Alternative treatments for OCD?

[Guest niveuso]

Hi All

I have been dealing with depression/anxiety for the last six months brought on due to a viral illness and have started to reach the conclusion that alot of my symptoms are related to OCD, particularly obsessive thoughts. I have been on citalopram for about three months and am going to ask my psychiatrist to arrange for me to have CBT as I have read that this can be effective for OCD.

My questions are around the alternative treatments that I have read about such as herbal remedies (fish oil/omega 3) and hypnotherapy.

Has anyone tried these treatments? Have people found them helpful? How would I go about finding a reputable hypnotherapist with experience in treating OCD?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

N

[Caramoole]

Hi Niveuso

And welcome to the boards, I hope that you find them a source of help and support in dealing with your OCD.

Alternative treatment is a topic that is often discussed, if you type your areas of interest into the search facility (top R.H Side) it will bring up the threads where these issues have been discussed before.

I remain hopeful and yet cautious about the success of alternative treatments, personally, I feel that were there any truly beneficial therapies that eradicated OCD we would all know about them. Having said that, I am always open to consider anything that helps us move forward in the fight. I certainly think that many things could be considered as Complimentary Therapies. Fish Oils are constantly in the public eye and are proving to be very helpful in many areas of behaviour disorders, depression etc and certainly don't appear to be anything but beneficial to our health in general. Hypnosis has also been found to be a very useful aid in the treatment of stress/anxiety disorders. Finding a good hypnotherapist probably needs careful consideration. There are so many courses available from the casual weekend course to those who study professionally in clinical hypnosis, there are some good ones around, along with a lot of charlatans, care needs to be taken. I'm not aware of any who successfully treat OCD.

I don't wish to sound pessemistic, I'm not at all, I remain open-minded but I have been down many of the alternative routes and on a personal level haven't found any to be significantly helpful. Good old exposure and response, along with knowledge, support and a willingness to face my fears have been my best tool.

I'm sure you'll get feed-back from other members, I hope they'll help with your course of action.

Caramoole

[Guest katy_girl28]

I take alot of meds but I also take 1000mg a day of Omega 3 and the difference has been really noticable. If I miss a couple of days the racing thoughts start again.

I did alot of research on the internet and they recommend a higher dose for depression and ocd. Taking just a one a day did nothing but taking 4 a day has really helped.

I have also had CBT which I use regularly. I think the trick is to make use of every available resource. I believe that the combination of meds and counselling have given me an almost OCD free life.

Good luck

K

xx

[Guest ca02049]

Hi All

I have been dealing with depression/anxiety for the last six months brought on due to a viral illness and have started to reach the conclusion that alot of my symptoms are related to OCD, particularly obsessive thoughts. I have been on citalopram for about three months and am going to ask my psychiatrist to arrange for me to have CBT as I have read that this can be effective for OCD.

My questions are around the alternative treatments that I have read about such as herbal remedies (fish oil/omega 3) and hypnotherapy.

Has anyone tried these treatments? Have people found them helpful? How would I go about finding a reputable hypnotherapist with experience in treating OCD?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

N

My phschairatrist recommended that hypnotherapy is not very successful in OCD however thats only 1 opinion. I take Omego 3 Fish Oils along with Seroxat 30mg daily and find it helpful. Omega 3 is very good for the brain and general well being.

[Guest jason]

Yeah, fish oil and perhaps a high-potency multi-vitamin seems to be the best and safest 'alternative' method of helping with this kind of mental illness.

[Caramoole]

I've been thinking about this since my last post, particularly in respect of hypnotherapy.

Hypnotherapy can be used very successfully in the treatment of stress, general anxiety problems etc. It has the power (for want of a better word) to assist with powerful addictions such as smoking etc. I am fairly comfortable with the fact that it does work in many conditions, providing it is carried out by a well qualified therapist.

I have had hypnosis several times over the years, it was useful as a relaxation aid and for stress but had zero effect with OCD. The only type of hypnosis that I found that specifically mentioned OCD was Curative Hypnotherapy. I was sent a video from this contact which followed the treatment and 'apparent' cure of a lady with OCD. I subsequently booked a weekly course of hypnotherapy (250 mile round trip as there were no therapists in the North) and had about seven weeks of treatment. The result, a great big ZERO, Zilch

BUT.... it quickly transpired that the woman I went to see had absolutely NO real knowledge of OCD at all, she had a very basic idea of excessive hand-washing, checking locks etc....but when I mentioned a Pure 'O' symptom she looked shocked and actually told me "That's not OCD, OCD is where you wash your hands because of an irrational fear of germs"

That's when I told her I wouldn't be continuing with her treatment (at about £80 per session)

This thread has got me thinking though, if hypnosis was to be successful, or even just helpful, with OCD the therapist would have to have a good and in depth understanding of the condition itself, how it works etc. In order to treat OCD and offer subliminal guidance and suggestion, a therapist would have to completely understand how OCD works, what's going on in an OCD mind.

I have a sneaky suspicion that most hypnotists don't ( as with the woman I saw) and wonder if this could be amongst the reasons that hypnosis for OCD doesn't offer much beneficial help. It would be interesting to see if a good hypnotherapist who had taken time to study and research the condition in depth, had any better results.

They may or they still may not but it's a thought

Caramoole

[Guest aeon]

Fish Oil / Omega 3 is generally good for helping with brain function, and I have also heard it can help with OCD, so you've got nothing to lose in trying it.

It is in everyone's interest to look after themselves, and good nutrition can only help in coping with OCD.

Kind regards

Aeon

[Guest Heryn]

Fish Oil / Omega 3 is generally good for helping with brain function, and I have also heard it can help with OCD, so you've got nothing to lose in trying it.

It is in everyone's interest to look after themselves, and good nutrition can only help in coping with OCD.

Kind regards

Aeon

If it's fine to take this sort of supplement with SSRIs then I may start doing that. Thanks for the info and sorry for hijacking the thread, guys

Cheers

Heryn

[Guest twoshoes]

Hypnotherapy got me eating again! My OCD contamination was so bad that I was syruggling to put things in my mouth, after a few sessions I sat in the car and put my finger in my mouth, without washing it first!!! something I hadn't done in many, many months. Things went well from then on and as I got better I stopped trying, stopped practising and the OCD takes a hold again.

I tried hypnotherapy because CBT was too exhausting, I was looking for a relaxation therapy to help with the panic attacks I was suffering because I was challenging my OCD with CBT, but the hypnotherapy was so sucessful that I felt I could put in to practise the CBT tool box without the CBT therapist (to be honest the guy and I didn't gel, I asked for another therapist and non were available, I dreaded my appointments because I felt he judged me, he was inconsistant, unsympathetic and on occasion rude)

I have been through many courses of CBT and I restart Hypnotherapy tonight, with both I have found that the failing is down to me being complacient and not proactively fighting the OCD. Bit like my uncle, he gets depressed, takes pills, feels better, stops pills, gets depressed again

A good therapist will not attemp to keep you coming back indefinitely. They should teach you some techniques to use yourself, no point becoming dependant on them, I find that my therapist was a very supportive and it was my descision to continue with monthly sessions (How I wish that I had not given up)

Up until a couple of years ago you could have hypnotherapy on the NHS for certain conditions. My current GP was very supportive of my Hypnotherapy and actually put me in touch with a couple of therapist who used to take onk NHS patients. Of course the NHS won,t fund it now and it's not cheap but it helped me.

To find a good therapist first speak to you GP, they often have a guide in their practise of practioners in the area.

Speak to the hypnotherapist, find out if they have a reasonable understanding of OCD, I was lucky, he understood OCD very well (most aspects in depth) and had treated other suffers with varying levels of sucess. If they can't answer your questions to your satisfaction try someone else.

Ask if they are members of any governing bodies, research these bodies and find out what yu have to do to become a memeber. As pointed out above there are courses out there with qualifications attached for very little work. My therapist is registered with The Corporation of Advanced Hypnotherapists.

Feel comfortable with your choice, you must feel confident with your therapist, you have to trust them, if you have any doubts the therapy may not be as sucessful.

Sorry if this has detracted from the main thread but hpnotherapy/hypno-healing helped me

I have also tried bach flower remedies, not sure if they worked of if it helped me refocus and take contol.

I used to go for reflexology for recurrent water infections(that worked too! even though I didn't think it would) She was a Reiki practioner and I tried that for mt OCD, she didn't claim that it would work on OCD but I did feel more relaxed which helped generally.

Take care

Edited January 12, 2006 by Guest

[Guest NickNickNick]

I use 'music therapy' now, listening to changing melodies, etc. in order to distract myself from 'pure o' thoughts. The problem is that the melodies constantly have to change, or else my brain recognizes the pattern.

I have also ordered a subliminal messaging series of CDs for anxiety & OCD, so I will let you know how that goes.

[Guest niveuso]

Thanks for your help, looks like I need to do some more reseach on hypnotherapy, though it seems that omega 3 might be worth trying.

Thanks, N

[Guest jason]

Just wanted to point out that fish oil/omega 3 capsules are not a herbal remedies. They are purely nutritional supplements and are found in many foods.

[Guest CeeJay]

Niveuso.

I would totally agree with Twoshoes' comments about choosing a suitable Hypnotherapist and would add a couple of comments of my own:

1/. I am not totally sure of how effective the NHS Register for Hypnotherapists is at providing suitably-qualified therapists. The screening appears to be minimal.

2/. My experince is that doctors, as a general rule , are not totally supportive of alternatvie therapies and can often see then as a threat; especially as Hypnotherapy sets out to cure the condition , rather than provide a pill to cover the symptoms of it. you may be lucky, however.

3/. One key question to ask is 'how much training did you do initially and on an ongoing basis?' as suggested , there are courses that are 2 weeks long and provide a certificate at the end of it. also, you may wish to test the therapist's committment to ongoing development, since someone traing a long time ago, could well be out of touch with currrent practices.

4/. you might also ask, what other related treatments can you offer? There are several related therapies, such as NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming ),EFT ( emotional freedon technique) and EMI (Eye movement Integration) that work well in conjunction with the main therapy itself.

It is extrememly difficult to determine who will be the right therapist to chose. I also agree that you will get a gut-feeling when talking to the therapists, as to who will be the right one.

Good luck in your search.

Regards

Chris Jones

Hypnotherapist.

Edited January 16, 2006 by Guest