data that was sent to his brain (i.e. he thought there was a crazy guy on the loose); b) he reacted with great fear and anxiety (i.e. his body responded to the false message); c) when he learned the truth, he in essence saw with new eyes (i.e. he realized it wan't anything and so his anxiety left and all was well). We OCDers have a problem with A and B. Our brain sends us false messages and we panic. CBT strives to help us reach C, where we finally learn (as those who don't have OCD do) that it was just some guy looking for his puppy after all.

3. OCD is far more common than people realize. Yes, even YOUR symptoms. OCD would have us believe that we're alone and that no one in the history of the world has ever been like this. It's not true. OCD would have us believe that we're never going to get better. It's not true. Someome once said, 'You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.'

4. Sadly, there are people in the world who want to monopolize on OCD. I recently found two or three downloadable ebooks claiming to provide the latest, greatest, miracle cure for OCD - one costs $69.95 and the other $300.00. You're not going to get anymore information in these books than you will in Foa's STOP OBSESSING. One person's claim to fame was that she suffered from OCD for a whopping 2 1/2 months!!! Don't be fooled. The OCD book that I hope to write is a labor of love for others (and my own sanity) - any royalties will of course be donated to OCD-UK!

5. OCD feeds off of uncertainty, well, our intolerance of uncertainty. We want to KNOW for an absolute fact that we will never become our thoughts or act on them., etc. Part of the problem is the scientific revolution - don't get me wrong, science is a good thing (a very good thing) - the problem is we tend to think we can master everything and be in complete control. We get a headache but we can take a pill and make it go away; we can stop wrinkles; we can cure hundreds of diseases; we can, in short, have perfect lives. Previous generations knew better (compare the twenty-first century with the seventeenth century, for example).

Well, this post is swelling in size so I had best end it here. Besides, my wife is calling me for bed.

Shalom,

Randy

[Guest tangoblu]

Hi Randy

A great inciteful post :lol2:

I look forward to reading your book when it is written!

Pam

[Guest twoshoes]

Hello,

The lost puppy story is just perfect, and I will use this to explain the way my mind works on the run up to a panic attack, unless you have experienced the fear without reason you cannot understand OCD.

Best of luck with the book.

Take care

Twoshoes