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Guidelines for Families with Kids with OCD
Guidelines for Families With Children Who Have OCD Family Help for Children with OCD Family involvement is important to anyone as they strive to break free from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). To children, family support and involvement is crucial. The family needs to work as a team in the fight against OCD. There are a few other areas where parents can assist their children as they struggle with OCD. Keys to Helping Children with OCD Differentiate between the child and the OCD. Clearly and plainly make OCD the problem, NOT the child....
read moreGuidelines for Families Coping with OCD
Keep cool at home. Use a quiet, calm manner. Lower expectations temporarily. Compare progress this month to last month, rather than last year or next year. Patient’s progress must be compared to themselves, not others. Overlook rituals and checking. See these as coping strategies. Don’t participate in rituals. Don’t be judgmental of the behavior. Accept it as the best the patient can do right now. Do not pressure the patient to verbalize anxiety (it only makes matters worse). Help channel energy into activities such as jogging, swimming, and...
read moreSelf-Help Principles for OCD
PRINCIPLE #1: YOU MUST CHOOSE WHETHER YOU WANT TO BE AN ACTIVE PARTICIPANT IN SOCIETY OR BE ISOLATED FROM SOCIETY Obsessive-compulsive symptoms, when allowed to run rampant in your mind, will isolate you from the world around you. To satisfy those compulsions it will require distance (first physically and subsequently mentally) from people. You must decide which way you will go: will you let OCD rule your life and cause you to give up relationships with family and friends, or will you work at making a happy, healthy and fruitful life for your...
read moreDrug Treatment of OCD in Adults
by Michael A. Jenike, M.D. Professor of Psychiatry Harvard Medical School Chairman, OC Foundation Scientific Advisory Board Overview of OCD Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a potentially devastating illness that can result in considerable social and economic disability for both patients and their family members. OCD is usually treated with a combination of specific behavioral therapies, called exposure and response prevention, and medications. It is important to note that many psychoactive medications are not likely to help OCD...
read moreFinding a Doctor and Therapist for Your OCD
How to Find the Right Medical Professionals to Help your OCD There are a lot of different kinds of mental health clinicians out there: psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers, and so forth. As you go about searching for the right professional to help you with your OCD, it will help for you to be familiar with the kinds of practitioners and the services they offer. Keep in mind as you read on, though, that the most important qualification to look for in a doctor or physician is experience treating OCD. No degree or license...
read moreWhy Cognitive-Behavior Therapy Helps
Like Drugs, Talk Therapy Can Change Brain Chemistry by Richard A. Friedman, M.D. After six years of twice-weekly psychotherapy sessions, Eric had plenty of insight. But his anxiety level had barely changed. He was still bedeviled by a ceaseless urge to wash his hands and shameful and repetitive violent thoughts. Out of desperation and against the wishes of his therapist, he visited my office to discuss the possibility of medication. “I thought I could understand my way out of my obsessive compulsive disorder,” he recalled recently. “I wanted...
read moreOCD Homosexuality Anxiety Part 2
Continued from Part 1… Homosexual OCD is a demon, and it knows how to deceive sufferers, but if you know what to look for you cannot be deceived. Part of the problem is that HOCD masks sufferers’ body signals. The other part is that people wrongly think they can suddenly turn gay, and that, of course, is an impossibility. You cannot suddenly turn gay any more than you can sprout wings. It does not get any more basic than that. HOCD will try to rewrite your past and say that you did not actually feel this or that, but whatever you...
read moreThe Chemistry of Obsession
Treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Changes the Brain by Josie Glausiusz Therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder, it seems, can change not only behavior but the chemistry of the brain itself. Bizarre rituals—repeated hand washing, an overpowering urge to recheck locked doors—are the hallmark of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which afflicts some 5 million Americans. Efforts to satisfy these urges can be so all-consuming that they interfere with jobs or relationships. Sufferers usually know their behavior is excessive but cannot...
read moreYou’re Not Gay: Homosexuality Anxiety in OCD
Am I Gay? Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Takes Many Forms by Mark-Ameen Johnson The Rules Hello there! My name is Mark, and I am a gay male with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). I am writing for the benefit of heterosexual folks who hope to use this article to understand their fears about being gay (also known as gay OCD or HOCD). No worries, my friend: If you are trying to understand yourself or someone close to you who has HOCD, you are reading the right article. Rule one: If you say you are heterosexual, then you are. Period. Rule two:...
read moreTop 10 Self-Defeating Ideas of OCD Sufferers
Answers for Doubting Minds by Bruce M. Hyman, PhD, LCSW “My symptoms, while distressing and disruptive, are not so bad. My family members put up with it. I can’t change now – I don’t want to upset the apple cart.” “WRONG… You can live as normal life a as you choose. However troubling your symptoms, you never lose the potential for improvement in your OCD symptoms. “My compulsions and rituals are rational, real, reliable and necessary ways of staying healthy, safe and in control.WRONG…...
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