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Thursday, August 05, 2010
the stress-laden ocd relationship

excerpt from Loving Someone with OCD


The cumulative effects of OCD on marriage can result in a relationship burdened by stress and conflict. If left alone, the challenges of OCD moments combined with OCD’s threats to the couple’s emotional and physical intimacy, related financial stressors, interference in social relationships and activities, and fears for the future can shake the very core of your relationship.


Failure to communicate with each other openly about these stressors serves as a form of avoidance that, whether purposeful or inadvertent, creates the opportunity for the root of the problems to grow while creating even greater opportunity for devastating and painful effects on the relationship.

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Posted By newharb / 10:00 AM / Thursday, August 05, 2010
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
managing lapses and preventing relapse

excerpt from The OCD Workbook:


Expect lapses and beware of relapse—especially upon making progress! What’s the difference between the two? Only a world of difference! Lapses are accompanied by a relatively minor uptick in OCD symptoms, are usually short or limited in duration, and almost always occur during a period of short-term life stress or transition. Getting married, divorced, changing jobs, the birth of a child, a move to a new location/community, illness in the family—both happy events and unwanted events—can be associated with a short-term lapse in your recovery from OCD. They are completely normal and should be expected as part of the normal waxing and waning of OCD symptoms throughout your life. Your previous recovery should be fully intact when the outside situational stressors subside.


Relapse, on the other hand, is a much rarer, severe regression back to pretreatment levels of symptoms. It is usually associated with some significant life stressor or disruption in social support, plus additional factors such as alcohol or drug abuse, and in almost all cases, having gone off of your prescribed anti-OCD medication. The sooner you face the issues of lapse and relapse and learn some tools to both prevent them and manage them when they occur, the better.


The following suggestions can help you:

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Posted By newharb / 10:00 AM / Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Thursday, October 29, 2009
how to help a loved one who hoards

Michael Tompkins, Ph.D., co-author of Digging Out: Helping Your Loved One Manage Clutter, Hoarding, and Compulsive Acquiring discusses hoarding and how friends and loved ones can help.

watch a larger version of the video here

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Posted By newharb / 12:00 AM / Thursday, October 29, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
Refining Parenting Practices

Excerpt from Parenting through the Process in Helping Your Child with OCD

Most children with OCD are and want to be “good kids.” Many, however, struggle with anger and irritability. Some have developed a habit of throwing tantrums. Anger and irritability are frequently side effects of living with OCD. Think about it: how do you feel when you are in a room with a radio pounding, people demanding something from you, and a television blaring? Thinking, listening, and functioning are extremely difficult because of all the extraneous noise. In such circumstances you probably feel angry and stressed and want to scream, “Be quiet!” because you can’t hear yourself think. This is similar to how children with OCD frequently feel.

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Posted By newharb / 12:00 AM / Friday, October 16, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Hoarding

by guest blogger Michael A. Thompkins, Ph.D., author of Digging Out


Over the years, most clinicians and researchers have diagnosed people with a compulsive hoarding problem as having obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), in part, because many people with OCD report some hoarding behaviors. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that it may not be accurate to classify compulsive hoarding as OCD for a number of reasons.

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Posted By newharb / 12:00 AM / Monday, October 12, 2009
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