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Mental Torture
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Ý Ý A Þ°
Ý M E N T A L T O R T U R E Ý ?Þ°
Ý Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder A ßßßßß°
Ý Uncontrollable Thoughts & Actions Interrupt Lives Tfile Þ°
Ý Typed by: Doctor Murdock Distribution Þ°
ÜÜÜÜÜ Original Author: Joan Morris Centere Þ°
Ý? Þ Further Psych. Studies: Dr. Sheldon Jones - RoR - Þ°
Ý A Þ_____________________________________________________________________Þ°
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In Susan Stafford's mind, people die. They are horrible
Deaths, full of torment and torture.
At times, she sees herself aboard an airplane moments before it crashes.
They passengers are calm, smiling, unsuspecting. Only Stafford knows what
is about to happen. As the plane slams into the earth, people cry out to
Stafford for help. Bloody, charred hands reach out to her. Screams ring in
her ears as she watches death arrive.
Sometimes it is strangers that she watches die. Sometimes it is people she
loves. Sometimes it is herself who pitches into a long, searing journey to
death.
"I don't remember a time when I didn't have those thoughts," Stafford
says. "Five minutes wouldn't go by that I didn't have a lengthy thought about
my death, their death. When I slept, I had nightmares. I would dream and I'd
feel like I was dead. I'd wake up and still feel dead."
Stafford is one in about 5 million people in the United States with
obsessive-compulsive disorder. The disease has been recognized in medical
books and literature for more than 300 years, but is only now being understood
and successfully treated.
THOUGHTS THAT TORTURE
---------------------
Dr. Lorrin Koran, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford and director of the
university's Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Clinic, said 1 percent to 2 percent
of the nations adult population has OCD, making it more common that
schizophrenia or anorexia.
People with OCD are tortured from within. Obsessive thoughts -- terrifying,
horrible, insanely repitive -- fill their heads. Compulsions force them to
act, over and over again.
Dr. Sheldon Jones, a psyciatrist at Mt. Diablo Hospital's Center for
Behavioral Medicine and a doctor with the California Psyciatric Medical
Group Inc., says the public doesn't understand the illness. People use the
words Obsession and Compulsion to describe common, and normal things.
Someone who likes to bet on baseball games is called a compulsive gambler.
Someone who spends hours zapping winged turtles and punching down building on
Nintendo is said to be obsessed with the game.
Jones says those people may have obsessive-compulsive personalities. The
difference between that type of personality and someone with OCD is pleasure
and the ability to walk away, Koran says.
"The word obsession come from the Latin 'to besiege.' The mind of the
person is actually besieged," Koran says. "Obsession are not pleasurable.
They are painful, distressing and disturbing. if they could stop, they
would."
IRRATIONAL BEHAVIOR
-------------------
His real name isn't Steve. He is 38 years old and he doesn't remember a
time when he didn't have some type of compulsion. Steve, who lives in the
Livermore Valley, wants to tell of his OCD nightmare, but he is worried that
people will think he his crazy if they knew the truth about him.
Steve's compulsions involve symmetry and numbers. Before he could study in
high school and college, every pencil on his desk had to be sharpened to the
same length and lined up in exact, even rows. The lamp had to be placed
precisely in one corner -- not too close to the edge, not too far into the
center. The closet door had to be opened just a bit -- not too much, not too
little. Only Steve knew when it was exact.
"You hate what you're doing. You passionately hate it, but you can't stop
it. You are aware it's irrational but you can't stop," Steve says.
NUMBER OBSESSION
----------------
It might take hours of arranging and rearranging before Steve could get down
to studying. Then the numbers would start.
He would read page one, then he might read it again. That was OK. He might
read it a third time -- still OK. But the fourth time he read it, he would
feel that panic starting to build. The fifth time was still OK, but if he
read it a sixth time, he was in trouble.
"To me, six and seven were bad numbers. You couldn't stop doing something
on six or seven. Eight is a good number. So is nine, and 10. But 10 isn't
that good because it's getting close to 11, and 11 and 12 are bad numbers.
Sometimes I'd read a page 44 times before I could stop. Just talking about it
now I'm ready to rip the table. It drives you crazy," Steve says.
That is the most frustrating thing about OCD, Steve and Stafford say.
Unlike some other emotional illnesses, those that are afflicted know that what
they are doing doesn't make sense. And they knew that if other people knew
their secrets, they would be considered insane.
Stafford is 38. She lives in Pleasant Hill, where she manages to hold down
a part time job while she works on becoming an artist. Stafford wears her
long brownish hair pulled back from her face. Her skin is pale and smooth,
making her look much younger.
"I used to think I must be a monster to have these thoughts. I didn't keep
it a secret -- I told people I had bad thoughts. But I never told them
everything. I was afraid they'd think, `What kind of terrible person are
you?'" Stafford says. She leans forward on the table, clasping her long, thin
hands. "I didn't fear that I was going to harm anyone, but I feared that harm
would come to them. I could see horrible deaths...burning, suffering,
bleeding."
Stafford describes herself as a person who "just didn't function."
Some people are able to hide their obsessions and compulsions, and control
them enough to work, go to school and give the give the appearance of being
normal. Sometimes, they cross over the line and their obsessions and
compulsions take complete control.
"These people who become so absorbed they don't eat. They just can't
function at all," Jones says. "In those extreme cases, we've actually had to
go in and cut part of the brain."
Most people with OCD are able to hide their obsessions and compulsions.
Some can even control them for short periods of time when other people are
around. Many people with milder cases can't function almost normally, Jones
said.
BRAIN MALFUNCTION
-----------------
Doctors and researchers don't know what causes OCD, but they have theories.
It tends to run in families, but a clear link hasn't be established.
Biologically, researchers have found that in people with OCD there is a faulty
connection between the brains frontal lobe -- where incoming information is
processed -- and the basal ganglia, the brains nerve center.
OCD sufferers also have decreased levels of serotonin in their brains.
Serotonin is sort of a mental lubricant that carries the brains orders
throughout the nervous system.
Whether the illness is caused by the physical and chemical abnormalities, or
the illness creates the abnormalities, scientists can't say.
Jones and Koran say they believe it is probably biological and
psychological combination. Jones says he believes at least some of the
obsessive-comulsive behavior is used as a safeguard against depression.
"If you can stay occupied with enough obsessions or compulsions, if you can
keep your mind working on something that doesn't matter, over and over again,
then you don't have time to think about depression," Jones says.
Stafford doesn't know what causes her OCD. Part of it, she says, is
probably biological. But a certain amount is her own mental defenses kicking
in.
"I had a tremendous pain in my childhood. Sexual abuse terror. No amount
of therapy has helped. I have felt so much pain physically that I know it's
better to feel the pain that my thoughts causes than the real pain I have.
Both are terrible, but it's a lesser pain," Stafford says.
DRUG TREATMENT
--------------
The disorder is treated by two often overlapping methods. Behavioral
treatment and psychotherapy works for some. In behavioral treatment, people
who are afraid of getting their hands dirty are forced to stick their hands in
dirt and are then prevented from washing.
Drug treatment -- combined with psychotherapy -- yields the best results.
Anafranil is the commonly prescribed drug, but Prozac, which entered the
market in December 1987, is being hailed as a wonder drug. It has become the
nations most prescribed anti-depressant.
"My life was a nightmare that nobody understood," Stafford says. "Every day
I'd feel like I couldn't go on. I wanted to die. But I'd hold on to the idea
that maybe today they'd find out what was wrong with me. That helped keep me
going.
"When I went on Prozac it was almost immediate relief. Id' say my thoughts,
the bad thoughts, were reduced by 50 percent. Now I have two or three a day,
But I can feel them coming on and fight them. The nightmares stopped right
away.
"I've never known what it feels like to live this way, to wake up in the
morning and look forward to the day. To have pleasure. To have fun. I've
never known what it was to be normal....until now."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
KEEP COMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS IN CHECK
----------------------------------------
When does a habit become a compulsion, a preoccupation an obsession?
This checklist may be helpful in answering those questions.
How much time do you spend in obsessive thoughts or compulsive rituals?
a) None
b) Occasionally, less than one hour a day
c) Frequently, one to three hours a day
d) Very frequently, three to eight hours a day
e) Almost constantly, almost all waking hours
How do you rate the interference in your life because of these obsessive
thoughts or compulsive rituals?
a) Non-existent
b) Slight
c) Mild to moderate
d) Moderate, definite interferences with work or social performances, but
still manageable.
e) Extreme, incapacitating ever aspect of life
How much distress do you have because of the thoughts and rituals?
a) None
b) Mild, infrequent, and not too disturbing
c) Moderate, definite distress
d) Severe
e) Extreme, almost constant distress
How often do you resist the thoughts and rituals?
a) Always make effort to resist, or thoughts are so minimal no resistance
is needed
b) Try to resist most of the time
c) Make some effort to resist
d) Yield completely to thoughts or rituals
If you answered "d" or "e" to any of the questions, it is worth
consulting a psychologist or psychiatrist for diagnosis and treatment.
(Excerpted from "The Boy who Couldn't Stop Washing" by Dr. Judith Rapoport.)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
OBSESSIONS AND COMPULSIONS
--------------------------
People with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder may have one, or some of the
following obsessions and compulsions:
Aggressive Obsessions
=====================
Fear of harming others
Fear of harming self
Violent or horrific images
Fear of blurting our obscenities or insults
Fear of doing something embarrassing
Fear of acting on criminal impulses
Fear of being help responsible for something going wrong
Fear that something terrible might happen
Contamination Obsession
=======================
Concern or disgust with body waste or secretions
Concern with dirt or germs
Excessive concern about chemical or environmental contamination
Sexual Obsessions
=================
Forbidden or perverse thoughts or images
Miscellaneous Obsessions
========================
Obsession with the need for symmetry, exactness or order
Fear of not saying things exactly right
Mental images that invade the thoughts
Nonsense sounds, words or music in one's mind
Lucky and unlucky numbers
Colors with special significance
Preoccupation with a part of the body
Compulsions
===========
Having to count over and over to a certain number
Checking doors, locks, brakes, lights
Repeating rituals, like going in and out of doors, sitting down
and standing up
Ordering and arranging, such as repeatedly packing and unpacking
a suitcase, rearranging drawers
Hoarding and collecting
Need to tell, ask or confess
Need to touch, measure
(Excerpted from "The Boy who Couldn't Stop Washing" by Dr. Judith Rapoport.)
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³ WHERE TO GET HELP ³
³ ----------------- ³
³ ³
³ If you or someone you know suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive ³
³ Disorder, here are some organizations that can help. ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER CLINIC, STANDFORD UNIVERSITY; ³
³ 723-8212. Offers treatment and psychiatry to people with OCD. ³
³ Also can put you in touch with area support groups. ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ THE OCD FOUNDATION, P.O. BOX 9573, NEW HAVEN, CT 06535; ³
³ 1-203-772-0565. Publishes a newsletter and also acts as a ³
³ clearing house for OCD research and support groups. To join, ³
³ write the group. Memberships are 25$ for a regular member, 50$ ³
³ for contributing member, more than 100$ for benefactor. Also ³
³ puts you in touch with other OCD people in your area. Mail ³
³ requests to "OCD Friend," in care of the foundation. ³
³ ³
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Typed by: Doctor Murdock
