"How I Ran OCD Off My Land"
Question:
Hello again, everyone! Has anyone had any experience with this manual for children and adolescents with OCD? It is a protocol driven how-to manual using cognitive-behavioral therapy and anxiety management. It supposedly increases compliance in patients and parents and is written so that even lay people can follow it. I have an excerpt from this manual which looks very good and I am going to write to the main author ( John S. March, M.D., M.P.H.) to see how one can get the full manual. My dilemma is figuring out if Jason’s compulsions are actually tics ( he has TS also) or are elaborate game rituals. I would like your input: in response to a triggering situation, he will have an obsession where an image, thought, and feeling intrude upon his mind and he begins to make video game sounds (my guess) and movements that simulate the destruction of that image (pounding motions) and other defensive actions that may be seen in a video game possibly. This is carried out in the beginning of the day usually with a conditioning to the stimulus by the end of the day ( he is used to the triggering situation by then and does not have the obsession and compulsion). He will begin again the next day in the same cycle. He actually calls them "games". Could this be an elaborate game ritual compulsion? I am wondering with the advent of video games, if other children and adolescents have similar compulsions that never were displayed before. Video games are games, of course, so IMO elaborate video game rituals can be compulsions just as any other game can be. Thanks for your opinions! Bonnie
Response:
The material in How I Ran OCD Off My land is very good. March and Mhule have now written a more comprehensive book biased on the same material. However one caveat. This material is written to be a quid to therapists and may make some assumptions about knowledge that many people dealing with OCD in the family may not have. The How I Ran material was distrubted by the OC Foundation last I knew not by Dr March himself any more. The book is now available from Guilford Press. As for distinguinshing tics from compulsions the difference is what the preson experiences – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -BonnieGr wrote: > Hello again, everyone! > Has anyone had any experience with this manual for children > and adolescents with OCD? It is a protocol driven how-to > manual using cognitive-behavioral therapy and anxiety > management. It supposedly increases compliance in patients > and parents and is written so that even lay people can > follow it. > I have an excerpt from this manual which looks very good and > I am going to write to the main author ( John S. March, M.D., M.P.H.) > to see how one can get the full manual. > My dilemma is figuring out if Jason’s compulsions are actually > tics ( he has TS also) or are elaborate game rituals. I would > like your input: in response to a triggering situation, he will > have an obsession where an image, thought, and feeling > intrude upon his mind and he begins to make video game > sounds (my guess) and movements that simulate the destruction > of that image (pounding motions) and other defensive actions > that may be seen in a video game possibly. This is carried out > in the beginning of the day usually with a conditioning to the > stimulus by the end of the day ( he is used to the triggering > situation by then and does not have the obsession and > compulsion). He will begin again the next day in the same > cycle. He actually calls them "games". > Could this be an elaborate game ritual compulsion? I am > wondering with the advent of video games, if other children > and adolescents have similar compulsions that never were > displayed before. Video games are games, of course, so > IMO elaborate video game rituals can be compulsions just > as any other game can be. > Thanks for your opinions! > Bonnie
– Jim Claiborn Ph.D. ABPP J-Claiborn-…@worldnet.att.net If I survive this life without dying I’ll be surprised. Mulla Nasrudin
