How Much Can Change For the Better in a Year

This post comes from our regular contributor, Melanie Lefebvre. Here she writes about her experience attending the International OCD Foundation’s Annual Conference in Boston last year, and this past July. She wrote about her hit and run OCD in an earlier article

Rewind to 2014 at the International OCD Foundation’s Annual OCD Conference. Zoom in to me volunteering to share my struggle with hit-and-run OCD at Dr. Baer’s workshop about taboo thoughts. Adjust the lens and you’ll see that it was a period of my life where I had stopped driving out of fear of accidentally hitting someone. It wasn’t worth the risk. Driving was paused as I hung out with the comfort of avoidance. But after his workshop, I decided the risk was worth it. Being Dr. Baer’s impromptu patient got me back behind the wheel.

LeeandMelNow fast forward to the OCD Conference of 2015. I again attended his workshop on taboo thoughts but this time observed a peer share her story—now a witness to the vulnerable place I was in just a year prior. The audience again created a sense of community. The community who helped hold me accountable to my commitment to drive again; the community that Dr. Baer introduced me to. By asking for a volunteer that day, Dr. Baer helped me decide I wanted back in the driver’s seat.

But it’s not just the driving that’s changed.

Last year, I almost didn’t attend the conference out of fear my cats would die without doing my compulsions to keep them protected. This year, I trusted in my husband to care for them.

Last year, I bawled in the airport lobby, contemplating not getting on the plane. This year, I sat calmly in the lobby and realized Brave by Sara Bareilles was playing.

Last year, I requested photos of my cats as proof of life while away. This year it didn’t even occur to me to ask for pictures.

Last year, I disclosed to my mom about my OCD only a few months prior. This year, I felt pride in my video in which I disclosed to anyone who might stumble across it on YouTube.

Last year, driving was impossible. This year, I’m driving.

The conference wasn’t a magical fix. Driving is still hard. OCD is still hard. Sometimes I don’t want to get behind the wheel. But I’m viewing the conference as the renewal of my commitment to the community.

Here’s to 2016 in Chicago, next year’s conference, where I again “renew my vows” to progress!

Note: The photo shows me with Dr. Baer

Peer Support Forums: Announcement

This year, we explored the addition of peer support forums to our website. We are always trying to improve our peer support services and adapt to what is needed. After a trial run of the forums, we have concluded that peer support forums on our website are not the best way to meet the needs of the community.

We’ve decided to put these forums on hold for the time being, and allocate our resources into matching individuals up for one-on-one support. This can be done via email and/or phone and can be confidential, if desired. In addition to peer support, you’ll have access to experts in the field–this can be especially helpful for questions peers aren’t qualified to answer, such as issues with medication or referrals. 

We hope this will be of help to you and please stay tuned for more details. If you are interested in participating, please use the “I’m interested in one-on-one peer support for unacceptable intrusive obsessions”contact form in the “Peer Support” menu  and let us know.

Advice for Family Members of OCD Sufferers

JohHJon Hershfield, MFT is a psychotherapist in private practice who specializes in the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). His most recent book, When a Family Member Has OCD, foreword by Jeff Bell, will be available on December 1st, 2015 here.  Here is an article he wrote for us: 

To Be a Truly Significant Other to an OCD Sufferer

It’s not unusual at some point in individual treatment for me to have my OCD client bring in a family member or significant other.  Though OCD can make you feel alone in the universe, consistently surprised that most people don’t seem to think the way you do, the struggle doesn’t exist in a vacuum.  Decisions people make in how they respond to unwanted thoughts cause ripple effects to throughout the family system. In other words, what you do, may affect what I do to someone else, who in turn may behave differently toward another and so on.

The first thing I ask the significant other in the session is, why is this person in therapy, do you think?  What are they doing, what are you seeing, that is leading to the rational conclusion that this person needs help in the first place?  The answers range from the obvious (she washes her hands all the time) to the heartbreaking (he won’t stop bothering me with confessions I don’t want to hear!).  But the most common thing I hear from family members is something like, She’s in her head all day and I can just tell some thing is wrong.  Family members of OCD sufferers often find themselves juggling a series of chainsaw-like considerations.  If I’ve given him all he wants, why does he keep asking for more? If I stop giving him what he wants, how can I cope with his desperation?  How can I reduce his suffering?  Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.  But this is due in large part to lacking insight and understanding into the mind of an OCD sufferer.

In my new book, When a Family Member Has OCD, I set out to achieve two objectives.  First, I wanted there to be an empathy guide for family members of OCD sufferers.  The biggest problem I find in OCD families is often the easiest address – they just don’t get it because no one’s ever really broken it down for them in a language that they speak.  All of this psychological mumbo-jumbo (as it appears to them) can often just lead to the conclusion that the OCD sufferer is sick or broken.  In fact, the OCD sufferer has a common, difficult, yet treatable mental heath challenge that simply distorts the way thoughts and feelings are looked at and then responded to.  Second, once empathy in the family is maximized as best it can be, I wanted there to be some basic guidelines available for helping family members support each other without having to become each other’s therapist.  To do this, I wrote a sort of roadmap to approaching the OCD sufferer, one that can encourage openness to being helped and interest in helping themselves in the family context.  The four I’s discussed are:

Identify the compulsion, not the person, as the problem:  Family members need to be able to differentiate between something a loved one is doing in response to unwanted thoughts and something a loved one is doing because they simply feel like it or it suits their personality.  Conflict immediately arises when delays, requests for accommodation, or just confusing behavior gets attributed to one’s character instead of being understood within the context of OCD.  If families can come together to support one another in navigating this disorder, it all hinges on this first step of seeing the disorder and the person as not being one and the same.

Invite collaboration:  Building on the awareness that compulsions are the problem, not people, families can come together to strategically target the OCD at home.  But this has to be done in the spirit of teamwork, not oppression.  Getting family members and their loved ones with OCD on the same side against the disorder takes a special kind of effort.  Approaching an OCD sufferer with a simple mandate to “get over it” or “get it together” does little to change the grip OCD has on the family.  The key to inviting positive change is making a better offer than the OCD, not just another threat.

Interrupt the obsessive-compulsive cycle (with permission):  Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness, and exposure with response prevention (ERP) are effective interventions in the battle against OCD.  Once an agreement to collaborate among family members has been achieved, more concrete interventions can be implemented.  Accommodation of compulsions can be gradually reduced, as can reassurance-seeking/giving.  Increasingly straightforward blocking strategies can be implemented to reduce physical compulsions (such as checking and washing).  Contracts for how to deal with OCD-related behaviors can be drawn up and followed.  All of this is possible when roles are made clear.

Integrate and model healthy behaviors:  As compulsions are reduced and mastery over the disorder continues to develop, pockets of family life that had been filled with OCD symptoms will rather abruptly become empty.  Families paying the right kind of attention to this can fill these voids with healthy behaviors, healthy communication, and healthy modeling for one another.  This can be enhanced by family members without OCD challenging themselves to accept uncertainty, expose to fears, observe their own thoughts with less judgment, and basically get a taste of what their loved one is putting so much effort into.

None of these guidelines are meant to replace professional help.  In fact, in most cases I suspect they will lead to the conclusion that the right kind of professional help is something feasible and worth pursuing.  For this reason I included a section of When a Family Member Has OCD covering some of what to expect when seeking professional help.  I also had the opportunity to include in the book a lot of do’s and don’ts that apply specifically to different family dynamics.  Relating to a parent who has OCD and trying to understand a sibling with OCD are not the same.  How it affects you, what’s expected of you, what you can do to help take care of yourself as well as your loved one – all of this is colored by the specific relationship dynamic.

OCD is a painful and frustrating disorder, but when a family can come together to overcome it, the journey often brings about an unparalleled trust among loved ones and with it, a brighter, happier family system.

New Feature: Peer Support Forums

We are excited to have officially launched a new extension of our website: peer support forums to provide a safe and accessible way for OCD sufferers to share their experiences and gather information.

We are fortunate to have two excellent peer moderators for our first forum: Unacceptable Intrusive Obsessions Forum. Within this forum, topics like sexual obsessions and harm obsessions are being discussed.

These online support groups give users the option to be completely anonymous by choosing a screen name, and are moderated to ensure all guidelines are being followed. The format is easy to navigate and allows you to subscribe to get email notifications for new posts to the forum, and for replies to particular posts you’re interested in.

As the forum grows, we hope to expand the number of topics and include forums with professionals. Our first Live Discussion Forum will be held in the Unacceptable Intrusive Obsessions Forum on May 13th at 7 pm EST with Dr. Baer as the expert answering your questions. 

If you or someone you know is interested in joining the support groups, please select the ”I’d like to join a Forum” page from the “Peer Support Forums” menu at www.ocdandfamilies.org and let us know your email and which group you are interested in and we will send you complete directions for joining so you can get started ASAP.

We look forward to offering this new resource– welcome!

Learning From OCD

melanie

This post comes from our regular contributor, Melanie Lefebvre. 

What having OCD has taught me:

1) Keep learning. The saying “knowledge is power” may be cliché but its got some bang for its buck when it comes to OCD. My scrupulosity has acted as the judge of all behavior, but learning about my OCD has given me a different perspective of what’s happening. Feeling like a morally bad person still hurts but I’m no longer navigating the pain blindly – I’ve learned how to deal with these thoughts.

2) Save what you learn. Unless you have a didactic memory, consider keeping an “OCD file.” I have one on my phone – I can quickly turn to nuggets of wisdom when my OCD is throwing a party. I save quotes from books, words of encouragement from friends, and advice from professionals. I also stumble across gems outside of OCD literature. My favorite poem is The Guest House by Rumi, specifically this line: “The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.” I asked for a fake tattoo for Christmas with the text “invite them in” as a reminder to welcome OCD rather than resisting it. Maybe one day I’ll get it permanently inked.

3) Reach out (when you’re ready). Connecting with others who have OCD has helped take away some of its power. There was a time when being open to others about my OCD was unthinkable, but I slowly opened up. Go at your own pace and find an anonymous online message board when you’re ready. OCD can make us feel like we’re lone soldiers and reaching out can help you realize we’re all in this together.

4) There is empowerment in advocacy. As you become more comfortable with connecting to other people and managing your OCD, advocacy becomes a possibility. Of course it’s entirely optional, but for me advocacy has taken the pain of OCD in a direction I didn’t anticipate. It’s given me something to believe in and it’s been a way to channel my energy. I wish I didn’t have to be channeling the energy of what feels like a demon, I wish I didn’t have OCD, but I do and I’m taking a stand.

Recent MGH OCD Program Event Audio Streaming Now Online

Last February, a free educational program for the community on OCD and related conditions was held at Massachusetts General Hospital and sponsored by the Chirag Foundation. Speakers included Drs. Lee Baer, Sabine Wilhelm, Jennifer Greenberg, Lisa Zakhary, and Kyle Williams. There was also a family and patient panel led by Dr. Noah Berman, although this wasn’t recorded to protect confidentiality. 
The slides and audio from this event is now available to stream online at: http://www.massgeneral.org/psychiatry/about/pe_ocd_home2015.aspx