Coping with OCD: Are anxiety-filled, obsessive rituals running your life?

BY JEREMY COX

I hate bathroom doors in public places that open inward. It means you have to touch the handle — that gross, probably germ-infested handle — on your way out. To combat this, I've developed a few tricks — using just the tip of one finger, slipping my hand inside my shirt sleeve or snagging a paper towel to do the dirty work. My little rituals extend to my work life. I simply refuse to write a sentence longer than 34 words, and there is no preposition I would dare end a sentence with. (Oh, crud!) In the face of such evidence, it would be easy to say that I have obsessive-compulsive disorder. And wrong.

With TV shows "Monk" and "Hoarders" and movies like "As Good As It Gets," OCD is as much a pop cultural phenomenon as it is a mental health disorder. Now, anyone who likes to keep things neat or has a garage clogged with junk is said to be OCD. People even self-diagnose: "I'm really OCD about [insert just about anything here]."

Often, "what they're saying is obsessive and compulsive are in fact personality traits," said Jeff Szymanski, executive director of the International OCD Foundation. "When someone says, 'I'm being compulsive,' they're saying, 'I'm detail-oriented. I persist in tasks.' "..." More

HOW OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE ARE YOU?

Find out what's normal and what's not. Keep in mind, this quiz is not intended to provide a diagnosis or take the place of a doctor consultation.

1. After shaking hands, you:

a) make an instant beeline for the bathroom, so you can wash your hands.
b) swab your hands with an alcohol wipe as soon as you can, then worry about the possible life-threatening germs still lingering on them until you can race to a sink.
c) think, Ewww, I hope she didn't have a cold, then wash your hands thoroughly the next time you go to the bathroom.

Scoring: a) 2 points; b) 3 points; c) 1 point

...More

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Childhood Anxiety and Depression

By: Dr Wagner is the Marie B. Gale Centennial Professor and vice chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

For both depression and anxiety disorders in youths, there is increasing evidence of clinical benefit from cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).

Anxiety disorders

Both SSRIs and CBT individually have been shown to be effective in the treatment of children with anxiety disorders. A recent large randomized controlled trial examined the combined efficacy of these treatments in 488 children and adolescents (aged 7 to 17 years) who had anxiety disorder (separation anxiety disorder, social phobia, or generalized anxiety disorder).^1...More

Some obsessions, compulsions not part of OCD

By Elizabeth Landau, CNN

(CNN) -- Driving over a pothole may not be a big deal for most people, but for Jeff Bell, it was a source of endless frustration.
Afraid that he had injured a person, he would drive back to each pothole again and again to check, and he lost a lot of time in the process.

"I knew that my behaviors made no sense. I knew that my thoughts that were triggering these behaviors made no sense, and yet I felt so helpless to do anything about it," he said.

Bell, a news anchor with KCBS Radio in San Francisco, California, now knows that his condition has a name: obsessive-compulsive disorder. He frequently speaks out about it and has written a memoir called "Rewind, Replay, Repeat."

Psychologists are debating where OCD belongs in relation to other psychiatric disorders, and whether certain symptoms are actually part of other conditions. The condition affects as many as 4 million Americans, according to the International OCD Foundation, for which Bell is a spokesman.

In a class of its own?

Currently, OCD sits with anxiety disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association to help diagnose mental illness. The next edition will be released in 2012, according to the APA.

Many experts, such as Jonathan Abramowitz, professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, believe OCD should stay with anxiety disorders. That's because people with the disorder tend to engage in repetitive behaviors to reduce anxiety.

There is mixed evidence based on brain scans that OCD has a separate biological mechanism, leading some psychiatrists to favor classifying it separately, Abramowitz said.

"We haven't exactly pinned down what might be the problem," he said.

Categorizing related symptoms:

Checking for evidence of harm done, as in Bell's case, is one of many manifestations of OCD. Some people are overly afraid of germs, while others are overwhelmed by thoughts of violence or sex, or fear that they have "sinned," and still others spend countless hours arranging objects, said Jeff Szymanski, executive director of the International OCD Foundation..." More