In the early days of my son’s struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder, I was driving 138 miles a day for his intensive treatment. Consequently, my car needed servicing. I was given a loaner, but I forgot to grab a bag full of items we needed to use for therapy out of my car. When I went back to get it from the busy service station, the guy asked me to describe the contents. I stood there thinking, “How can I ever explain what’s in our exposure bag?” Me — looking like the picture of decorum with a sack full of contraband in my mom car.
Our brains have helped us survive since the stone age, but with OCD, the fear trigger and response go haywire — studies of brain scans of people with the disorder suggest that parts of their brains are unable to communicate properly with each other.
OCD is not a euphemism for being organized (as sitcoms might have us believe). OCD is a cycle of obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are intrusive thoughts, images or urges that cause extreme distress. Compulsions are the behaviors one engages in to calm the distress. For my son, Jack, it took the form of extreme contamination. [Click HERE to see the entire article]
[Original Article from TODAY March10, 2022]
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