Behavioural therapy?

Question

Can anybody tell me more about behavioural therapy? i think i am suffering from a OCD relapse. it has been 7 months since i last took medication. my doctor proudly discharged me more then 7 months ago cos i have recover completely. i dont know what triggered my behaviour but it seems like over night i got a relapse and it's really hard to control the checking behaviour. i check my wallet to make sure my cards are all there so many times today i felt so horrid i want to die. i understand the side effects of medication and as i am holding a job now, i cannt afford to be on medication again. pls advise if you can.

Answer 1

OCD is usually treated with certain drugs and - as any drug, they can have side effects. These side effects vary from patient to patient in intensity and manifestation. From your description it looks like you have a good knowledge on what OCD means and therapy methods. If you have a low tolerance to the specific medication, behavioral therapy is said to have a lot of beneficial effects on people with this condition.

After a little research on this type of therapy, I can quote how it's used specifically to people with OCD:

"Behavioral therapy focuses on changing specific actions and uses several techniques to decreases or stop unwanted behavior. For example, one technique trains patients in diaphragmatic breathing, a special breathing exercise involving slow, deep breaths to reduce anxiety. This is necessary because people who are anxious often hyperventilate, taking rapid shallow breaths that can trigger rapid heartbeat, lightheadedness, and other symptoms. Another technique—exposure therapy—gradually exposes patients to what frightens them and helps them cope with their fears.

Like behavioral therapy for mental illness, cognitive-behavioral therapy teaches patients to react differently to the situations and bodily sensations that trigger panic attacks and other anxiety symptoms. However, patients also learn to understand how their thinking patterns contribute to their symptoms and how to change their thoughts so that symptoms are less likely to occur. This awareness of thinking patterns is combined with exposure and other behavioral techniques to help people confront their feared situations. For example, someone who becomes lightheaded during a panic attack and fears he is going to die can be helped with the following approach used in cognitive-behavioral therapy. The therapist asks him to spin in a circle until he becomes dizzy. When he becomes alarmed and starts thinking, "I'm going to die," he learns to replace that thought with a more appropriate one, such as "It's just a little dizziness—I can handle it." "

If I was you, I'd contact my doctor for advice on where you can find the closest behavioral therapy center for OCD, and participate to a few sessions. As far as I know, most concentrate on support groups as well as private therapy. Unfortunately I'm unaware of the costs of these therapy sessions, but they might even be free of charge. It is important to take action as early as possible, to avoid this situation becoming more serious, and it's good to see that you're being realistic and practical, as well as prepared to help yourself.

Answer 2

Well I believe it is great since at the end of the day if it succeeds in correcting a person without giving them drugs it is all good. I say this since drugs themselves are not very good to the body especially psychiatric drugs. But I must say it could become unethical when things like placebos start to come into place. I do not think it is empowering medics at all, because behavioral therapists don't really get that much pay at the end of the day and as bad as this sounds, or respect in comparison to say a cardiologist or an endocrinologist. When I helped out with psychology and psychiatry I actually felt like I was submissive to the medicine students even though we had all studied medicine and they had all became cardiologist, endocrinologists etc. Not that I ever had tension with them, I just felt intimidated because I felt as if they believe I wasn't doing anything 'real' so to speak in comparison to them. Even as a neurospecialist I still sometimes feel very intimidated by the other fields in medicine. So in that sense I feel it does not empower medics at all in my personal experience, however I think it is way better than giving one drugs. But then again perspective differs, so it is dependent upon different people.

Answer 3

maybe it could help for example if you locked your wallet somewhere, and stop yourself from checking on it for half an hour/an hour/....
... what I mean is, set yourself limits (impose yourself not to check your wallet for a certain amount of time); I know it's not easy, but my guess is that it will get better in time ....

also take a look at these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behaviour_Therapy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning

good luck!!!