Are there any OTC remedies that can be helpful with these troubles? I am suffering these for many years. This is a very helpful article and easy to understand. I am definitely buying and reading thi book as soon as possible.

Would you consider hypochondria a form of OCD?

Hi Dr. Smith,
My boyfriend, a 36 year old computer programmer is a mostly very healthy man. He does have episodes of anxiety and what may be some OCD, however. He jokes about it but also treats it with some seriousness. He’s open to CBT to treat it. What I’m curious is what this sounds like to you: While he’s comfortable driving and being driven in the ‘burbs, he’s horribly anxious (hyper vigilant, short tempered, clearly in distress) being driven in the city proper. He’s also uncomfortable around young children – he finds their unpredictability confounding and stress-inducing. He’s launched himself into learning how to bond with my 6 year old daughter – but it’s been work. When on his turf, in the burbs, he’s much more relaxed – the difference is palpable. But mixing cities and kids is like gasoline on the fire. He seizes up (I’ll be moving shortly…). He’s also terrified of travel for fear of feeling overwhelmed by the unfamiliarity of a place, or missing planes. Quiet a package! He’s also warm, nurturing, responsible, loving and totally dedicated to making things work with me and my girl (who is happy and digs him a lot). Any thoughts on what we’re looking at here? No family history he’s aware of… Solid, if distant, family unit growing up. Great education. But he’s been a bit of a loner much of his adult life. Would appreciate your thoughts… Agoraphobia and OCD/GAD???

Julianne

I have had depression 25 years, agoraphobia and panic and anxiety disorder and ocd shaming and checking, superstition and numbers for over 3 years, not going out of my home in at least 3 years. Recently the home sold and I had to not only leave the home, but move across the water to live (do not remeber much of the journey because I was zonked on Xanax in order to cope. I have been a complete mess, non-stop crying, everything has to be in 3′s or add up to the number 333 or 444 if I overshoot by not paying attention;(I’ve nearly stirred the bottom out of coffee cups 3 sets of 21 (adds to 3) stirs with the spoon). I am totally uptight keeping my elbows in & shoulders hunched while writing this even. I can see no good in the future, I just got a new Dr who is not going to just feed me pills and hope I stay quiet which is good in one regard but now I am panicking about not having medication to control the Panick and anxiety disorder, the depression and the pain syndrome I have. I’m in tears now with fear of the unknown. I am so lost in all that fear that I can’t remember why I started writing this! Help what do I need?

Wow, I’m like all of those lol. I didn’t think that they were catagorized like this.

Thanks Doc, I hope that I get somewhere, I guess anxiety & panic feed off each other and agoraphobia feeds off those and the epilepsy, which started the whole thing rolling in the beginning.

I so want to be free of it, and I am trying hard to get out and get over it. But at times I freeze up and can’t move; it’s as if part of my mind realises I am out of the house and it all caves in.

I do often wish I could take my life and end the entire hassle. But years ago I died and had an experience that changed my life entirely and I promised while I was dead, that I would never take the life I had contracted to live, and use to help others as best I could. And I know that suicide is wrong. I don’t judge others for their choices but it’s a choice I can’t take.

I guess now you will think I am a fruit loop who needs heavy meds to deal with the anti-gravity short in my reality lobe…but I do appreciate your words, they give me hope and support,

Thanks Again

Hello Dr.

I often find myself over anxious about circumstances where for instance my car gets a ding or a scratch or my wood floor gets scratched. I usually do all I can to fix it but often lose sleep over this until the problem is resolved. I will often avoid that side of the car or the paticular room here say the floor is damaged. Its times when say the smallest spot of imperfection will stand out to me. I find it strange that I do this but it gets to me after awhile. Is this a sign of OCD or anxiety that I should see a physican about. I know it sounds weird. Thanks…

i am a 16 year old girl who has been suffering from both ocd and adhd. at school, i take a very long time completing work and have an extremely hard time paying attention and focusing. i am often late to class, but am usually well prepared. i, suprisingly, get straight A’s. i honestly do not know how this is possible considering the circumstances, but i am not complaiing. i do work extremely hard for my grades, spending numerous hours a night studying and doing homework, when it usually takes my other classmates an hour at the most. during timed tests, i can never finish them on time, and rarely have time to go back and check ove my work, which makes me feel like a failure. i am very quiet and reserved. there is so much going on in my mind that i blank out often, am very forgetful and it feels as though sometimes i forget to talk, which makes me appear very shy. i get offended when people call me quiet because i do not mean to. around certain people, however, i am very open and outgoing. i also have a very bad temper. this occurs often at home. i feel as though i cannot control my thoughts and outbursts and afterword feel very badly about this. i am currently on celexa for my ocd, but i feel like i need to be prescribed an adhd medicine as well. i recently started my summer reading, and realized how my eyes see the words written on the page, but my brain does not comprehend them. i often read sentences over and over without realizing it. also when people talk to me, i hear their voice but i am tuned out, so i do not understand the words that are coming out of their mouth. it is as if it is going in one ear and out the other. i do not understand how it is possible that i get staright a’s, at a very tough private school. if you can help me understand this, i would greatly appreaciate it.

Katherine, I was you eight years ago. I ended up burning out and having a meltdown my first week of college. Unlike you though, it wasn’t until I was finally official diagnosed and got help. I found that learning and researching everything, along with talk therapy, really helped me more than I can describe.
If you are getting strait As, despite the fact you have adhd, ocd, et al, then you must be very smart. I hope you realize that because it sounded like you have low confidence in yourself. I believe in you, and I can tell you it gets better. My shyness hindered me in high school immensely. I felt like all I did was watch and want to join in, but I never knew what to say. Well, all that watching apparently payed off, because it eventually helped me learn how to know what to say in future social situations.
What I am trying to say is that it will get better. Hang in there and don’t try to be perfect because that will wear you down.

I think my boyfiend has OCD; he has a very time consuming preoccupation with order and preciseness. In the mornings he cannot leave the house until he has finished all the household chores such as vacuuming the entire apartment,cleaning the already clean kitchen, making the bed, which can sometimes take him two hours or more- 50 minutes at minimum, etc..He also has to do the laundry at least once a week @ the same time in the mornings-since we live in an apartment this routine can sometimes be thrown off if someone else is using the laundry room ( he will not use another floors laundry room for fears that he is not close enough to the clothes nd someone may try to steal them). If his routine is at all interuppted for example by a phone call or unexpected occurance, he becomes very agitated and irritable. He can sometimes become so distressed that he becomes angry and impatient with my lack of order. I have no necessity for obsessive perfection or organization. He can become very critical of this characteristic.I sometimes try to ask him what is wrong and when he responds i may say “well, whats the big deal” or “just leave it alone” this upsets him deeply. He will reply that it is very serious or “its not a joke”. He owns and just opened a brand new tattoo shop and his need to complete the routine in such specific manner can cause him to be late for appointments which does not reflect kindly on his business. The routine also makes it very uncomfortable for me on mornings when I do not wake up or leave the house before him. Miscellaneous items such as books or cds must be stacked in specific orders. If I happen to misplace something or put it back in the wrong space he becomes very distressed. He must find the item and put it in its correct place. I am very free spirit I do not worry myself with minute details to situations,I am not messy, but i am rather lackadaisical.I also go out of my way to mke sure things are the way he likes them. With his constant need for order I often find myself walking on eggshells in the mornings or whenever he is in a cleaning/organizational mode. The excessive cleaning and his need for specificity often make me very anxious. I sometimes feel like I live in a hotel- this feels unnatural to me. At first, I was very offended and sometimes hurt by his reaction to something that I felt was not a big deal but after researching OCD I am starting to become more understanding. Can you relay any suggestions for supressing his OCD or ways that I can help when he is experiencing distress. Also we are vegan and he is not open to being put on any type of pharmceutical medication.

Dr. Smith,
Not sure if you are still checking this, but in case you are…
I am a premed student with a 3.8 GPA at an Ivy League university. I write that not to boast but to frame my question. I was diagnosed with OCD by two different physicians separately about 5 years ago. Since then, I have stopped all compulsions and the obsessions are now rare. I write to you because of a problem I’ve noticed occasionally that cause great distress and anxiety.
When reading something complicated or giving a presentation about a complex topic, I am usually fine. However, something occasionally happens that causes me to lose my train of thought. Two streams of thought open up– one is focused on the task at hand, but the other suggests that the topic at hand is too complicated or, even if it is not overly complicated, suggests that “it” is happening again and I will soon lose my train of thought. Sometimes I’m able to combat this tendency and continue on with the task. Other times, I lose my place and stumble. I do not hear voices in my head. I simply worry that I will lose my place, and sure enough, I lose my place. This is scary, because obsessions are not supposed to have a basis in reality. The basis of my previous therapy had been “don’t pay attention to obsessions, they aren’t real and won’t hurt you.” Now, I can’t help but pay attention, because the obsessions do have real, tangible consequences.
I scored a 740 on the verbal SAT while dealing with this with no extended time. In other words, most of the time I’m competent and able to maintain my concentration. But when OCD rears its ugly head, I’m all but powerless to stop it- in this ONE remaining area. My doctor does not seem to have any ideas and I’m starting to lose hope.

Jim

What about Violent and Sexual thoughts? This is really common in OCD but not well known. Basically the affected person has disturbing violent and/or sexual images and is TERRIFIED of acting on them. And are terribly embarrassed and guilty about having them. This often leaves to the sufferer avoiding dangerous object (kitchen knives, etc) and maybe even people at all. But often the symptoms are just mental.(sometimes called “Pure-O). Needless to say, many people with this type of OCD go many years before being diagnosed and treated. (ERP works for this type too). I guess it’s similar to the Shaming OCD you mentioned but I usually see it listed as a separate category of symptoms.

Also, you say that contamination is the most common form, right? How do you know? Maybe it’s just that contamination is the most recognized type so people with this type are more (if not most) likely to seek treatment and get diagnosed right away. I’ve heard to that other forms are most common and I personally think that since so many people with OCD are misdiagnosed or undiagnosed that it’s impossible to know which type is the most common. (and it’s possible to have more than one type.)

Anyway. I like this post. I think that Contamination and Symmetry (and increasingly Hoarding) get the most attention whereas most people don’t know about the other forms.

I am stunned to read what I have been reading lately about OCD. I have suffered an extreme form of ocd through most of my adult life. I knew I had minor symptoms like needing to count certain things until it “felt” right. I also have read about the hit and run OCD which I never believed anyone else could possibly have. I do not have the fear of driving that I used to have. When I was about 19-23,24 or so I had terrible bouts of fear with my driving. Every bump, strange sound I was afraid I might have hit someone, it was terrible. I had to retrace my routes to make sure the road was clear and nothing had in fact happened. Once when going to visit my uncle I got stuck in a very small town for over an hour. No matter how hard I tried I just had to keep going back for fear I may have hit someone. If a car was following me I was forced to keep looking in my rear view mirror to make sure they were still behind me. If not I worried they had stopped because I might have hit someone. Even if I got home and felt I had driven great, if I heard sirens I had to retrace my entire routes to make sure I hadn’t caused an accident. Every single time I went back of course there was never anything there. The few times I tried to confront the fear and force myself not to go back I’d worry on for weeks wondering if I should have double checked watching the news or reading the papers to see if there had been an accident. I wish this kind of fear on nobody it was so terrible. I was just shocked to learn that other people have had this exact struggle. I do not feel as frightened of this anymore, but I still have terrible worry of accidentally hurting others. I have to wash my hands to make sure I don’t pass germs. I have had crazy fears in the past that the slightest germs I might pass on might kill someone. As I have gotten older I have gotten over a lot of this. I still count though, I still repeat certain phrases to keep bad things from happening even though I do know this is ridiculous I still don’t stop. I have almost never dated in my life. I’m a virgin in my late 30s which has caused bitter lonliness. I am so certain and terrified of humiliating rejection I could never ask anyone out. I didn’t have a date in my teens or my 20s once and only have gotten a few off the internet in my later 30s which have gone nowhere. I seem to have a wide variety of almost all OCD. It appears the overlapping of symptoms is normal. I am sorry for the long post I am just finally discovering all my issues seem certainly linked to OCD and I just never knew it. I have tried therapy before yet none of my therapists seemed to identify this which seems odd to me. I am not insured I really can’t afford meds or therapy, but after learning so much it appears I do need specific help with this it has made my life very difficult.

Hey Jay!
Yeah hit and run OCD is a common type of symptom. I’ve experienced this a little but not as much as you have. A lot of therapist simply are not knowledgeable about all the different types of OCD and can’t diagnose it all the time and people with OCD usually are very reluctant to admit their symptoms.

There are several self-help books available that you would probably benefit from. I recommend Freedom from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. They have a whole section on dealing with hit and run OCD. I recommend going to your local library and seeing what they have. It’s free.

Lastly, if you do decide to give therapy another chance, I strongly recommend you find a therapist experienced with Exposure and Response prevention therapy for OCD. If you see a therapist who doesn’t do ERP and you want to treat your OCD, you’ll simply be wasting your time. In addition to training clinics, there are also research studies and therapists often do sliding scale and you may only need 10 or so sessions. So it might be worth researching therapists (www.ocf.org) and calling them and asking for a lower price and a payment plan.

Also, most medications used of OCD are off-patent and therefor pretty cheap. Certainly cheaper then all the lost productivity!

Of course I can’t be specific about what might work with any one person, but I’m curious how horrible would it be if you lost your train of thought? You’ve probably noticed that other people lose their trains of thought. How would you feel about that next year? Just a thought

Hoarding, like most psychological states is really a continuum. If the behavior is interferring with happiness then it’s a problem. If the behavior doesn’t really bother anyone, it’s not a big problem. So, if the old papers and books don’t cause environmental problems, relationship problems, or other hazards, or create intense anxiety–then let it go. But, if it is causing lots of stress, then perhaps it’s time to seek help from a mental health professional with training and experience in treating this condition. Good luck.