Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)Help!
I've just got in to find the cat's thrown up all over my bed 
So instead of being able to relax as I'm exhausted I've had to put the bed throw in the machine. It'll take ages to wash it and get it dry. Now I know why they call it a throw 
Why do these things always happen when your OCD is playing up?
Unregistered
Oh no !
Cats are lovely company, but their little presents are not always welcome. How did the rest of your day go?
Jo
Precisely Oh no
But I thought I coped well this time and didn't shout at her just gave her a dose of furball medication and cleared up the mess as best I could because of the OCD.
The day went well until, I rang trying to chase up more CBT. They just have no comprehension of time, every thing's tomorrow. Well tomorrow never comes and so presumably neither will the CBT
Hi Jo, Trish and Teresa,
Sorry for the delay in replying but it's been a hectic few days and my OCD said 'Whoopee!' but I've survived - just. Thanks for your support. Things always go wrong when you're busy don't they?
Well I ended up having to take the cat to the vet as the vomiting didn't improve. They kept her in for observation and investigations and sods law. She stopped vomiting. Conclusion she probably had a virus. But she's home now and looking at me daggers drawn. I've now got to try and catch up with the mountain of washing, including all the washing she created, so here goes.
Trudy
How come she doesn't throw up at the vet, but this morning threw up several times? So another trip back to the vet for medication and a special diet - so the replacement TV that I'd scrimped and saved for is now out of the question as the vet now has the cash
So typical that this sort of extra work occurs when you're up to it with laundry, housework because you've had a busy week full stop. So the OCD is playing up making it take much longer to complete each task
Once again many thanks for your support.
Trudy
Unregistered
Trudy, I really feel for you. I don't know how you are coping with all this on top of the hectic week you've had. The timing could not have been worse, could it?
Love, Tricia.
Thanks Tricia,
That's OCD for you, never interferes when you've got the time to deal with it only when you haven't got the time. It's put a bit of a dampener on the beginning of the week But it's not going to win and I will continue with the training that's if they still want me. I'm proud of how I've coped this week. Ok not as well as some but for me it's a vast improvement 
In the face of the cat's illness on top of the ocd and then the extra stess of your training course, i think you've done marvellous coping this week Trudy, so give yourself a pat on the back. The ocd is a two faced friend, makes us think it's our friend and yet it's our enemy - our bully................take care Pops
Who's never had a cat throw up all over the vet?? I have had a dog swamp the vets surgery with wee every visit, despite spending ages outside beforehand waiting whilst every doggy smell is sniffed endlessly with no luck - then get inside the door and the flood starts.
As for goats with projectile diarrhoea, one vet got plastered, even inside his camera bag - and I well remember a goat who objected so much to an injection in the rump she landed all four hooves in the vet's bag scattering bottles, needles and syringes into her bedding - three of us doing a fingertip search through the hay in the dark for 'sharps'. We've also had a vet flat out full length in the mud trying to foot trim a goat.
Definitely more entertaining than the telly.
Unregistered
I agree with Tess. Jerama, you should work for a vet for a while, they get more mucky than the average pet owner would in a dozen lifetimes. One vet I worked for was trying to perform a minor operation on a cow with a local anesthetic. The cow lay very still while being spoken to by the farmer and his wife, but suddenly decided she had been patient long enough. I was holding the tray of instruments, which literally flew in all corners of the barn as she struggled to stand. The vet ended up in a pile of manure and I was face down in the straw (luckily not on top of a scapel)
The smaller animals pose as much risk to a vet. I won’t go into the details here of what I have had to wash off my face and out of my hair!
Makes me wonder how I ended up as I am!
Trudy, how is the cat today?
Tricia x
Unregistered
P.S. Makes Professor Salkovskis' 'toilet dipping' seem rather tame!
The cat seems to be a little better though she's refusing to eat the special diet and is only picking at it. I wouldn't mind it costs a pound a tin 
But the antacid seems to be doing the trick, fingers crossed.
I had a friend who had a really well behaved labrador, but he took exception to one particular vet (might have had something to do with where he put the thermometer) and every time he saw this vet he urinated on his leg. He didn't do it to any of the other vets.
'Toilet dipping' - where do they get these crackpot ideas from? Even though that isn't part of my OCD there's no way that I'd partake in that particular exercise. Urrrgh!
My therapist made me wipe my beautifully clean uncontaminated duster around the garden and then inside to the loo to wipe it around the toilet seat and then as if that wasn't enough, i had to go into my beautifully clean bedroom and wipe inside my ottamin where all my 'clean' things were eeeurgh 'normal' people don't act this way do they!!!!!?
'Normal' people don't act that way and yet some therapists expect us to be able to engage in those sorts of activities To a lot of us with OCD it doesn't help on the contrary it just makes the OCD worse.
Fair enough with OCD we have to learn to take risks, but that sort of thing is a step too far.
Unregistered
Pops, How did you feel afterwards, though? Did the fear remain?
My GP’s expression told me exactly how he regarded ‘toilet dipping’!
Something very amusing (at least to me!) occurred at one of the exposure sessions being held during an American conference. The behaviourist had found a small group of very reluctant volunteers to wipe their hands on toilet seats and then eat a piece of chocolate with the same (unwashed) hands. He had persuaded a few people on previous occasions (during the annual conferences) but this time one of the group was a doctor and, before the wiping began, she proceeded to detail the likelihood of certain bacteria being present and in what numbers. The behaviorist was not best pleased by this interference and his reluctant volunteers became even less willing to participate at that point! Probably my twisted sense of humour, again, but it also amused me to hear there were the ‘regulars’ who would face this kind of therapy once a year at each conference. They would receive a pat on the back for their bravery and then revert to their old ways until the next year‘s exposure. I’m not convinced their annual act of toilet seat wiping was of much help!
Prof. Salkovskis does appreciate that few people without OCD would be prepared to face this extreme therapy. However, his reasoning is that we need to face that extra amount of contamination, beyond what would be classed as acceptable or normal. He has said that people would not be prepared to have plaster casts put on their limbs, but if they sustained a fracture naturally they would. He uses that as an analogy to explain why he asks people with OCD to do things those without the condition wouldn’t. If that kind of therapy worked in every case I would be all for it. Sadly it hasn’t helped me and I have friends who also responded negatively to such treatment.
I have been a critic of Prof. Salkovskis’ documentaries, because of the things he and a narrator said, which made a ‘cure’ seem very easy and implied that those who don’t respond are not brave enough to try therapy. However, I do defend him over his exposure therapy, because, extreme as it is, it can work well for many. My own contamination fears were overcome in the past by going ‘over the top’ with exposure. No-one told me to do this, the useless child psychiatrist I was seeing didn’t even know what was wrong with me and the only therapy was the psychoanalytical kind. I somehow knew how to overcome my fears. Sadly this technique no longer works and I wish all psychologists could understand that not only do we respond differently as individuals, but at different times in our lives. I also become quite angry when fellow sufferers tell me that if I do x, y and z I will be well. If not it’s because I didn’t try hard enough….
There was a therapist at the Bethlem who claimed we could be treated successfully 100% of the time if we put in the work. This is an outrageous and erroneous remark which can cause untold harm, making those who don’t respond feel utterly despondent. Most therapists have a more balanced and realistic view.
Trudy. The vets I worked for would assure owners that no cat would starve itself, when faced with food not to its choosing. However, many cats held out longer than their owners were prepared to. I hope she will eat more of the special diet soon.
Tricia x
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