Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a serious emotional problem that involves:

Obsessions: Intense worries, thoughts, and images that pop into the mind and create a great deal of distress. Worries about becoming contaminated with germs are an example of a particularly common obsession.

Compulsions: Various behaviors or actions that temporarily reduce the distress obsessions cause. For example, people with contamination obsessions would be likely to wash their hands excessively to deal with their worries about becoming contaminated.

Everyone has bad days. And many have bad weeks. But when feeling depressed, stressed, or anxious stretches out over a period of several weeks and begins to interfere with daily life, then mental health professionals may need to be involved. Here are some signs that you or someone you care about need evaluation and possibly treatment:

1. Suicidal thoughts or plans. If you start thinking that life is not worth living, help is available. You can call the national suicide hotline at 1-800-SUICIDE or a local mental health center. If you are aware of someone else who has thoughts of suicide, the hotline can advise you of what action you should take.

Anxious people tend to think differently than those who are more laid back. Thoughts of those with anxiety often stay focused in the future. You don’t really feel anxious about what happened last week, you worry about what may happen later today, tomorrow, or even years from now. Here are a few examples of people having anxious thoughts.

We’ve paid special attention to kids’ problems with anxiety in a number of our For Dummies books, including “Overcoming Anxiety For Dummies,” “Child Psychology and Development For Dummies,” and “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder For Dummies.” That’s because attending to anxiety early can help prevent the emergence of much bigger problems down the road.

I thought you might like to see some of these ideas in a snapshot. Here they are:

People with anxiety disorders tend to get anxious (okay, duh). They even worry about getting anxious after seeking treatment for their anxiety. Sometimes they go so far as to use this concern as an excuse for not seeking treatment in the first place. In other words they think, “Why bother getting treated if the problem is likely to make a swift return after I get treatment anyway?”

If you’ve had thoughts like these, I’d like to suggest you try rethinking your viewpoint. Treatment of anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder generally has enduring, positive effects. That’s especially the case if you obtain treatment based on cognitive behavior therapy that’s been specifically tailored for the type of anxiety or OCD you struggle with.

In fact, cognitive behavioral treatment for anxiety typically holds up far better than medication over the long haul. So even if you do take medication for anxiety or OCD, you now have one more reason to add cognitive behavior therapy to your regimen—the likely prevention of relapse as well as the possibility (for many) of successfully tapering off your medication at some point.

Nonetheless, relapse does happen. What should you do if it does?

The New York Times recently ran an article bemoaning the ever increasing focus on safety at our nation’s playgrounds. Today, you rarely see monkey bars and tire swings. And playground surfaces feel like walking on a giant sponge. Tall, fast slides have shrunk, leveled out, and slowed down. Signs warn parents everywhere about potential dangers.

But this emphasis doesn’t stop at playgrounds. When is the last time you drove by a school bus stop and saw only children? You’re just as likely to see more parents and caretakers than children waiting for the bus. Newspapers run articles all of the time that warn of potential dangers to kids. It seems that the media can’t get enough of these stories.

Most of you have seen the news reports on the fires in New Mexico. The Los Conchas Fire that has threatened Los Alamos and the National Labs, is now ranked the biggest forest fire in our history and is only 3 or 4% contained. Although the Las Conchas fire has gotten the most publicity, other fires around the state are also raging, largely out of control.

We are experiencing an incredible drought. In New Mexico we have had less than a quarter inch of rain this year. That’s right, this year!  And the spring winds, which usually stop sometime in the spring, have not yet abated.

But, most forest fires are caused by humans not nature. Although dry and windy conditions lead to the spread of a forest fire, the initial cause is usually a mismanaged camp fire, a tossed cigarette, carelessness, or at times a deliberate attempt to start a fire.

Today is the first time I have tried to write a blog from my Ipad. I am having a lot of anxiety as I type away, making mistakes, not knowing how to save a file on pages, feeling pretty clumsy.  My typing speed is down to about two words a minute. I am writing this while waiting for a plane, which is the main reason for attempting to master this technology.

It seems that getting through security is becoming more and more of a hassle. By the time you take off your shoes, empty your pockets, take off your jacket, take your net book out of its case, hold your boarding pass in your mouth, shove all of the rubber trays through X-ray, then walk through the x-ray while an agent glares at you and you haven’t even gotten on the plane and you’re already exhausted….well, I thought maybe getting an Ipad that I could stick in my purse might help.

We are writing today in support of the American Psychological Association’s Mental Health Blog Party. Here’s to all of us who have chronic, acute, or occasional issues with mental health. That’s commonly thought to be 1 out of every 4 people. But to be honest, being human pretty much guarantees at least occasional difficulties with mood, anxiety, interpersonal issues, learning, or attention—and often these difficulties are substantial even if they don’t add up to a formal diagnosis.

In addition, all of us deal with people in our family, at school, at work, or in the community that have problems related to mental health. So, we are all in this together.

In our practice, we tend to concentrate on getting through the day. In other words, we try to help people (as well as ourselves) solve the puzzles and get through the challenges that face everyone in the here and now. The premise behind Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which we practice as well as write about, is that how we think about things and what we do affects our moods. But clearly, other types of events and issues also affect mental health. These include genetics, health, diet, family experiences, trauma, political events, economic maelstroms, and natural disasters among others.

Information flows around the world in a manner of seconds–it’s amazing! We all watched last week when peaceful demonstrations, facilitated by social media, helped to topple a corrupt and oppressive government. So, what does this have to do with children and treatment?

Like many mental health professionals, the internet has given us opportunities to keep up with a variety of current issues, research studies, and trends in our field. Instead of trying to keep up with 3 or 4 journals a month, we have access to just about any published article, sometimes before it is even published.

When I started college many years ago, a literature search involved long hours combing through guides to periodic literature. Today a literature review involves going to an online library and reading about topics of interest from peer reviewed journals not just in English, but translated text from all over the world.