"A B" <a@a> wrote in message news:4af1c142$0$2485$db0fefd9@news.zen.co.uk...
> "Harry Magnet"  wrote on 2nd November:
>> Check out my blog post on how I managed my OCD. You can find it at:
>> http://harrymagnet.blogspot.com/2009/11/cognitive-behavioral-strategies-to.html
>
> Very interesting piece, that.  Thanks for posting it.
> I do have a few comments:
>
> "There are several problems with the theory behind exposure therapy for 
> OCD. One problem is that OCD isn't really an anxiety disorder. It's 
> usually treated by antidepressants. If it was a true anxiety disorder, it 
> would be treated by anti-anxiety meds like Xanax or Valium."
>
>   Good point.  While anxiety is usually a prominent feature of OCD, it 
> seems to me to be a secondary symptom, that is it's a result of the other 
> symptoms rather than stemming directly from the OCD.  People with OCD 
> experience alarming and uncontrollable thoughts - an abnormal state; this 
> then makes them anxious - a normal reaction.  This is just my opinion, but 
> I've seen a lot of people describing their OCD and how it works, and 
> that's how it strikes me.
>   I don't have the thoughts really, I just have the compulsions by 
> themselves, like a sort of conditional tic.  So I get anxiety only as 
> another, unrelated sort of secondary reaction.  I'm only anxious if I 
> don't get a chance to do the compulsion, because the longer I have to 
> wait, the worse it usually is when I finally do it.  The same applies if I 
> resist it but eventually have to give in.
>   Just to be pernickety, I have heard of a few cases of OCD being treated 
> with Valium, but that really is just to treat the symptoms.  It's used 
> only if the antidepressants don't work.
>
> "The other problem is that obsessions and compulsions are addictive, 
> self-stimulatory behaviors. One doesn't treat addictive behaviors by 
> exposing the addict to things that can trigger the addiction. For example, 
> one doesn't treat alcoholism by exposing the alcoholic to wine or liquor."
>
>   They don't strike me as typical addictive or self-stimulatory 
> behaviours. You don't get a kick out of doing them for the first time.  In 
> fact they're not really much like anything else I've come across.  Have 
> you any particular reason for calling them that?  In any case, I don't 
> know if there's any particular theoretical reason for keeping addicts away 
> from what they're addicted to, except that they're not likely to resist 
> it.  With OCD you have more of a chance.
>
> "I don't know why some people and therapists claim that exposure therapy 
> is effective for OCD. Perhaps some people with true anxiety are 
> misdiagnosed with OCD. Perhaps others are helped in the short term by 
> exposure therapy, only to have different obsessions and compulsions 
> replace the ones that they were exposed to. Others likely relapse."
>
>   I do know a lot of people who have been helped by exposure therapy for 
> OCD.  Quite a few did relapse, true, but others haven't (yet).  Anyway, if 
> exposure therapy is barking up the wrong tree, why would there be even a 
> temporary effect?
>
>   I've crossposted this into uk.support.mental-health, it's a bit quiet in 
> there.

Whoops, missed.  Sent it to alt.society.mental-health by mistake.  Right, 
uk.people.support.mental-health here I come.
A. B.