emotional

Not Just a Bunch of Clean Freaks

By Renae Miller, MS MFT, LCPC, Agape Counseling LTD

f youve ever seen the movie As Good As It Gets , you have at least heard of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). You may have even seen someone meticulously straighten their belongings and said or thought to yourself, That is so OCD. Many people generally think of OCD as a problem some people have with cleaning too much and may think of it as annoying or odd. However, there is quite a bit more to this problem that plagues two to three million adults in the United States. 1 That is 1 out of every 100 adults and 1 out of every 200 children and teens.
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Obsessions might be best understood as unwanted thoughts that create a large amount of anxiety for a person. They could be something related to germs like, Im going to get sick and die if I touch that doorknob. Or they could involve thoughts about harm coming to a loved one like, If I dont check to see that my oven is off, the house will burn down and kill my family. People with OCD have anxiety producing obsessions in one or more general categories including contamination (germs), checking, harming others, extreme religiosity, and extreme perfectionism.

Compulsions can best be understood to be the thoughts or actions that help a person escape from their anxiety-producing obsessions and temporarily reduce anxiety. For a person who fears getting sick and dying from germs, it may involve washing repeatedly and excessively. For a person who fears harm coming to their family from an accident, it may involve checking to see that the oven is off many times before leaving the house. Whatever form the compulsions take, for a person with OCD, it means lots of interference with their lives at home, school, work, and in the community. OCD can make a person feel trapped and miserable. Imagine what it would feel like to have unwanted, scary thoughts come into your mind over and over again, without being able to stop them from coming or get them off your mind. If you found something you could do to make them stop, even for a short time, you would probably do it as many times as necessary, just to escape the thoughts. So a person who has the constant thought, I have germs on my hands and Im going to get sick will wash their hands frequently to get rid of the thought, at least temporarily. This is a glimpse into the mind of a person with OCD and a small taste of a battle they face on a daily basis. There is good news for those who suffer from OCD and their loved ones. Fortunately, OCD is highly treatable when a sufferer finds good treatment providers. Studies indicate that medications called selective serortonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) as well as cognitive behavioral therapy (more specifically exposure and response prevention) are quite effective at treating OCD symptoms and work best when used together. Family doctors

regularly prescribe SSRIs and psychiatrists are more specifically trained to offer medications that help people with OCD. Cognitive behavioral therapy (exposure and response prevention) can be understood most simply as retraining the brain to have a different relationship with the obsessive thoughts that cause the person so much anxiety. By exposing the person to the obsessive thoughts and preventing the compulsions from being performed, the person is more able to see that their thoughts are not based in reality. If a person has obsessive thoughts about having germs on their hands but manages to keep from washing for a period of time, they learn that they will not always get sick and die whenever they have the thought that they will. It is a process of relearning how to relate to ones thoughts. It is important to find a therapist who has been well trained in cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure and response prevention. The International OCD Foundation (website: iocdf.org) has many good resources to help understand more about OCD and finding treatment providers. Renae Miller, MS MFT, LCPC, is a Mental Health Therapist at Agape Counseling and has received training from the International OCD Foundation at its Behavior Therapy Training Institute. For more information on OCD, or to book an appointment, call 309-663-2229. Agape Counseling is located at 211 N. Veterans Parkway (next to Krispy Kreme). They also have offices in Morton and Peoria. Visit them online: www.agapecounselors.net.
Source: 1. Ruscio AM, Stein DJ, Chiu WT, Kessler RC, The epidemiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, Molecular Psychiatry, 2008 Aug 26

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May 2013 Bloomington Healthy Cells Magazine Page 9