OCD Action

S*F
Member

Hi all,

Been to the doctors today to ask for some CBT to help with the OCD. Feeling quite proud of myself. Doctor extremely supportive which is nice, however I felt myself recoil in horror when she confirmed she would refer me to the 'Mental Health Team'. I loathe that term. I don't think it's in any way shape or form positive. I do wish they could come up with a new way to describe disorders of the mind. 'Mental' conjours up images for me of people rocking in corners in a padded cell, but that could just be me! LOL!

Anyway, hoping everyone is ok today,

S

Mon Oct 24 2011 17:36:04 #
wannabefree
Member

Hi S, Yes, I too wonder why they call themselves a 'health' team, when it is with my illness I hope to be meeting up with them very soon...
wannabe

Mon Oct 24 2011 18:24:55 #
S*F
Member

Hi Wannabe

Using the word health does rather lead one to believe that because we need to see them our heads must be 'unhealthy!!!!'. I felt myself shudder when she said it! I am not mental, I spent years thinking I was, I have OCD - that's all. Such a relief to have a name to put on the faceless monster. So pleased I have found others who struggle with the same thing. Together we can recover

S

Mon Oct 24 2011 20:01:46 #
wannabefree
Member

I certainly hope so!
wannabe

Mon Oct 24 2011 21:04:07 #
Tess
Member

Hi SF
I detest the term 'mental' as well, it conjures up images of insanity and that is one thing OCD sufferers are definitely not. When I was first diagnosed over 40 years ago psychiatric illnesses were classed as neuroses and psychoses - the difference being that the neuroses were thought of as retaining contact with reality but the psychoses went over the boundary into insanity - and OCD was classed as a neurosis. Now it is possible to treat all psychiatric disorders with a high degree of success and there are many people who would previously have been classed as psychotic living very productive lives in the community and noone would even know they had a disorder. But we are left with terminology which stemmed from a time when a lot less was understood about disorders of the brain and to some extent the stigma which arose from the days of strait jackets and padded cells.
This terminology is so deeply interlinked with NHS funding and the benefits system that change is going to be very slow and we are all caught up in it so you are far from alone. Remember that a quarter of the population will suffer from a mental health disorder at some time in their life and that almost every living person will have someone in their family or a friend or neighbour who has a 'mental illness'. It is nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about, mental illness is as common as physical illness but it's still waiting to extricate itself from a very recent past when it was not understood - and indeed in which it was used to incarcerate people, such as unmarried mothers and unfortuate individuals who did not fit into the rules of the class system into which they were born.

Tue Oct 25 2011 10:19:24 #
goldenseal
Member

Your post is very interesting Tess, I've always hated the term "mental health" too and put people right by saying "People with OCD know they have a problem and are not mad, in fact a lot of talented people have OCD!"

Tue Oct 25 2011 19:48:10 #
Wombat140
Member

Correctly, "mental" has nothing to do with psychosis at all, it just means "relating to the mind". It's just yet another of those terms that are being hijacked by idiots (another former medical term!) that WILL use them as insults. I think it's still just about salvageable, though. It would be kind of awkward if we banished "mental", I can't think of any other adjective for things to do with the mind! So for the sake of pure English, we must throw squidgy things at anyone who uses it to mean "mad"

Tell you a really funny thing. Recently I've seen a few terribly polite but muddled people writing that somebody "suffers from mental health"!

Wed Oct 26 2011 16:52:15 #
blueberrypancakes
Member

Hey SF

Just wanted to say have you read about the Human Givens perspective on mental health? For the creators, it all boils down to having your emotional needs met.

I am very keen on this perspective. For someone who over-thinks as a way of avoiding feeling lol, it's been very good to know this type of perspective exists!!

By the way love the "suffering from mental health" comment on Wombat140's post LOL

Fri Oct 28 2011 18:23:13 #
Tess
Member

Haven't heard of this perspective but it makes a degree of sense - but in my experience managing OCD is about a lot more than having your emotional needs met. I have a wonderful husband and could not wish for better and a way of life which is right for me but OCD is still a huge issue in our lives.

Sat Oct 29 2011 8:49:59 #
Wombat140
Member

I like the Human Givens theories, and for many mental/emotional problems they make a lot of sense. But I've never been able to see what the Human Givens system's own recommended methods for dealing with OCD have to do with the theory. They're apparently very successful (visualisation is involved, and some tricks bearing a vague resemblance to hypnotherapy), but they don't seem to involve emotional needs in any obvious way.

Sat Oct 29 2011 21:10:14 #
blueberrypancakes
Member

Yes I accept that saying 'having your emotional needs met is the answer to mental health' doesn't take into consideration the randomness of OCD. Too many people think that if your obsession is POCD (like mine, as an example) then you must have had some trauma related to that. One of my therapists insisted I had been abused otherwise why would I possibly have thoughts like that... Having POCD doesn't mean your emotional need links to paedophilia or abuse or trauma... A friend and I just had a conversation about the fact she hates the number 3... She doesn't have an emotional need that is crying out for help, that is linked to the number 3...

But the way I personally mean 'relating emotional needs to OCD' is that, and I can only speak for myself, I only get OCD in times (or shortly after times) when my needs really weren't being met. I.e My need for a certain amount of routine or familiar places. Having a job where I was allowed to only care about profit, not people. Living at home with my parents and not having the finances to do my therapist training. Being unemployed... All tough times.

Does that make sense?

Sat Oct 29 2011 22:28:14 #
blueberrypancakes
Member

To go back to the original topic though, the term 'mental' is about as helpful as the term 'physical'.

No one seems to say someone is 'physically ill'. They would say they had cancer, or diabetes or asthma or whatever.

When someone is mentally ill, they are just mental lol

Helpful isn't it

Sat Oct 29 2011 22:32:02 #
S*F
Member

Hi All,

Thanks for the above. Glad to hear I'm not the only one who doesn't like ther term 'mental'

@ Blueberry: My OCD gets MUCH worse when I experience any sort of upheaval, change in routine or trauma. My cat was run over and killed last week and I went straight back down into the thinking madness. I was having OCD thoughts that I have not had since I was a small child. That said though, I have a very supportive husband and friends and yet the OCD is still a part of my everyday life I have found that regular contact with this website has helped ease it slightly.

Best wishes

S

Mon Oct 31 2011 18:05:42 #
Wombat140
Member

Blueberry, you've got a point there. "Physically ill" does come up sometimes - "the strain of OCD was making him physically ill" - but you wouldn't dream of referring to, say, a diabetic as having "physical problems". That'd be silly. Likewise, no diabetic would stand for being referred to someone who just has "experience in treating physical problems"...

S*F I'm so sorry to hear about your cat.

Thu Nov 10 2011 17:34:30 #
Cuthbert ffoliott
Moderator

I would see it as a positive development if OCD (and other 'mental health problems') would simply be classified as neurological problems in the future. Because that is what they are. OK, OCD is strongly linked to behavioural changes and moods that are not really welcome... but aren't brain haemorrhages, Alzheimer's, other forms of memory loss, Parkinson's, and Huntington's too? Or autism, or ADHD, or eating disorders?

I would find it a welcome leap if the general public would get to know that OCD is not a voluntary act, but much more an impairment of our free will, we can't simply stop our fears, worries, and acts related to OCD.

In principle I don't really object to the term 'mental' as to its true meaning, which is just: related to the mind. But in expressions like: 'he's gone mental!', it's become highly peiorative.

We may have good hopes for the future. With the advent of ever more precise scanning techniques (which are multiple by now, with high resolution), we can show what's going on in OCD. Some brain parts are overactive, with a higher turnover of molecules necessary for cell viability. In other spots, brain white matter (which isolates brain fibres and causes electrical signals to travel faster) is affected; it may be less dense, and also have lost a bit of its proper direction. Many of these features are reversible by good medication and CBT. So really, prospects are good - but these matters need to be put forward in public debates.

Best, Cuthbert.

Fri Nov 11 2011 14:03:56 #
Tellerina
Member

Could be worse- they used to call it "mental hygiene"

Also, agree w/Cuthbert that someday, science will classify OCD as a neuro condition. I believe that the similarities to autism and certain epilepsy types are there.

Fri Nov 11 2011 21:45:09 #