Dear Radha, Those things do point towards OCD behavior. I have many different things that bother me. My brother makes fun of me and calls me Miss Monk! I have to wash my hands a lot due to gluten being all over the place. Sharing a kitchen when you have Celiac is not easy.
My face is broken out because there must have been gluten on the phones as well. I should have known better! The things I fear most are germs, gluten, and I have some other odd habits. For instance, it bothers me if I do not have cans and packages facing right-side up. They cannot be upside-down on the shelf, because it will bother me until I flip it over.
I have managed to correct some of the OCD behavior. You can break yourself of it, but it takes work. You cannot help but wonder why something so silly will bother you so much. They waste your time and energy, yet you cannot resist the compulsion to fix the silly issue. Anti-depressants are best avoided, because they are highly addictive and used too often on people who do not actually need them.
Sincerely, Jin
Posted by kelmo (Member # 8797) on :
My daughter need medication. But, cognitive therapy is also important. Her racing thoughts involved painful episodes from her past.
Your brain has pathways and racing thoughts get stuck in a pathway. It can be retrained.
When my daughter is stressed it comes out with compulsive blinking or licking lips. Her hands are raw from washing, too.
I want to throw out all the anti-bacterial soap, but my husband works for the company that makes it, so we have it all over the house.
It's like lighting your hands on fire. Dermatologists really see problems with using it all day long.
I stay away from it unless I'm cooking with raw meat or cleaning the cat box.
Posted by Radha (Member # 8464) on :
thanks for your replies, yes the silliest things
can drive me crazy until i make it right, but my
thoughts are just anything, everyday thoughts,
its raining, or it tastes terrible, these things
will repeat until i say them out loud and i
cannot just talk to myself, i need someone, my
mom, to listen to me.....thank God she is so
understanding!! do you know which infection this
belongs to? thanks for your help and if you
cannot leave home how do you do this cognitive
therapy?
Radha
Posted by Radha (Member # 8464) on :
thanks for your replies, yes the silliest things
can drive me crazy until i make it right, but my
thoughts are just anything, everyday thoughts,
like its raining, or it tastes terrible, these
things will repeat until i say them out loud and
i cannot just talk to myself, i need someone, my
mom, to listen to me.....thank God she is so
understanding!! do you know which infection this
belongs to? thanks for your help and if you
cannot leave home how do you do this cognitive
therapy?
Radha
Posted by lakes592 (Member # 18905) on :
I have OCD but mine started before Lyme at least I hope so. Mine ame out when I went away to school. What helped me get it under control was a year of intense therapy including behavior therapy and Prozac. I'm at about 90% I do still have occassional panic attacks and I have to wash my hands before I eat food.
Posted by jkmom (Member # 14004) on :
My daughter has OCD, probably from Lyme.
I took her to an OCD treatment center for intensive behaviour therapy. After the first two days, the therapist started coming to our house because her issues are mostly around the house.
If you can find a good OCD therapist, I think it is not uncommon for them to go to your house.
You could work on it yourself. As an example, probably the therapist would have you lay on your bed with some hairs on it for a short period of time (a minute if that was all you could stand) and work up to more, until it didn't bother you any more. Another one could be that you delay saying your thought out loud for longer and longer periods of time. The idea is that you feel the anxiety and see that nothing happens even if you don't give in to the compulsion, and that the anxiety goes away, and/or that you can cope with it. From what I understand, eventually it becomes easier to ignore the thoughts.
I only know of books for OCD treatment in kids, but I'm sure there are good ones for adults. The therapy is called CBT/ERP, so you want one that talks about that.
Posted by Radha (Member # 8464) on :
thanks so much for your help Radha
Posted by Radha (Member # 8464) on :
if you are not taking any antibiotics then can
the OCD still get better with just CBT? and did
you have babs or bartonella or just lyme?
Radha
Posted by jkmom (Member # 14004) on :
I also had OCD-like thoughts. When I went on the gluten free diet, they went away. Now, the only time I get them is if I accidently eat some gluten.
If you haven't tried giving up gluten, it might help.
Posted by Radha (Member # 8464) on :
i dont eat anything with gluten.or sugar or caffeine, and low carb too!