Research on Possible Treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Individuals who are patients of anxiety disorders such as obsessive compulsive disorder would feel woebegone when they come to know that different types of treatments have not been able to produce desired results. Such patients can get help from a stereotactic radiotherapy referred to as radio surgery. Dr Douglas Kondziolka and other members of the Pittsburgh University have termed this therapy as successful therapy especially in patients who have had severe problems of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

The process of therapy can be used as an alternative for other types of treatments in cases that are quite difficult to treat. Despite the need of study needed for this treatment, it has been used widely and has provided good results. The patients on which this treatment was first tested were a male and two females who were suffering from severe condition of this Anxiety Disorder. Two patients out of these three were found to be having 39 out of 40 points on the severe condition scale of OCD.

Even after a number of medicines, the diseased were found to be having same condition as they were having earlier. After being disappointed with other types of treatment they decided to undergo the sterotactic radiotherapy. In the therapy, ‘gamma knife’, a special instrument provides rays that are projected on portions of the brain which are the major causes of OCD.

Extreme care was taken in implementation of the treatment. The therapy had to be carried out only after the patients had qualified for sever OCD condition and only after it was suggested by a minimum of two mental health professionals.Another study recommends the usage of electrodes which can encourage the treatment in to the areas of brain which are anti-treatable by other forms of therapy which usually happens with people suffering from severe stage of OCD. Cognitive behavioural therapy and usage of medicines are two forms of treatments of OCD that are currently in practice.50 percent of the victims who underwent this therapy saw positive results and the severity of OCD were reduced almost from 40 to 60 percent on average. Only 10% of victims were found to have been resistant to this treatment and their condition remained same.

Damiaan Denys from Amsterdam University and other members tested effects of the treatment on brain of 16 victims of OCD whose condition was unchanged after a number of treatment sessions.Study was done in three steps. First step was to plant electrodes and after that patients underwent active stimulation for eight months after which they were tested for OCD symptoms every two weeks.

Ayurvedic Herbal Treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a form of anxiety disorder during which an individual might suffer from unwanted thoughts and fears which cause him to perform actions that are sometimes meaningless and most of the times unwanted. An individual suffering from OCD would try to stop the obsessions he is facing but he wouldn’t be successful in doing this.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder most of the times targets on issues and reasons that make a person develop a constant behaviour which, most of the times, effects his daily life. A number of factors such as Genetics, Environment as well as low brain neuro-transmitter level are thought as reasons of the major reasons of OCD. History of OCD in family, stressed life and pregnancy are also one of the reasons responsible for OCD.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has been found to be the best in treatment of OCD in people suffering from the problem in Childhood as well as Adulthood. The ‘Exposure and Response Prevention’ step of the CBT assists a person in managing the obsessions and compulsions which one faces and helps in living an improved life. An additional therapy for quicker response is the Ayurvedic treatment which can accelerate the treatment process. People who seem to be resistant to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy have also been found to be treated with help of this treatment.

A number of Ayurvedic treatment medicines can be used for treatment of depression problems and reduce the obsession thoughts. Numerous herbal medicines can be used for the treatment purposes.Obsessions and compulsion are two acts which are thought to be due to disturbance in human mind, according to the Ayurvedic Patho-Physiology. Treatment of this issue can be a major step in the treatment of OCD.
The process of this treatment is based on a number of steps. These steps include massaging of the body with the help of medical oils such as the Mahanarayan Oil as well as the Mahamash Oil. There are a number of special procedures which are helpful and these include Shiro-Basti as well as Virechan-Nasya. Repetition of the sessions of using medicated enemas with the help of medicines such as Dashmool-Qadha, Sahachar Oil as well as Vishgarbha Oil.

The complications associated with the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can be numerous. These might include thoughts of suicide, behaviour abuse and depression or anxiety at severe levels. Patients suffering from OCD should be sent under the care of a Psychiatrist who supervises such patients.

Music Therapy for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

In order to treat Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), music therapy can provide alternative besides other more conventional routes.

For a cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), you will learn how to confront situations causing an anxiety, which leads to obsessive and compulsive behaviour, with the guidance of a therapy. A nice piece of music is often used to provide a relaxing atmosphere for patients. Thus, it is possible that anxiety levels can be decreased through music. For the CBT treatment, patients are taught to identify situations which relate to the rise of anxiety level, and to apply appropriate types of music to try and reduce them.

Music therapy and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – Learning to play
Another positive method to reduce the chance of developing obsessive thoughts is by focusing on something more constructive, in our case, by learning to play a musical instrument. There are two advantages of learning this. The main advantage is to divert your focus and attention from your obsessive thoughts, thus increasing the chance of eliminating your compulsive behaviour altogether. The second advantage is the opportunity for you to develop your musicality, you could even take this up as a new hobby or even as a new skill, and even make new friends!If you are not so keen in music, there are indeed other available alternative therapies available, for instance outdoor activities or sports as a form of therapy, or through community work as a form of social therapy. There is no scientific evidence that these could offer an effective remedy to OCD, but they could also help to deal with OCD.

Hypnotherapy to reduce compulsive behaviours
Hypnotherapy is proven as a successful method to reduce OCD. It has the ability to help reducing anxieties that triggers obsessive thoughts. Hypnosis is applied in this technique, to probe into your subconscious thoughts to extract solutions to problems that trigger OCD. This would not be possible with your conscious mind. Through hypnosis, you are taught to respond to visualisation and suggestion by accessing your subconscious mind. This would provide guidance for you to alter and improve your behaviour patterns.
Fish Oils and Essential Fatty Acids e.g. Omega-3 relieves stress

Although still in early stages of research, omega-3 has been shown to have the ability to help relieving stress and depression that are known to trigger OCD. Scientists, however, are realising that omega-3 provides other health benefits as well, for instance: –
* Preventing certain cancers.
* Treating rheumatoid arthritis.
* Controlling diabetes.
* Easing menstrual cramps and the associated pain.
* Easing mood swings.
* Prevention and treatment of heart disease, including high blood pressure.
Although all fish have omega-3 from their fat, oily or fatty fish are specifically rich in omega-3. These include salmon, trout, mackerel, sardines, herring, kipper and pilchards.

Herbal Remedies for OCD
Although there is still ongoing research on the roles and benefits of herbs as an alternative treatment and medication, herbs have been used for generations to treat various form of ailments and conditions. They have long been recognised as beneficial to our health and wellbeing. For instance, St. John’s Wort, or known as Tipton’s Weed, Chase-devil of Klamath weed, has been widely identified as an effective herbal treatment for mild to moderate depression without the side effects of conventional drug medication or antidepressants. Other herbs, for instance Valerian, Gingko Biloba, Passionflower, Chamomile, Lemon Balm (otherwise known as Melissa) and Reishi are also widely-used herbal remedies for mental health treatment. However, it is best to find out in more detail from trusted sources regarding the best method to utilise these herbs safely and appropriately.

Music therapy is just one of many alternatives that you can apply to help you to overcome OCD and improve your health and wellbeing. Try to learn and harness music as part of your strategies to beat OCD.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Counseling

Counselling is known to be a beneficial treatment for individuals having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). In the United States alone, OCD is experienced by at least two and a half, up to three million people in the United States alone. Feeling panic and an intense degree of fear are some of the symptoms of this particular disorder.

High level of guilt is a normal experience for those suffering from this condition. Unpleasant, unwanted and negative thoughts are common emotions experienced by OCD sufferers. This results in a tendency to behave in an unusual, repetitive and even controlling manner. There are various ways in which counselling can assist patients.

Education
A person that experienced OCD suffers from an unusual fear. This fear could be of anything, which is trivial to normal people. For instance, fear of things from daily routines, any situations, or even fear of anything associated with the condition that they are having. One of the advantages of counselling for OCD is the opportunity for the therapist to educate and treat the patient on the mental disorder that they are experiencing. It might be possible for the therapist to be able to identify a specific or a chain of events that triggered the condition. Then, they would be able to understand the related symptoms. Patients can then learn of different types of treatments available and suitable for their conditions.

Identifying Root Problems
Many OCD patients experienced an incident in their lives that resulted in massive physiological and/or psychological impacts towards the level of health. Usually, through sessions with patients, the counsellors will identify clues, thus extracting potential root causes of the triggering of OCD.
In a mental health treatment, when a patient comes to a stage where identification of the root problems of OCD is achieved, then, through addressing challenges and emotions that the OCD has impacted in his or her life, the problem would ultimately be resolved. Sometimes, by talking about situations that affects a person towards OCD could help him or her to confront, and slowly overcome the challenges that he or she has to experience every day, as a result of OCD

Medication Therapy
When an OCD patient undergoes counselling with a licensed mental health expert, prescription medications might be issued to help treating depressions associated with OCD, as well as overcoming unwanted obsessions and controlling compulsions.Medications are given to patients to balance out the chemicals in the brain. Most OCD patients are found to have lower levels of serotonin in the brain. Proper medications to increase the serotonin levels are available.If you have OCD, or if you know of anyone who has OCD, counselling sessions might be a beneficial method of treatment.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Intensive Program

It is not easy to recover from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Many sufferers question the effectiveness of the ‘once-‘, ‘twice-per-week’ therapy or conventional drug medication. In an OCD intensive program, patients are required to commit to specialised therapy every day for few hours. Patients will undergo therapist-guided exposure and response prevention (ERP) for a couple of hours almost every day as well as ERP practice of four or more hours between daily sessions.

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
Exposure and Response Prevention (or Exposure and Ritual Prevention) is an effective form of psychotherapy for ODC treatment. ERP is now a preferred treatment for almost all OCD intensive programs. It is recommended that OCD sufferers seek well-trained and experienced counsellors in ERP.

There are two components of ERP:

Exposure – Direct confrontation of the anxiety-produced obsessive thoughts (and factors triggering them) instead of avoidance

Response prevention – Temporarily reducing the fear/anxiety triggered by obsessions through abstinence of the compulsive responses or “rituals” that the OCD patient normally used.
Combining these two components provides effective OCD treatments. Research shows that applying only either one of these is not effective enough.

Applying both methods at the same time is challenging. This treatment is inclined towards anxiety-provocation. It is important for the patient to be consistent and patient, because the effectiveness of this therapy is usually evident towards the end of the treatment. Ensuring that patients go through this journey until the end is one of the main goals of this OCD intensive program.
What are the “intensives”?

At the moment OCD intensive programs are categorised into inpatient and outpatient. Both contribute to daily ERP therapy and provide support, guidance and practice compared to the standard therapy program. However, there are distinct differences.

For the inpatient (hospital-based) program, the patient is required to live in the treatment facility. The ERP is carried out inside the facility with necessary support and treatment provided by medical experts. Other treatment programs are also available to complement ERP, for instance medication management, anger management training, life-skills group therapy or psychiatry/counselling service.

There are some inpatient programs that provide family therapy, where family involvement is considered essential in addressing the OCD issues. There are also other ERP options which consider gentler and more gradual approach. This might be particularly useful to treat more fragile OCD patients, to help them prepare mentally and physically. However, this approach is slower, thus takes longer to complete, probably months, compared to the normal ERP therapy which usually takes a few weeks.

The disadvantage of the inpatient program is that it is expensive, it has more restrictions, and it does not really offer real-world exposures. However, the additional services, the systematic and effective structure and support and guidance offered made it a popular choice to some OCD patients.

The outpatient option, on the contrary, takes a lot quicker, usually within 3-4 weeks, where patients were given schedule to undergo the treatment. These include attending the ERP therapy sessions at the therapist’s office and daily practice on the exposure and response prevention. The main idea is to provide quick but efficient service to the patient, ideal for patients who cannot afford to spend much for the treatment.
Dr Edna Foa and her colleagues at the Centre for Treatment and Study of Anxiety (CTSA) are the leading pioneers in this outpatient OCD intensive program. Patients undergoing CTSA intensive are required to start off the first day of treatment by undergoing total abstinence from their OCD rituals, so that by the sixth session, they are ready to tackle their major rituals or fears. Over the next weeks, patients are used to confronting their behaviours and are less distressed by them. This is a more manageable and systematic treatment.

Treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

It is not easy to deal with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). It affects not only the sufferers, but also everyone around them. Due to the psychological nature of this disorder, a person with OCD is often ashamed to admit his or her illness, which makes it more difficult to seek help. It is even more difficult for those around him or her in dealing this because of the complexity of its nature, difficult to understand and to find help and solution.

OCD is often being dismissed by the public as a bad habit. Some might also think that it is something to be ashamed of. Someone with OCD who must count one to five, for eight times before entering a building, for example, might seem normal to him or her, but to others this is clearly bizarre.

There are concerns that need serious considerations. Firstly, it requires careful attention, due to the fact that it is indeed a ‘disorder’. Secondly, the well-being of OCD sufferers should be the main priority, as those left untreated often triggers acute depressions. Finally, self-injuries are often the result of uncontrollable rituals or compulsions associated with OCD, which is why this needs to be treated in an early stage.
In general, there are two methods to deal with OCD. The first is via medications. The second method is what is known as a cognitive behaviour therapy.

Drug treatment is a short-term solution for OCD. Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft are often given to OCD sufferers for a certain period or on an ongoing basis. The side effects of this treatment are the main argument for those who opposed this medication-based treatment. A person with OCD will depend on this medication throughout his or her life. It also does not really tackle the behavioural aspects, which is the core of this disorder.
Cognitive behaviour therapy aims in behaviour modifications. Building a strong mental and emotional drive to manage the obsessions and compulsions is the main purpose of this treatment. Behaviour therapy challenges a person’s endurance and patience, which is why the treatment takes longer than the conventional drug treatments. Besides, behaviour therapy treats actions of a person’s responses as a whole.

It is worth noting that in behaviour modification, there is no single method. In each therapy program, patients are treated individually according to specific needs and response capabilities. Thus, frequent visits to doctors are required to ensure that proper progress examinations are carried out, outlining specific behavioural techniques to tackle the OCD.

What You Can Do Right Now to Beat OCD

The effectiveness of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) depends on the correct self-help techniques that you applied. In fact, if wrong approach was taken in your effort the recover yourself, you could risk harming yourself instead of doing you any good.

If you follow the right tips and apply the correct self-help techniques, chances are you could achieve dramatic increase in success.

To overcome problems caused by OCD, below is a powerful strategy that can be adopted straight away.
Face your obsessions, but take small steps:

Obsession is the first symptom of OCD in most cases. It can be defined as some mental thoughts that are often uncontrollable, unpleasant as well as undesirable. This in turn triggers compulsions, rituals and habits that you carry out repetitively to overcome or distance yourself from those obsessions.
Once you identified the obsessions, confront them. This is a major step in beating OCD. Identify the root-cause of your OCD. This might not be that straight forward. Try doing a mental map and record what you think are your obsessions, and then prioritise those you think that are severe to you. Try seek help from someone very close to you, for instance your spouse, family members, close friends, if possible, someone who is familiar with your daily routines.

Try exploring your obsessive thoughts, by means of willingly and consciously identify any thoughts that could potentially turn into obsessions, or try putting yourself in a position where you would notice any obsessive thoughts that are likely to trigger compulsions.

Next, identify the compulsive behaviour that you would normally use to overcome the relevant obsessive thoughts.

Then, try to stop yourself from carrying out the compulsive behaviour, in this “confrontation-style” therapy.
This is definitely not easy. So, just try and do this for just, let say, a minute of two, and then release yourself, give in. Next, in a small and consistent manner, repeat the process, but by increasing the time in small increments. Do not force yourself to get a result straight away, just take your time. Seek help from someone you trust, to do this with you and constantly support you. Set a timetable to do this, record your progress, so that you could monitor your performance.

As time passes, you would notice the change, and you would realise that, slowly, you no longer depend on the compulsions and you could control your obsessive thoughts. One thing is for certain, this process takes time and discipline. The key is to take small steps, to be consistent, and to have a systematic record so that you could notice the change.

Hypnosis OCD – Can Hypnosis Really Provide Help For OCD?

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is generally a condition caused by irrational thoughts. In search for possible ways to control these thoughts, people are seriously considering hypnotherapy to treat the symptoms of OCD.

However, the truth is, OCD occurs in three separate levels: birthing of the thought, compulsion to do the thought and the actual performance of the compulsion. OCD experts believe that only the last two stages are controllable, while the first level remains untouchable. Therefore, essentially, Hypnotherapy in the context of OCD is only similar to Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.

In the other hand, hypnotherapy in itself is all about the reconditioning of the subconscious mind. Usually, our subconsiousness adheres to many things it feel is necessary for us, though by logic is not. These kinds of thoughts can be removed by hypnosis because of its preferential nature. However, when it comes to OCD, the thoughts are not generated by preference. It is a product of an abnormal signal transmitted by the neurotransmitters in brain due to biochemical imbalance. And this is not something that can be worked out by mental conditioning alone.

While hypnosis cannot be an all-out cure for OCD, it can be used as a tool to convince sufferers that they have OCD. Acceptance of the disorder is the first step to treatment because only then that the sufferer will become open to doing ritual neutralizing activities which is the core of Cognitive-behavioral Therapy. Such neutralizing activities are recommended to sufferers as substitute to the ritual that they feel they have to do in order to cope with the anxiety brought about by the recurring fearful thoughts such as being bedridden due to a disease caught by not rubbing alcohol to a doorknob twelve times before touching or by being killed by a robber if the door is not closed in the right manner and if it is not checked 10 times before being convinced that no one can actually break through it.

By knowing and accepting that OCD is present, a sufferer gets more incentive in listening to his therapist to confront his or her fears and chooses this confrontation rather than doing the ritual that he or she believes will stop the materialization of the fear. This might be a very difficult process, but some hypnotherapists believe that with the use of hypnosis, it will be easier to convince the sufferer that the fears are irrational and that it is not likely to happen just because of not doing the ritual. Through constructive suggestions, the hypnotherapist can make the sufferer realize that confronting the fear is not at all life threatening and that it is a better option than to live his or her entire life trying to cope with the fear by doing OCD rituals.

OCD sufferers must always remember though, that recovery from OCD cannot be depended on other people or mere medications. OCD is bred in the mind therefore it can only be countered with the cooperation of the mind as well. Acceptance of the disorder comes first and everything else is secondary.

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