Wordless Wednesday: Uncertainty

OCD-Stop: Free Online Treatment for OCD in Australia from Swinburne University

I received a message from a research assistant at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia about online treatment they are offering through a study by Swinburne's National eTherapy Centre. Their website mentions Exposure Therapy in conjunction with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as effective treatment for OCD.

More about OCD STOP!

OCD STOP! online treatment is based on a face-to-face Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) already in use. Evidence shows CBT is the most effective treatment for OCD. The online program OCD STOP! is known to help reduce symptoms of OCD. This study aims to find out who can most benefit from this treatment.

OCD STOP is free, safe, completely confidential, and does not use medications.

The 12 week program provides information about OCD, and helps participants learn how to control their anxiety and better manage their OCD. During the trial participants receive assistance in the form of weekly email contact with a qualified therapist.

Participants in the trial will be randomly assigned to one of two groups, those undertaking a cognitive behavioural treatment program called Systematic Treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Phenomena or OCD-STOP, and those completing Progressive Relaxation Training. Irrespective of which program they are assigned, all individuals will be given the opportunity to take the alternative treatment at no cost.

The director is Prof. Michael Kyrios, an academic clinical psychologist.

Note: OCD Stop! online is free. There is also a group that meets onsite, with a nominal fee.



Swinburne is also offering a 12 week STOP Group for OCD, starting April 2012, at Swinburne's campus in Hawthorne VIC, Melbourne.The program cost $420 for the 12 weeks. You may be eligible to receive Medicare Rebates. Medicare rebates are only available for sessions attended. A Mental Health Care Plan and a GP referral for psychological group therapy are needed to obtain a Medicare rebate for the cost of the group. The next STOP therapy program is planned to commence in April 2012. To find out how you can register to participate in this group please contact the Clinic's Project Officer by phone (03) 9214 5528 or email psychprojects@swin.edu.au

OCD and Serenity

I've been thinking about the Serenity Prayer this week.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

A lot has been going on and I am dealing with it. My skin biopsy came back benign, and I didn't have the backwash of figuring out whether I'd made a mistake in calling the dermatologist, and being "oversensitive." I took my best guess, and the moment before calling was worst, but I also was accepting that I couldn't diagnose cancer by checking my ear constantly, and that felt so much better than standing in front of the mirror, holding a handmirror and a flashlight and contorting myself to get a glimpse. My mother was back in the hospital for the second time with fluid under her lung, and although I was concerned for her, I didn't research the procedure.

The challenge I always had with the Serenity Prayer is the last line, the "wisdom to know the difference" between what I can and cannot change. In my obsessiveness, I would attempt to definitively figure this out, because I had to be right, or I was a failure as a human being. I had the illusion I actually could have a 100% success rate in predicting whether I could change something, or whether I needed to accept it. Over the last few years of ERP treatment for my OCD, I've come to see that this prayer actually ASKS for the wisdom to know the difference, and this implies that at times we will fail in distinguishing this.

There are some aspects of the 12 Steps that I really resonate with, particularly the idea of life becoming unmanageable when in the power of the disorder. Part of me really hoped that I wouldn't have to deal with uncertain symptoms, health problems, or my mother getting older, and my despair when these things happened was overwhelming. I ritualized to try and make the anxiety go away. Research heart surgery. Research skin cancer. Check my skin. Over and over. But we are embodied creatures, and our bodies are not immortal, and can be injured. The enormity of this is catastrophic when you aren't getting any help for the OCD. The compassion of my therapist, my husband, members of my support group, and blog readers helped me see how much of a burden this can be, and encouraged me to find some kindness for myself.

Wordless Wednesday: OCD This Way

Review of Zelah Green: Who Says I'm a Freak? Young Adult Fiction about OCD

When the publicist for author Vanessa Curtis contacted me about possibly reviewing the young adult novel, Zelah Green: Who Says I'm a Freak? , I was intrigued, because I was a voracious reader as a teen, but do not recall any books about characters with OCD.

Zelah is in the confluence of pain between her mother dying, her father remarrying to a woman who doesn't like her, followed by her father disappearing, and her persistent need to keep germs away, and elaborate routines of cleaning, counting and physical gestures. My OCD, although present from age 9 or 10, flared when my father left and my mother was depressed, when I was 16, so I resonated with the overlap of the traumas and the rituals and the flood of anxiety, and the fear of being a freak.

Zelah is from the UK and through various twists in the plot ends up in a group treatment home for teens, run by husband and wife behavior therapists. I don't know how representative this is of the British mental health system, but it does provide a setting for Zelah's growth as she discovers other kids who are "freaks" and finds commonality of experience, and also is guided into exposure therapy for her rituals--purposely touching faucets, and toilets and not washing and moving at an incredibly rapid pace.

My main ambivalence about the book was the tendency of the therapist to dictate what step Zelah would take next in combating her OCD, and her relative quickness in doing what was asked of her. On the other hand, I did appreciate that the therapist understood Zelah's thought process, her fear of bad things happening if she didn't do her routines exactly right, and the focus on addressing the compulsive actions directly, rather than assuming that if everything was made right in her family, then her fears would magically disappear.

I remember at age 13 or 14, noticing that all the young adult novels I read were about unpopular kids, outsiders, with lives in turmoil or chaos. I wondered about that, how the characters seemed on the margins. Of course, I was on the margins as well, and I kept reading the novels, hoping for some company, some acceptance. A book like Vanessa Curtis's could have helped me feel less alone with my anxieties, and my OCD. The closest I came to having this was when I read The Best Little Girl in the World by Steve Levenkron, about a teenage girl with anorexia.

Here is a page from my list of books. I recorded the title of each one, which was probably a compulsion.

Call for Submissions of Creative Work for OCD Awareness Week 2011: Deadline August 31, 2011

The IOCDF is asking for submissions of art, writing, music and film for OCD Awareness Week 2011. If you have something you would like to share, the deadline is August 31st, 2011 at 12am EST.

What

The International OCD Foundation and its affiliates from across the country will come together to educate their communities and the public as a whole about obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and its treatments. Learn from the nation's leading experts about how they work with those who suffer daily from the debilitating disorder. Have the opportunity to hear testimonials from patients both recovering and just beginning treatment and learn about the different treatments and therapies that help people hold jobs, balance relationships with family and friends, and lead more typical and productive lives.

Why

OCD Awareness Week is presented by the International OCD Foundation as a vehicle for support, advocacy and education to help end the stigma surrounding OCD and encourage sufferers to identify the disorder and / or seek treatment. The national Foundation has enlisted the support of its Affiliates nationwide to join in this education effort.

2011 OCD Awareness Week Event - October 15

In an attempt to raise awareness of OCD and effective treatment the IOCDF will hold a national event in Boston, MA this year. This event will be video-streamed live across the country. Building on last year’s successful story telling event this year we will be broadening the event to “creative expression” of OCD. We will be looking for submissions in four different categories (for more specific information pertaining to each category please click on the desired category below):

Click here for applications in the following categories:
Casestudy/Artwork
Personal Story/Fiction/Poetry
Short Film/Video/Animation
Song/Music

All submissions will be viewed and judged according to the following criteria:

• Overall quality
• How well it ties into the theme of OCD
• How well it ties into a “Dare to Believe…” theme (read more on the "Dare to Believe" campaign)

Submissions will be accepted between August 1 9am EST until August 31 at 12am EST. Up to 5 finalists from each category (determined by a panel of experts through the IOCDF. The decision of the judges will be final.) will then be posted on our website for the public to vote. In mid-September winners will be announced. Winners will have transportation and hotel accommodations paid for by the IOCDF for the October 15th event.

Click here for applications in the following categories:
Casestudy/Artwork
Personal Story/Fiction/Poetry
Short Film/Video/Animation
Song/Music

Free Online Treatment for OCD in Australia

Macquarie University's Centre for Emotional Health in Australia contacted me about passing on information about a free online course they are offering for dealing with OCD. I checked out their About Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) factsheet, and they advocate for Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy, so if you live in Australia, this could be helpful.

Here are some details:
The eCentreClinic OCD Course is a 5-lesson cognitive and behavioural treatment package that delivers remote evidence- based treatment. The treatment includes techniques that would normally be delivered in face to face treatment. The main emphasis is on exposure and response prevention however the Course also includes a strong cognitive component. The OCD Course is delivered over 8 weeks and the participant has bi-weekly telephone contact with a Clinical Psychologist who is experienced in the treatment of OCD. The Course is open to individuals with all subtypes of obsessive compulsive disorder (with the exception of primary hoarding compulsions).

The OCD Course has been tested in one open trial with 20 participants to date. This research has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Anxiety Disorders. In summary the results from this study showed a high level of acceptability for the Course with 81% of participants completing all the Lessons and 100% of respondents indicating that they would recommend the Course to friends. In terms of clinical outcomes, participants improved significantly on the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale and 52% of participants no longer met criteria for OCD at 3 month follow-up.

Exclusion criteria for the OCD Course include:

- Aged <18

- Primary hoarding compulsions

- Suicidal intent

- History of psychosis

- No access to the internet

- Unstable medication dosage

- Current CBT treatment for OCD

- Residing outside of Australia

For enrollment information, check out The OCD Course.