If she moved even one, her then four-year-old son, Nathan, would notice, break down in tears, and become extremely physically agitated and upset.

“Everything had to be a certain way and we just kind of worked around it,” says Nancy. “He’d have these compulsions, but we could usually get him to understand that he needed to move on. We could move him off of being stuck and re-direct him to a new activity.”

Nathan was later diagnosed with autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). As the years passed, and with support from his family and therapy, Nathan thrived; playing soccer and hockey, earning some honours grades in high school, working summers at the zoo, and graduating from a massage therapy program at college.

But then he became seriously ill with Celiac disease, which triggered his OCD and a life-threatening eating disorder that led to him being hospitalized twice.

“It derailed him,” says Nancy. “He couldn’t get out of bed; he could barely keep himself going and he couldn’t understand what was happening. It was very scary for him and his dad and me.”

Nathan developed a complicated relationship with the washroom; Nancy describes how he was afraid to eat because he didn’t want to end up in the washroom with a celiac reaction, yet he was afraid to leave the washroom in case he had an accident. By the time he was referred to the Frederick W. Thompson Anxiety Disorders Centre at Sunnybrook, Nathan was spending as much as 17 hours a day in the family washroom.

In March 2022, Nathan entered the Thompson Centre’s live-in program for OCD, the first program of its kind in Canada.

“Going to the Thompson Centre program reminded me of being at school. I was taught about OCD, what it is, and how it can be managed,” says Nathan. “They helped me recognize that certain things I was doing were caused by OCD. I also learned about new medications and different kinds of treatment. The staff were nice to me and helpful.” 

Nancy says she is grateful to the Thompson Centre for helping Nathan accept his diagnosis and reminding her family that they’re not alone.

“The team at the Thompson Centre were all very caring. The additional family and caregiver education sessions provided during the time Nathan was in treatment were helpful,” says Nancy. “We got to meet others who had loved ones that were in the same cohort as Nathan and share about our struggles.”

Nancy is also co-chair of the Thompson Centre’s new Patient & Family Advisory Council which brings together patients, family members, and staff to help enhance patient care and services.

She adds, raising awareness is critical to help reduce the stigma.

“Increased awareness and understanding of OCD may also help individuals and their families identify the symptoms of the disorder that they are struggling with and enable them to reach out for treatment.”

Nathan is now back at home and continues to work with the Thompson Centre team and his family on coping strategies.

“By going into the program, Nathan learned firsthand that he wasn’t the only person experiencing OCD and that there were other people who were struggling,” Nancy explains.

“We are very grateful that we have been able to become involved with the Thompson Centre and encourage those who may be suffering with OCD to reach out for help.”

The post Facing OCD as a family with the right support appeared first on Your Health Matters.

Harlan Kirshenbaum is working through treatment for his obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with the help of virtual technology.

“I am being treated right from my own home and it’s really beneficial because that’s where all of my top triggers are,” says Harlan. “It’s the hardest, most challenging therapy, but it is worth it.”

In March 2020, due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the team at Sunnybrook’s Frederick W. Thompson Anxiety Disorders Centre, Canada’s only intensive residential program for OCD, had to change course.

Typically, patients in the program would live in residence and receive intensive treatment in group and individual settings.

“We quickly pivoted, moved our patients online, and developed a virtual day treatment program,” says Dr. Peggy Richter, head of the Thompson Centre. “We have been running virtual day hospital groups ever since.”

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

OCD is a chronic psychiatric illness. A person with OCD experiences intrusive and disturbing thoughts, images or impulses called obsessions, which lead to repetitive actions or behaviours, known as compulsions.

OCD affects one in 40 people over the course of their lifetime. Approximately 25 per cent of patients have severe OCD where conventional treatments do not help improve symptoms.

Since the launch of Sunnybrook’s intensive residential program in 2017, many patients with severe OCD have been able to successfully manage their OCD.

Dr. Richter says the program’s switch to a six-week online program has allowed treatment to continue during the pandemic.

“The beauty of doing the day treatment virtually has been that people are treated while they’re in their home environment. Our team members coach clients online, by video call or phone, when they’re doing their actual exposures,” says Dr. Richter, referring to Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy, where individuals are exposed to a situation that triggers anxiety but encouraged to not complete their usual rituals.

“My treatment team has been supporting me and helping me understand and push through my exposures,” says Harlan. “My anxiety level gets up there, but I know it’s for a good cause and I can feel the benefits.”

Virtual therapy for OCD

“OCD has taken over my entire life.  It has controlled every move I have made 24/7, 365 days, for many, many years. I lost all freedom,” explains Harlan, who also shared his OCD story in 2012. “It is exhausting, a burden, financially draining, and never-ending. At times, I feel like I am a puppet on strings and OCD is my master.”

After years of treatment, Harlan says he was feeling better. He and his wife got married in 2013, and he was managing his OCD well.

Within the last decade, Harlan’s OCD concerns have became more intensely focused on his wife and children.

“I remember sterilizing some baby bottles and that’s when it started getting bad again,” says Harlan. “All the pressure with a newborn and not sleeping, lead to anxiety and stress, and the OCD came back, hard.”

“My triggers are my two sons and my wife,” he goes onto explain. “For example, if I make skin-to-skin contact with them, my OCD makes me feel like I have to tap them with my left hand to save them from getting cancer or dying. Another thing is, I don’t want to see my bare feet or that will trigger my OCD and those thoughts.”

In the intensive virtual OCD program, clients log on in the morning to check in with the team, review their ERP therapy goals, work independently and then report back on their exposures. The program also includes mindfulness groups, debriefs and continued exposure therapy in the afternoon and evening.

For Harlan, that sometimes means walking around the whole house in his bare feet, which leads to him feeling anxious with thoughts and worries about death and danger to his family.

“It is very hard. My anxiety is intense. For example, it could go up to 90 per cent and I feel very anxious,” says Harlan. “But then, the anxiety gradually comes down and you realize that they’re just thoughts coming into your head and that the danger is not actually real. That’s why it’s important to just practice; let the thoughts come in and try not to fight them. They’re just thoughts. They’re not dangerous.”

Over the course of the new virtual pilot program, team members say clients have been responsive to the online program.

“The virtual aspect of the program means clients can also ‘take’ us with them to other locations that may trigger their OCD. For example, a client who has concerns about germs or contamination, could bring their smartphone to the grocery store and our team can help clients engage in public health guidelines around COVID safety measures and help them navigate something like grocery shopping,” explains Dr. Marlene Taube-Schiff, team lead of the OCD treatment program.

“Overall, there appears to be a benefit in providing virtual care to clients in their own environment. Over the course of the virtual program, we have seen some clients return work and continue to function in their day-to-day lives during the pandemic. OCD is a complex mental illness and each individual manages it in their own way, so it can be helpful to take different approaches to treatment,” she adds.

“The virtual program has been the most beneficial for me. Participating from my house is challenging but it is where most of my triggers are,” says Harlan. “I am doing a lot of things now that I haven’t done or have had a difficult time doing in recent years. After taking part in the program, I am changing diapers. I am playing with the kids more and making diners and lunches when I can.”

While the online program is still in the early stages, it is showing promising results, which could lead to the virtual component being included in the program longer term.

For Harlan, he says his hard work at home has been paying off. “My treatment has been extremely effective. I have more of a sense of freedom from the OCD.”

Harlan’s story and the Thompson Centre were also featured on CTV Toronto »

The post How Canada’s only residential OCD treatment program went virtual during the pandemic appeared first on Your Health Matters.

“I started having issues constantly rewriting my assignments over and over again,” says Jeffrey. “I didn’t really have any life outside of school. It was all about doing my compulsions and getting my work done in a specific way. I didn’t have time to watch TV or socialize, so every day was exhausting.”

In high school, he was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and as time went on, it became more pronounced.

“When I was buying textbooks for university, if there was a crease on the page or if it had touched something, I felt that it was bad and I had to get a new one,” Jeffrey says. “I had saved some money over the years, but in a short time, I blew it all on buying stuff over and over again, when I felt anything had been tainted.”

Living with OCD

OCD is a debilitating psychiatric illness that impacts one in 40 people over the course of their lifetime. Individuals with OCD experience obsessions, which are unwanted, intrusive and repetitive thoughts, urges or images that cause anxiety. Obsessions are typically accompanied by compulsions or rituals which are repetitive behaviours the individual may feel compelled to perform in efforts to ease the anxiety, and can take up many hours of the day.​

For Jeffrey, handing in assignments became so distressing he eventually had to leave university. His illness progressed and he obsessed over contamination. “I’d take extremely long showers, like, four-hour showers. Cleaning the bathroom could take hours. Sometimes, I’d even go on a marathon clean of nearly 30 hours.”

Seeking help

After years of trying medication and therapy, Jeffrey realized he needed further treatment. He was the first person in North America to participate in a trial investigating the safety of using focused ultrasound for OCD, which harnesses the power of sound waves to precisely target specific pathways of the brain, without using scalpels.

Several months later, he felt the intensity of his anxiety was “significantly reduced” which he explains helped him immensely when he began the intensive residential treatment program for severe OCD at the Frederick W. Thompson Anxiety Disorders Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

The Thompson Centre is unique. It is the only facility and treatment program of its kind in the country, where patients with severe OCD can receive intensive residential and individualized care. Before the launch of the OCD residential treatment program in 2017, Canadians who needed this specialized treatment had to go to the United States.

“This residential setting supports clients by tailoring treatment to their individuals needs,” says Dr. Peggy Richter, head of the Thompson Centre.

“Therapy and treatments are not only delivered one-on-one, but also in group settings where clients experience the support of peers while learning how to combat their symptoms,” she adds.

Learn more about the focused ultrasound study for treatment-resistant OCD

A new beginning

For Jeffrey, arriving at the Thompson Centre, was the start of treatment that he hoped would be life-changing and life-saving.

“Since it is a residential program, I felt it would be best-suited for me,” says Jeffrey. “It allowed me to focus and not have to worry about anything else.”

“It is an extremely welcoming and supportive environment,” Jeffrey adds.

“OCD by its very nature can present differently in different individuals and any OCD treatment program must be able to meet these needs,” explains Dr. Marlene Taube-Schiff, team lead for the OCD residential treatment program at the Thompson Centre.

The program’s holistic and team-based approach includes psychiatrists, psychologists, occupational therapist, social work and a mental health clinician.

“Our team works together and collaborates each day,” says Dr. Richter. “Given the range of our collective expertise, we all play a unique role in treatment which ultimately provides the best care for our clients’ needs.”

In addition to his treatment team, Jeffrey also felt supported by the other patients, “There was a clear understanding that we were all in it together and we wanted each other to succeed.”

A typical day at the Thompson Centre

Throughout the day residents are immersed in various sessions: cognitive-behavioural therapy and other psychotherapies, occupational therapy and social work groups.

One major challenge for Jeffrey was exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy, where an individual is exposed to anxiety-inducing triggers but refrains from completing their usual rituals. “We challenge our obsessions and compulsions. We do things that cause us anxiety, and sit with the feeling of it being ‘wrong’ and not doing what our OCD wants us to do,” explains Jeffrey.

While ERP was extremely difficult he began noticing a difference and reached a pivotal moment in his treatment. “Over time, the level of anxiety eventually started to decrease. I remember thinking, ‘I have to keep doing this. I want to succeed.’ And one day, I felt a certain degree of strength and thought, ‘It’s actually working, I can feel something now that I didn’t feel before. I feel certain things are getting easier,” he smiles.

When clients are immersed in an intensive residential setting, and complete the individualized treatment program, people with severe OCD often see a 50% decrease in symptoms or better.

“It is amazing to be able to support our clients in this change and in effect, help someone get their life back,” says Dr. Taube-Schiff. “I always tell our clients it is a privilege to work with them and I truly feel that way, every day.”

Life-changing residential treatment

In addition to providing residential care to 26 clients each year, the Thompson Centre also offers day treatment, which can serve an additional 18 clients. Over time, the wait list has grown for both programs. There are more than 30 people currently on the waitlist to be admitted into the intensive residential program. Over 70 people have applied to the program since opening one and a half years ago.

“Our hope is to one day expand programming to continue to provide individualized treatment to all those who are struggling with severe OCD, and better support them afterwards in recovery,” says Dr. Richter.

Jeffrey was in the intensive residential program for nearly nine weeks. “Before I was here — my life was just suffering,” the 31-year-old explains. “At this point, I don’t feel like I’m suffering at all. Even if I have anxiety — it doesn’t rule my life.”

This new-found strength is helping Jeffrey do things beyond his expectations.  Once afraid of traveling, he recently went on a weekend road trip and is now planning for a possible international trip in the future.

“I’ve been going out with my friends lately. I’ve been taking my courses. I’ve been going to the food bank and volunteering. I’ve started going back to the gym. All of this would have caused me unbearable anxiety before,” says Jeffrey.

“My life feels like a completely different life.”

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The post Jeffrey on living with OCD, seeking help and finding strength appeared first on Your Health Matters.

It may include brushing your teeth eight times, flossing, brushing again multiple times. Turning the lights on and off, tapping things, going up and down stairs a certain number of times. Folding laundry in constant repetition over five hours. Avoiding cracks or other obstructions in the road. Or it may be washing hands excessively and repetitively, and in certain ways.

Rationally you know it doesn’t make sense but your mind is telling you otherwise.

The routines take so much of your time that it’s almost impossible to function in a job, at home, as a student at school, and your social life is halted. You may not be able to leave your home much, except for short periods, but those become increasingly more difficult and stressful.

Someone with obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, thinks something bad may happen, their anxiety spikes, and they develop rituals they feel compelled to perform in order to prevent their fears from coming true: they can be tapping, checking, or repeating other routines. It revolves around an obsession, an unwanted and intrusive thought, that may be about contamination, a concern that something bad may happen to one’s family, making mistakes, being responsible for causing a catastrophe like a fire, and often a combination of things.

“These patients experience a level of illness so severe and debilitating that they are rendered gravely disabled, often becoming homebound, and unable to function in normal activities of daily living,” says Dr. Peggy Richter, head of the Frederick W. Thompson Anxiety Disorders Centre at Sunnybrook, Canada’s most specialized centre in OCD and related disorders. “These individuals have typically failed treatment at a lower level of care (i.e. medication and/or psychological treatment) and are unable to have their needs met through these standard evidence-based treatments.”

Some individuals only obtain a limited response because the severity or complexity of their illness interferes with their ability to complete these treatments, and in some cases, there may also be limited access to therapy.

For these more extreme cases, there is now an intensive residential program available at Sunnybrook, however this too is sometimes not an option for a few of the most extreme cases. 

Surgical intervention

Patients then have some interventional and biological options to consider. A traditional surgical method known as radiofrequency capsulotomy is an operation whereby two lesions are created in the “internal capsule” of the brain – destroying the tracts believed to underlie symptoms of depression and anxiety and treating the brain circuit known to be essential for emotion and affective process. 

Another surgical option is deep brain stimulation that involves the implantation of bilateral brain electrodes, connected to a battery in the chest wall by wires beneath the skin. The electrodes stimulate the brain with currents to disrupt abnormal neural activity.

Both surgical options carry risk of surgery-related complications such as damage to the brain, hemorrhage and infection, but can help individuals with severe OCD when all other treatments have failed.

Investigating non-invasive options

More recently, Sunnybrook is investigating non-invasive surgical procedure options for those with severe, treatment-resistant OCD:

Focused ultrasound psychosurgery (in which Sunnybrook is a Centre of Excellence) is a neurosurgical procedure that is non-invasive, controlled, and can be targeted to specific diseased locations in the brain. This promising technique has been used to perform capsulotomies in patients with severe OCD. The safety and efficacy of focused ultrasound in OCD treatment is currently being investigated, however advantages include that it can be done using simultaneous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for guidance and precise targeting in the brain.  The procedure may not be suitable for everyone. It can take from several months to a year after the procedure to determine if and how much symptoms improve.

Gamma Knife Icon is another non-invasive procedure that although traditionally used for cancer patients, it treats various functional neurologic disorders. It’s similar to focused ultrasound in that the end result is the disruption or lesion of misbehaving cells deep in the brain, without ever having to cut through the scalp. Where focused ultrasound uses high-intensity ultrasound waves, Gamma Knife surgery uses highly targeted high-dose radiation to a focused location in the brain, in an attempt to achieve the effect that traditional brain surgery would do while sparing other healthy parts of the brain.

Now for the first time in Canada, Sunnybrook radiation oncologist Dr. Arjun Sahgal recently teamed up with neurosurgeon Dr. Nir Lipsman to try the Gamma Knife Icon technique with a patient with severe OCD.

The procedure itself went well, however there were challenges presented by the patient’s symptoms. For example, it took much longer as they had to work around his rituals to help alleviate the extreme anxiety that takes hold when the daily rituals are interrupted.

We won’t know for several months whether symptoms will improve, as it takes approximately six months for the radiation to take effect.

“We are optimistic that this technique will provide some symptom relief for this patient and others with severe OCD when other treatments are not working or not an option for them,” says Dr. Sahgal, a world-renowned leader in stereotactic radiosurgery.

For individuals with severe OCD considering treatment options, talk to your doctor to learn more.

Learn more about the Harquail Centre for Neuromodulation at Sunnybrook »

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The post A new option for Canadians with severe OCD appeared first on Your Health Matters.

Dr. Hawley says mindfulness promotes turning towards potential difficulties using all of our senses, which helps us move out of ‘automatic pilot’ mode. It’s an intentional process of being fully in the moment with purpose and with curiosity, almost like seeing things for the first time. It may sound simple, but our society is often pushed to multi-task. So the next time you brush your teeth, be fully in the moment. Or during your next meal, direct your attention to the taste of every bite of food.

For patients with OCD – a condition that triggers repeated rituals and behaviours – mindfulness can help some patients rethink the thoughts or images that may be at the root of these compulsions. The hope is mindfulness may help some patients begin to notice the urge to ritualize, and step back for a moment. Dr. Hawley says these urges often come in waves, so if patients can ride the wave out, it can be a positive step. While the therapeutic effect for OCD still isn’t fully understood, studies are ongoing.

For those who have never tried mindfulness, Dr. Hawley outlined a brief breath awareness practice anyone can try:

Awareness

• Bring yourself into the present moment adopting an upright and dignified posture. If possible, close your eyes.
• “What is my experience right now, in thoughts, in feelings, and in bodily sensations?”
• Acknowledge and register your experience, even if it is unwanted.

Gathering

• Gently redirect your full attention to each in-breath and to each outbreath as they follow one after the other.
• Your breath can function as an anchor to bring you into the present and help you tune into a state of awareness and stillness.

Expanding

• Expand the field of your awareness, including your body as a whole, your posture, and your facial expression.
• The breathing space provides a way to step out of automatic pilot mode and reconnect with the present moment.

Watch Dr. Hawley’s talk, as part of the Speaker Series event entitled New Community Options for Obsessive and Hoarding Disorders:

The post How mindfulness provides a way to connect with the present moment appeared first on Your Health Matters.

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) has always been somewhat of an “orphan disorder” when it comes to mental illness, misidentified as a rare disorder as recently as about 25 years ago (we now know this isn’t true, the disorder affects one in 40 adults).

Couple this with the fact that obsessive compulsive and related disorders, such as hair-pulling (trichotillomania) and body dysmorphic disorder were redefined, and skin-picking and hoarding disorder were only formally recognized in medical diagnostic manuals four years ago. With all this in mind, it’s clear that information about diagnosis and treatment of OCD and these related disorders is a new addition to the health-care scene.

What does this mean for patients? Most community doctors aren’t fully informed on the ways to diagnose and treat OCD and related disorders, and patients are often going undiagnosed for years. That’s a problem.

OCD: The “orphan” disorder

There have been a number of problematic consequences to the mislabeling of OCD as a rare disorder. For one, OCD education generally hasn’t been extensive due to the idea that OCD wasn’t a condition a doctor would likely see in his/her clinic.

Dr. Katherine Feleki is a general practitioner psychotherapist in Kingston, ON, and like many of us who have undergone medical training, has experienced this education gap first-hand.

“There are huge, huge gaps,” she says of OCD training in medical schools. “Other than acknowledging the disorder exists, maybe a couple of sentences on how it’s treated, there’s no specific training. Most of my training was on depression and anxiety in general.”

This education gap leaves now-practicing doctors with an unfamiliarity of OCD. And even if a doctor does recognize symptoms in a patient, it’s likely he/she may not know the right ways to proceed with treatment.

For Dr. Feleki, she recognizes the symptoms of OCD in patients, but doesn’t feel she has the competency to treat them.

Treatment gaps

To add to the equation, there are only two main publicly funded centres in the GTA where patients can receive specialized care for OCD and related disorders: the Frederick W. Thompson Anxiety Disorders Centre at Sunnybrook, and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

These institutions are great resources for patients who are seeking help for OCD or a related disorder, but these centres do not have the capacity to provide care to each and every patient, making access to publicly funded, specialized care quite limited.

Improving access to OCD treatment

To try and combat this issue, my team at the Thompson Centre developed a unique training program for practicing doctors to help them identify, diagnose and treat obsessive compulsive and related disorders.

It’s from teaching at this training program that I met Dr. Feleki, who felt she “needed to learn the skills for treating OCD.”

The main goal of this program is simple: to expand access for patients. So when a patient who has an obsessive compulsive and related disorder sees one of these trained physicians, these doctors will be able to diagnose and treat it as comfortably as they do depression.

Our first cohort of doctors – including Dr. Feleki – are still in training, but so far the course seems to be a success. Dr. Feleki says the program has provided her with guidelines on how to treat OCD from start to finish.

“Most helpful is the ability to get direct feedback from clinicians who are used to treating patients with OCD. If I’m not sure of an issue, I can get confirmation that I’m on right track or other ideas for treatment approaches,” she says.

Once our first group of doctors graduate from the course, we plan to create a directory for patients and doctors, so they can easily seek out these physicians with specialized training for OCD and related disorders.

Moving forward

Knowledge is wealth, especially when it comes to mental health care and treatment. Looking forward, I hope to see obsessive compulsive and related disorders shed the “orphan disorder” identity, and become well understood in homes and clinics across the country.

The post Access to OCD treatment is limited. And that’s a problem. appeared first on Your Health Matters.

Letter of support for Frederick W.Thompson Anxiety Disorders Centre
From Jennifer Bayne, a grateful client

Before commenting on my life-altering experience at the Frederick W. Thompson Anxiety Disorders Centre, first let me provide an analogy for what my life with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) was like. Picture living with a room-mate who sweet-talks you into sharing a place, telling you she has your back and vowing to protect you and make you safe in exchange for shared room and board. Once she moves in though and you get to know her better, you discover she is actually abusive, cunning, and mean-spirited, saying she’ll protect you only as long as you play along with her rules which, as time goes on, become more and more detailed and constricting. She makes it clear that if these rules are not followed, grave consequences will result, especially for the people or things you value the most. Like an abused partner, after a while you stop seeing the abuse as originating with her and start to make it part of your own psyche; at this point, the rules are your own and you follow them blindly, out of fear of reprisals and imagined catastrophic consequences.

This is the room-mate I’ve lived with for 55 years. My OCD began around the age of six and morphed over time from contaminations, to reassurance-seeking, to ordering, and to counting (to name a few), often in combination. I was able to have a successful career but all the while was fighting my OCD demons, which exploded with full-force when I retired last year. At that time, my OCD flared and turned into an out-of-control forest fire, being flamed daily by successively worsening triggers. By the time I reached out to the Thompson Centre, I was panicking. I was visualizing my life becoming narrower and narrower to the point of complete catatonia. I was only able to leave the house for short periods which were becoming increasingly stressful and anxiety-provoking. Just crossing the street or riding my bike were becoming hazardous, due to the need to avoid cracks and crosswalks or any small obstruction in the road. I was becoming a danger to myself and even to others, as my compulsions were becoming more and more frequent and erratic. I was also having suicidal thoughts again; they were not so much thoughts of taking my life as wishing I could die. My sister, who also had OCD, had taken her life when she was 29 years old and so I knew how much the agony of OCD could lead to the desire to end it.

After my referral to the Thompson Centre and a wait of about four months, I volunteered for 3 or 4 clinical trials. I was assured that I would still be on the one-year wait-list to see an individual therapist, but in the meantime participated in a Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) group treatment program, one of the clinical trials designed to test the efficacy of that approach on OCD. I had no expectations, merely a desire to get respite at any cost. The 10-week program was, quite frankly, a life-saver. It involved doing daily meditations and keeping notes of observations or progress week by week and then meeting with a group of other OCD sufferers. It was quite possibly the hardest thing I have ever done. I was massively confronted by my OCD, which I was now being forced to look in the eye, I had panic attack after panic attack, I convulsed, and I cried. But in the end, I got through it and I saw my room-mate for what she truly was. As I said to my MBCT group, possibly the last straw was when she proverbially ‘made’ me stand on the edge of the CN Tower and jump; she laughed as I leapt, but I laughed back. After the MBCT experience (lead by Dr. Steven Selchen to whom I am deeply indebted), I saw Dr. Peggy Richter, who was invaluable, and I hope to participate in some further CBT group work.

I still do my daily meditations and record my thoughts in a diary. Yes, I still have OCD and yes, it still shows up every day, sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on my fatigue and stress. But without the Thompson Centre, I am fully convinced I would now be house-bound, unable to do activities of daily living, and increasingly alienated from my loved ones. As I reflect back on my experience, what pains me the most is how many people like me are suffering as badly if not more so, and who have to wait up to a year or longer to access services, assuming they are even well enough to find out about them. The Thompson Centre’s work is essential and a catalyst and change-agent for change across the country. Please ensure its continued viability.

The post Letter of support: Jennifer Bayne appeared first on Your Health Matters.

People often make casual remarks or jokes about mental illness. Referring to someone’s quirks as “OCD,” expressions of anger as “going mental,” or disappointment as “depression” is a harmful misuse of language. It often stems from a lack of knowledge about mental illness. Although it may seem harmless or indirect it can have damaging effects on those affected by mental illness. It reduces language that describes something intense and disabling into an exaggerated character flaw or insult. In this way, it strips sufferers of a legitimacy that’s already difficult to obtain.

The words used to identify mental illness are important for those affected by it. They act as a way to label what they’re going through, separating the person from the illness. This restores a sense of self that can be fragile during difficult times.

Would you ever poke fun at someone for having the measles or epilepsy? Probably not. Most people would find comments about physical illness inappropriate, because they trivialize real suffering. But somehow mental illness escapes this logic, perhaps because it isn’t seen as existing on the same plane as other illnesses.

This can stem from the belief that thoughts, behaviour and mood are always under the control of the individual and therefore could be changed if only that person tried a little harder. This isn’t true. Mental illness is a physical illness, one that affects the brain and manifests as disturbances in behaviour, feelings, perceptions and thoughts.

Stigma

Stigma is a negative stereotype. Discrimination is unfair treatment that occurs because of the stereotype.

Let’s take a look at some of the specific ways people with mental illness experience stigma:

• Feeling at Fault: Believing that they are the cause of their illness.
• Feelings of Failure: The impression that they could overcome their problems if they had stronger character; that negative outcomes are the result of personal failure.
• Feeling Devalued: Belief that one is abnormal or unworthy of help.
• Exclusion: People avoid what they don’t understand, putting those with mental illnesses at a disadvantage. This can lead to social rejection, lost job opportunities or access to a safe housing.

All of these attitudes increase the incentive to conceal. The burden this adds to illnesses that already affect mental well-being can be highly damaging. It intensifies shame. And shame prevents people from acknowledging their problems and seeking out the help they need. This goes further still. Not only does shame prevent access to help, it also hurts a person’s ability to be receptive to treatments that require cooperation (e.g. CBT, psychotherapy, mindfulness). In this sense stigma inhibits not just access to help, but also receiving help successfully.

Reinforcement from Language

Using casual language around mental health strengthens stigma.

Imagine you have severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This might mean you have urges to check things in your home repeatedly, to the extent that you can barely leave the house or hold down a job. This is intensely distressing and you are aware that your behaviour is counterproductive and harmful. But no matter how hard you try you can’t stop. You know you need help but are too ashamed to discuss it with anyone.

While grocery shopping you see a couple in the cereal aisle. When the women changes her mind about a cereal and puts it back on the shelf, the man steps forward to reposition the box so that it lines up with the others. Rolling her eyes the woman says, “God, you’re so OCD, I can’t take you anywhere.” They both chuckle a little and walk away.

This remark deepens your feelings that you aren’t normal and that if anyone knew the true extent of your problems you would be ridiculed and rejected.

The suggestion here isn’t that we should all become militant language police. There’s a challenge not to overdo it with censorship, particularly because of the silencing effect of mental health stigma. We don’t want to be so frightened of using language around mental illness that it prevents healthy communication and expression. There’s still a need for discussion and understanding. Thoughtful reflection of the words you use and how you use them is a good start.

Language can also present an opportunity for understanding. It’s useful in helping us imagine what life’s like for those with mental illness. Healthy people also experience a wide range of emotions and mental states. Perhaps we can use our experiences of anxiety, intrusive thoughts, distress and sadness to imagine what it’s like for those who endure these on a vastly more intense and disabling scale.

In this way, language is a type of window, a way of seeing into the lives and challenges of someone else.

So what can we do to improve?

Think about what you’re saying. What do you really mean to say? Chances are, someone listening has been affected by the words you’re using. One in five Canadians will experience mental illness in their lifetime. Someone you know has likely been affected. The casual language you use to embellish a story is probably personal for someone hearing you.

If you catch yourself saying something you didn’t really intend, correct yourself or apologize. Talk about it. Everybody makes mistakes, but the way we respond to our mistakes can make all the difference.

Positive actions you can take to reduce stigma:

• Choose your words. Pay attention to the language you use. Challenge others when their words may be hurtful.
• Be compassionate. Treat those with mental illness with the same kindness you would for a person with any other illness.
• Talk about it. Discuss it. This means asking questions, listening to other points of view and opening yourself up to other opinions.
• Educate yourself. Learn more about the issues. Here are some good resources for information about mental health:
  • Canadian Mental Health Association
  • Frederick W. Thompson Anxiety Disorders Centre
  • Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
  • Anxiety Disorders Association Canada
  • Fact sheets about mood disorders

Citations:

http://ontario.cmha.ca/mental-health/mental-health-conditions/stigma-and-discrimination/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_disorder

http://www.camh.ca/en/hospital/health_information/a_z_mental_health_and_addiction_information/stigma/Pages/stigma_brochure.aspx

http://www.cmha.ca/media/fast-facts-about-mental-illness/#.V0N_KNdTo4A

http://letstalk.bell.ca/en/end-the-stigma/

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Who should attend?

• Individuals of all ages with OCD and related disorders
• Family members, loved ones and advocates of those with OCD
• OCD researchers
• OCD therapists and clinicians

This unique conference brings together those researching and treating OCD with those experiencing it, bridging the gap to encourage education and understanding for all.

What’s on the agenda?

• Programs for kids, teens, adults, parents, families, therapists and researchers
• New presentations on OCD and substance use
• Research to Clinical Practice series: bringing together researchers and clinicians to share information
• Body Dysmorphic Disorder Series
• Hoarding meeting
• Evening activities: Improv for Anxiety from Second City Training Centre, OCD pub trivia, and support groups

More information related to the program and schedule can be found here.

Interested in attending the conference? Visit the conference website.

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Ready to learn more about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Anxiety? The Frederick W. Thompson Anxiety Disorders Centre at Sunnybrook holds a monthly information session, Getting Started: Learning About OCD and Related Disorders Information Group, on the third Wednesday of every month.

The Thompson Centre is working hard to meet the needs of its clientele. However, there may be lengthy wait times for consultation and treatment. The Getting Started Group is a great way to learn and ask questions about OCD in the meantime.

The sessions aim to communicate information about OCD and related disorders. Each session covers a different topic, such as causes of OCD, medication and other treatments, community and web-based resources and strategies for self-care.

We invite persons with OCD and related disorders and/or their loved ones to attend these sessions.

Please understand that this is not a consultation or treatment service but rather it is an informational session intended to provide attendees with knowledge about OCD and OCD Related Disorders that may be helpful while you wait for consultation at our clinic, or as you think about getting treatment.

Meetings are held on the third Wednesday of every month, from 3:30 to 5 pm, at Sunnybrook’s Bayview Campus located at 2075 Bayview Avenue in Room EG 21. Click for a schedule of upcoming meetings.

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