Cognitive-behavioral strategies to manage my OCD
Harry Magnet
http://harrymagnet.blogspot.com/2009/11/cognitive-behavioral-strategies-to.html
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> Check out my blog post on how I managed my OCD. You can find it at:
> http://harrymagnet.blogspot.com/2009/11/cognitive-behavioral-strategies-to.html
Very interesting piece, that. Thanks for posting it.
I do have a few comments:
"There are several problems with the theory behind exposure therapy for OCD.
One problem is that OCD isn't really an anxiety disorder. It's usually
treated by antidepressants. If it was a true anxiety disorder, it would be
treated by anti-anxiety meds like Xanax or Valium."
Good point. While anxiety is usually a prominent feature of OCD, it
seems to me to be a secondary symptom, that is it's a result of the other
symptoms rather than stemming directly from the OCD. People with OCD
experience alarming and uncontrollable thoughts - an abnormal state; this
then makes them anxious - a normal reaction. This is just my opinion, but
I've seen a lot of people describing their OCD and how it works, and that's
how it strikes me.
I don't have the thoughts really, I just have the compulsions by
themselves, like a sort of conditional tic. So I get anxiety only as
another, unrelated sort of secondary reaction. I'm only anxious if I don't
get a chance to do the compulsion, because the longer I have to wait, the
worse it usually is when I finally do it. The same applies if I resist it
but eventually have to give in.
Just to be pernickety, I have heard of a few cases of OCD being treated
with Valium, but that really is just to treat the symptoms. It's used only
if the antidepressants don't work.
"The other problem is that obsessions and compulsions are addictive,
self-stimulatory behaviors. One doesn't treat addictive behaviors by
exposing the addict to things that can trigger the addiction. For example,
one doesn't treat alcoholism by exposing the alcoholic to wine or liquor."
They don't strike me as typical addictive or self-stimulatory behaviours.
You don't get a kick out of doing them for the first time. In fact they're
not really much like anything else I've come across. Have you any
particular reason for calling them that? In any case, I don't know if
there's any particular theoretical reason for keeping addicts away from what
they're addicted to, except that they're not likely to resist it. With OCD
you have more of a chance.
"I don't know why some people and therapists claim that exposure therapy is
effective for OCD. Perhaps some people with true anxiety are misdiagnosed
with OCD. Perhaps others are helped in the short term by exposure therapy,
only to have different obsessions and compulsions replace the ones that they
were exposed to. Others likely relapse."
I do know a lot of people who have been helped by exposure therapy for
OCD. Quite a few did relapse, true, but others haven't (yet). Anyway, if
exposure therapy is barking up the wrong tree, why would there be even a
temporary effect?
I've crossposted this into uk.support.mental-health, it's a bit quiet in
there.
A. B.
A B
"A B" <a@a> wrote in message news:4af1c142$0$2485$db0f...@news.zen.co.uk...
Whoops, missed. Sent it to alt.society.mental-health by mistake. Right,
uk.people.support.mental-health here I come.
A. B.