Wordless Wednesday: If You're Worried About Being Anxious. . .

OCD Workshops for Parents at the Child Mind Institute in New York City

The Child Mind Institute let me know that they are offering a series of workshops for parents of children with OCD, with the last three being in January, February and March, 2012. All of the workshops in the series are free and open to the public. Here's a description of their mission:

Our Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Parent Support and Information Group workshop series covers a range of issues affecting children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and their support networks, from navigating friendships and family gatherings to the ins and outs of treatment and medication. This program is an opportunity to gain invaluable skills and learn how to help your children take control of their condition and thrive. Below you'll find the dates and topics of the 2011-2012 workshops; descriptions to follow.
This series is brought to you by the Child Mind Institute's Intensive Pediatric OCD Program. All workshops are held at the Child Mind Institute headquarters located at 445 Park Avenue (with entrance on 56th Street), New York, NY 10022.
The Nuts and Bolts of Exposure Therapy
Speaker: Jerry Bubrick, PhD, Senior Director, Anxiety & Mood Disorders Center; Director, Intensive Pediatric OCD Program
Date: Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Time: 6:00PM - 7:30PM
Location: Fascitelli Board Room at the Child Mind Institute
At first glance, the treatment for a child with OCD can seem illogical and difficult—why would my child want to do exactly what she fears? In this workshop, Jerry Bubrick, PhD, Senior Director of the Anxiety & Mood Disorders Center and Director of the Child Mind Institute's Intensive Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders Program explains why exposure therapy is the gold standard in OCD treatment and how it works to alleviate the extreme anxiety a child experiences around his or her symptoms. He explains how to help your child face the "bully in the brain" head-on and regain control over his or her life.
Is Medication Part of the Answer? Medication Approaches to OCD
Speaker: Roy Boorady, MD, Senior Director of the Child Mind Institute's Psychopharmacology Center
Date: Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Time: 6:00PM - 7:30PM
Location: Fascitelli Board Room
When deciding how to best treat a child with OCD, it is important to be aware of all of the options. Treatment for children with OCD will often involve cognitive-behavioral therapy, medication, or a combination of the two. Roy Boorady, MD, Senior Director of the Child Mind Institute's Psychopharmacology Center and one of the nation's foremost experts in the psychopharmacological treatment of children and teens, discusses medication approaches to treating OCD. You'll gain a deeper understanding of when and how medication should be used in the treatment of OCD as well as the benefits and drawbacks of the different classes of medication available.
Real Stories: Parents Speak
Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Time: 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Location: Fascitelli Board Room at the Child Mind Institute
Join us for a very special Q&A panel of parents who've successfully led their children through the challenges of OCD. They will share personal stories—their struggles as well as the successes—of raising a child with OCD. You'll have the opportunity to ask questions and gain insight into how you can help your child while maintaining balance in your life.

Wordless Wednesday: Worry Bird

Back Pain and my OCD.

I put my back out this week. I struggle with the presence of physical pain and the OCD that swoops in to complicate it. The first time I hurt my back, I was all of 24, and visiting my father for vacation. He asked me to vacuum the floor, and by the next morning, I couldn't get upright without my muscles seizing up. I'd never felt anything like it, but I knew that it had to be my imperfection and general deficiency that caused it. Having compassion for myself was not something that came easily, if at all. I had recurring back pain all through my 20's and into my 30's. I did have some physical therapy finally, when I was starting grad school, and the MacKenzie back exercises helped. But I went everywhere with a back pillow, and sat near the aisle so I could go stand up during concerts or lectures. I lived in fear of situations where my back might go out and there would be no way to get relief, or that I would be humiliated by my weakness.

I planned everything around how long I had to sit. I knew where the straight hard chairs were in any place I went to frequently. Once I graduated, and started a new job, my back seized up to the point that I had my husband drop me off a few blocks early to give me a chance to get fully upright before I got to the front door. I was depressed. I was anxious. Once my health insurance started, I went to a physiatrist, and got a referral for more physical therapy. This calmed my back for awhile, but the flare ups continued for a few more years, and then slowly, as I was doing therapy for my depression with Molly, my back stabilized. It seemed like a miracle.

On occasion, my back would get stiff, but recover quickly. But this week, after many situations of uncomfortable chairs--getting my hair washed at the beauty shop(which I do about once a year), meetings, long car trips--and lots of time in the studio, my back protested. I've started my Mackenzie exercises again and that has given me some relief, but I still have 3 more craft shows to get through, and the place I feel worst is in my studio, which is frustrating me, and I feel sad that what I love to do most, make art, is where the pain is aggravated. My OCD is all over this, and the more anxious I feel, the more I do things that make my back hurt even more, rituals of sitting at the computer too long. Slowing myself down is hard. The perfectionism is always in the background shouting about my need to do everything exactly right(whatever that means, since the standard always changes). I am working on it though. And know I may need to go back to the doctor and ask about occupational therapy.

If you have chronic pain and OCD, what helps you? I'd love to hear.

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.