What is the name of the disease where a person is plagued by counting telephone poles?

Question

is there any treatment for this in the united states/ my uncle cliftton has this disease , he has tried to stop but to no avail...

Answer 1

It's a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). If he's doing it only while going past them, it may not be a big deal, unless he's driving and it makes him ignore the road. If he is going out all the time to count them, then he needs to see a psychiatrist. They do have treatments for this.

OCD can get worse as life goes on, but not always. People who seek help have a very good success rate.

Answer 2

Sounds like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), or it might be OCD-like symptoms of another disorder. If it is really disturbing to him, he should tell a psychiatrist or other medical doctor about it. There are several medications that can help. Psychologists can't prescribe medication, so I don't think a psychologist would be very much help.

OCD is being plagued by unwanted thoughts and not having the ability to control them. Sometimes OCD-like behavior can be part of another psychiatric disorder, and there might even be an underlying medical cause--it's up the the medical doctor to figure that out. If a general practitioner doesn't seem to find the right treatment, he should definitely get referred to a psychiatrist or find one on his own (depending on how your uncle's insurance works).

Answer 3

OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.


How is it treated?
Treatment for OCD includes counseling and medications. Antidepressant medications called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), such as fluoxetine (for example, Prozac), are most commonly used. Your doctor may increase the dosage of your medication or change to another SSRI if the first medication prescribed doesn't help. It may take several weeks before you feel the effects of an antidepressant and it begins to affect thoughts and behavior.

Counseling used to treat OCD includes exposure and response prevention, a type of cognitive-behavioral therapy. Exposure and response prevention is behavorial therapy that provides gradually increasing contact with the feared obsession so that anxiety is reduced. For example, if you were obsessed about germ contamination, you would repeatedly touch an object you believe is contaminated and not wash your hands afterward. You would repeat that behavior until your anxiety was reduced. Cognitive therapy may also be used to help overcome the faulty beliefs (such as fear of contamination) that lead to OCD behaviors.

The most effective treatment for OCD may be using medications and counseling together.

Answer 4

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder/OCD

Answer 5

OCD Obsessive Compulsive Disorder............There are plenty of counseling centers nationally. Look in your Yellow Pages under mental health. He may require meds from a psychiatrist. Your local Mental Health Centers can point you in the right direction. BEST OF LUCK

Answer 6

It does sound like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. They have medications to treat it, but you would need to speak to your family doctor and then he/she would refer you to a specialist. I have never heard of the counting telephone poles, but counting is one of the types of OCD and it can be treated.

Answer 7

obsessive compulsive disorder. Yes, they do have treatment for this kind of behavior. Have him call his doctor for a referral to a psychologist. Good luck to him.

Answer 8

Sure sounds as though you have an awful lot of uncles with problems. Hope they aren't hereditary, or you're in big trouble.....

Answer 9

Mmmm...