Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Family

I had a friend once who had intense, frequent thoughts of her own death. She imagined that she was going to be hit by a car. Although she was in therapy, she was not getting the help she needed, and before long she found it difficult to drive her car, fearing an accident. She so feared the power of her thoughts that she eventually became afraid to leave her home for fear of being hit by a car. She was 23, and the last time I heard from her, 10 years later, she was still housebound. To preserve her live she imprisoned herself in her home and stopped living.

Many people with Obsessive Compulsive disorder (OCD) have frequent thoughts of catastrophic death, either their own or that of their family members. The anxiety they feel when thoughts pop into their mind is so powerful that they can come to believe that their thoughts have the power to create the imagined catastrophe. To anyone else, that sounds downright crazy, but for the person experiencing the obsessive thought it seems very real.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a common topic on the talk show circuit, but what most people don't know is that most of us have some degree of obsessive and or compulsive tendencies. Obsessions are when you can't stop thinking about something, like worrying about whether or not you locked the door. Compulsions are when you feel compelled to do something, such as repeatedly checking to see if you really did lock the door.

Compulsive or obsessive tendencies don't become a problem unless they begin to verge on the irrational, or they begin to negatively impact your life or the life of those around you. For instance, you have to check the front door several times in order to feel secure, or you begin to feel anxious, worrying that the door might not have been locked properly. You might even return home prematurely in order to appease your anxiety.

One of the most devastating problems that results from a parent with irrational obsessions or compulsions is the negative impact it can have on the lives of their children. A parent that is overly afraid of germs, unhealthy foods or engaging in specific activities will inadvertently teach their children to fear the world.

I have seen children that were never allowed to jump on a trampoline or to stay overnight with a friend because of their parent's heightened anxiety and irrational fears. These children are being psychologically crippled by their neurotic parent. The fear based parent is forever changing who their child becomes, preventing them the freedom to explore the world around them or to live life to their fullest potential.

A parent terrified of their child being injured or dying may prevent them from swimming at the shore or bike riding with their friends. A parent who makes their child pay the price for their anxiety will unwittingly raise a child who reacts in one of two ways. Either the child will become rebellious, angry, and unable to discern between safe and unsafe activities. Or the child may adapt to the parent's neurotic control by learning to see the world through a filter of fear, creating emotional paralysis.

Living in a constant state of fear is a miserable, unhappy way to exist. But imposing our fears onto our innocent child is the saddest of all outcomes.

There is hope, but it requires the parent to choose the mental health of their child over their fears. Ask yourself, "Which do I love more, my child or my fear?"
It sounds harsh, but that is what it comes down to. Will you refuse treatment and choose instead to allow your irrational behaviors and thoughts to negatively impact your family, or do you choose to protect your child from psychological harm by getting help for yourself?

Facing your fear is nearly impossible without professional help. If it was easy you would have done it already. But addressing your fear is one of the quickest "fixes" in therapeutic terms. To help you with life immediately, a medication called an SSRI may be prescribed. But to get permanently past your obsessive-compulsive tendencies you will need the help of a skilled cognitive/behavioral therapist.

With professional help you will learn how to identify your irrational thoughts, how to replace them with rational thinking, and how to work through your fears. Unlike many types of therapy, this process can take as few as 6 sessions, and rarely more than 6 months.

Imagine your life becoming free from anxiety and fear in as little as 6 weeks to 6 months. Six months is going to come and go weather or not you get help. How do you want to be living six months from now? How important is it to you to protect your children from emotional harm? Bite the bullet. Get the help. Choose life!

Who's Living in Your Neighborhood?

A few statistics about your neighborhood:

• One out of every 100 people in the population has been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
• Ten percent of the population have experienced depression this year and half of them deal with a lifetime of depressive episodes. Forty-five percent of your neighbors experience an episode of depression sometime before the age of 45.
• Fifteen percent of the general population has a diagnosable personality disorder.
• 0.5 – 2.5 percent of your neighbors suffer with clinical paranoia.
• Two percent of your neighbors have Antisocial Personality Disorder (formerly known as sociopaths)
• Two percent have incurable Borderline Personality Disorder
• One percent is diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and another 15% have significant symptoms of the disorder.
• Five percent have a schizoid or schizotypal disorder.
• Ten percent are significantly physically disabled.
• 2.6 to 3.4% are legally blind.
• 8.2% have significant hearing impairments – 0.8% have severe to profound hearing impairments.
• Three percent are mentally retarded.
• Between one and eight percent of children have specific learning disabilities.
• Between 0.5-1.5% have recurring seizures.
• forty-four percent of your neighbors have been divorced at least once.

Chances are that you or someone close to you suffers some form of mental, physical or emotional disability. Isn't it time that we removed the stigmas and reserved our judgment?

Post Traumatic Stress and the Media

Post Traumatic Stress disorder or PTSD is a very real and very curable problem. Anyone, even an infant can acquire symptoms of PTSD upon experiencing a serious trauma.

When my brother first saw the movie "Forest Gump" he nearly hit the floor during the scenes about Vietnam. Not because of the film, but because of the realistic sounds of the gunfire. It had been decades since he was in Vietnam but the piercing sound of gunfire that seemed to be coming from behind the movie viewers was enough to take him back to fright-filled days at war.

In today's world of 24/7 news coverage of terrorism, war and crime, it is even possible for someone to develop PTSD by immersing themselves in videos and newscasts about an event in which they had no actual involvement. This was made clear to clinicians after 911, and again during the Virginia Tech shootings.

After the Virginia Tech shootings however the process of developing PTSD was more widely understood, and after a few days nearly all of the footage was taken off the air. For those who had already watched hours of video, and who were already at risk for PTSD, it was too late.

Children are particularly at risk of developing intense stress reactions upon watching real or realistic events on film or television. Intense fear can cause them to regress into more childlike behaviors like wetting the bed, moodieness or having nightmares.

If you suspect that you or your child is experiencing serious effects of stress it is important that you get help immediately. Otherwise the stress can hang on for year, and can develop into phobias and other psychological problems.

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Is ADHD, ADD Real?

Many of you have heard by now that the latest research has shown that as many as 85% of all children in the USA that have been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) have been misdiagnosed. Consequently, thousands of our school age children have been given harsh, addictive drugs for years. For many of them, once they have grown to adulthood, feel they have little choice but to begin using illegal drugs like cocaine to maintain their habit.

We are raising a generation of drug dependent people who have a defeatist, victim attitude about life in general. Instead of growing up clear-headed and optimistic about life, they were being misdiagnosed for years, ingesting drugs that they didn't need. Their brains have been soaked in a chemical brine that can cause all kinds of other problems. Often they take on a victim role and they use their "diagnosis" as a way to avoid social, academic and occupational success.

The good news is that there are now definitive medical tests that can be done to determine once and for all if someone has ADD or ADHD. The unpleasant news is that most of those tested are found not to have either illness. How is that unpleasant you ask?

Well, suddenly realizing that your child has been ingesting powerful, mind altering drugs, can devastate even the most forgiving parent. And there is the original issue that still needs to be addressed; "What is the cause of my child's poor behavior?"

Being mature and sophisticated enough to accept that family dynamics may have started this whole ball rolling is difficult to assimilate. Most people want to blame someone else instead of looking at the obvious especially when it means taking some of the responsibility for the problem.

Who is the best patent here? The one who refuses to look at the truth or the parent who is willing to took around every corner to find all the pieced to this complicated puzzle?

For more information google Dr. Frank Lawless, a world leader regarding ADHD and ADD.

Spirituality can Improve Your Mental Health

Here it is, nearly Thanksgiving already. This is a time of year that can bring on a roller coaster of feelings and moods. We have discussed in previous issues how to take care of yourself during the holidays, how to stay the winter blues and how to prevent yourself from falling into depression. But one thing that isn't much written about during the holidays is the increase of spirituality in the people around you.

Even those who don't attend church or Synagogue much during the year feel a heightened sense of spirituality during the holidays. People can be more understanding of one another, more thoughtful and generally more generous. So how, if at all, does this temporary shift in community spirituality effect those who suffer with depression or grief during this time of year?
Well a Study at the American Psychiatric Association reported: "Depressed seniors who believe their life is guided by a larger spiritual force have significantly fewer symptoms of depression than those who do not use religious coping strategies."

This is a pretty remarkable study and when you see these kind of data coming out from both medical and psychiatric populations, it s hard to continue ignoring religion as a variable in the recovery from depression. "These results indicate that clinicians should encourage reconnection with religion as a way of coping in patients whose spirituality has been important to them," concluded Dr. Bosworth.

Most of us have heard about studies about the positive effects of prayer for hospitalized patience. And until recently, those studies have gone unrefuted. However last month a group of Atheists conducted a study from which they concluded that praying for patience did neither harm nor good.

But one thing that has been made very clear in the last 20 years, is that we are not just bodies with a brain. In order to find balance in our life we need to attend to our physical, mental and spiritual health. If we neglect one, the others will suffer.

So during this holiday season, take advantage of the heightened spiritual feel in the air. Take in a deep breath of goodwill and soak in that warm refreshing feeling of peace. You always have a choice, you can bah-humbug your way through, or you can determine to do everything possible to make your holiday season as good as it gets.