The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Bleaching

by Andy Behrman

It’s a snowy day. I’m trapped in my apartment in Manhattan – - bleaching the tub, toilet and tile floor in the bathroom.

I’m scrubbing like a goddamn madman until everything is sparkling white. Killing all of the bacteria in the small six foot by six foot room.

It’s not just that I’m a germaphobe or a clean freak. It’s just that I’m a certifiable obsessive compulsive. And I have been for years. I’ve been trapped in my apartment for three days doing similar neurotic things. I’m inside, ready to move on to the next task on my list (yes, I do keep crazy long lists of chores). It’s time to do the laundry. Actually, I’ve already done five loads and it’s only noon, and now I’m folding underwear, socks, t-shirts, jeans and towels and making perfect piles on the bed – the same way my father used to do when I was a kid growing up (yes, he is an obsessive compulsive too).

I spend the morning rummaging through my closets, throwing out all of my clothes that no longer fit or are the slightest bit worn or damaged. I’m obsessed with the idea of consolidating my entire wardrobe, and so make a list of all the clothing that I will donate to charity – jeans, pants, suits, jackets, sweaters, shirts and shoes. Everything else I will burn in a big public bonfire somewhere in Union Square.

I make a brief list of everything that I will need to purchase to survive in my new minimalist lifestyle: seven pairs of underwear, one pair of jeans, three t-shirts, one pair of shorts, one suit, one pair of shoes, one pair of sneakers and one jacket. Oh God, I feel cleansed. Relieved. Free. I head into the bathroom and take a half-hour shower and use a whole bottle of shampoo. I also attempt to use an entire bar of soap and lather my body, but it’s impossible to use the whole thing. I give up, but still I feel extremely clean. I scrub every part of my body, rinse and then dry off. Then I get out of the shower and shave and get back into the shower (a habit that I’ve had ever since I started shaving) and rinse off again. I dry off and put on my bathrobe.

I sit down in front of the computer and go through all of my new e-mails, answer them, and then delete all of the junk e-mails that have collected before sending out another e-mail to everyone on my mailing list. It’s just a short greeting, but enough to let everybody know that I am “alive and well.” (I question how well I really am).

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Why is it so Hard for Us to Recover from Being Suicidal?

By David L. Conroy, PhD

Combat veterans, sexual assault survivors, and other victims of trauma are vulnerable to a condition called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). People with PTSD suffer from a range of symptoms that interfere with their capacities to enjoy normal life.

People who suffered suicidal conditions, particularly conditions that were chronic, recurrent, or included one or more attempts, may also be victims of PTSD. According to its definition, PTSD may result when a person suffers an event or situation that is outside the range of normal experience, exceeds the individual’s perceived ability to meet its demands, and poses a serious threat to the loss of life.

Suicidal people meet the formal criteria for PTSD. Severe and prolonged suicidal pain is not something that most people suffer. People in suicidal crises feel that they are at the breaking point of what they can cope with. Since 30,000 people die by suicide each year in the United States, it is a condition that poses a serious threat to the loss of life.

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Writing about Trauma Can Produce Health Benefits

By Jane Collingwood

It’s well established that talking about traumatic incidents with a therapist, supportive family or friends can be therapeutic, producing improvements in psychological and physical health. People who open up about traumatic events they have experienced have been found to benefit from a variety of health improvements, including improved mood, lower rates of infection, and lower blood pressure. And it has been established that not talking about traumatic experiences is associated with poorer health outcomes.

As helpful as talking about trauma maybe, it is often difficult for the victims to discuss it. Particularly difficult traumas, such as sexual abuse and rape—events which victims frequently perceive as shameful—make victims more vulnerable to poor health, including chronic diseases and headaches. Useful alternatives to talking about trauma are available.

Scientists have studied whether writing about trauma might be as effective as talking about it. Typically, this type of study asks trauma victims to participate in a structured writing task where they are encouraged to write about the thoughts and feelings associated with their trauma for about twenty minutes a day, three to five days a week. Several studies of this type have produced similar results, finding that written disclosure of emotional reactions to trauma leads to a wide variety of positive health consequences.

Scientists are unsure how this works. One possibility is that writing about traumatic experience serves as a stress release, decreasing the overall level of bodily stress that victims carry and thus reducing their vulnerability to diseases brought on due to chronic stress.

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Psychological Growth from Extreme Trauma

By Rick Nauert Ph.D.

People who survive an extreme traumatic experience may rebound and experience personal growth. In fact, individuals may savor a higher level of personal strength and function.

This position statement, provided by a University of Buffalo researcher and expert in the effects of horrifying trauma may calm fears of lifelong stress after an event such as 9/11.

At the heart of the findings is a surprisingly optimistic conclusion: Most people recover well following devastating events, and even among those who struggle with the experience, many of them can find some benefit from the experience, despite the negative effects of the event in their lives.

“Even when people go through a horrible life-threatening event, or endure huge losses and very difficult circumstances, many of them actually find some positive aspects to the experience and are able to grow from it,” says Lisa D. Butler, associate professor in UB’s School of Social Work, whose multiple studies on the trauma following 9/11 and other severely disruptive life events have been published in numerous professional journals, including the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.

“That does not negate the pain of what they have been through or the lingering effects in their lives, by any means,” Butler says. “But there is room for some positive changes as well.”

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OCD and Reflections on September 11th

by Steven Phillipson, Ph.D.

In general, when real life delivers a crisis, persons with anxiety disorders, and specifically those with OCD, tend to manage these crises somewhat more effectively than the population at large. The very nature of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is the mind’s relentless and endless effort to process and prepare for the most extreme nightmarish scenarios. The anxious mind compels people to mentally anticipate the worst possible scenario and not the negative outcomes which life typically delivers. Our usual world predominantly delivers circumstances to us which don’t come close to matching the level of negativity that people with OCD consistently prepare themselves for.

Subsequent to the September 11th tragedy, it has been my observation that the general public is reacting in a more exaggerated way than would a person with OCD. The general public has been hit by this real life crisis in a way that’s caught them completely unprepared. So now, for those who do not have OCD, white powder, possibly representing bio terror, low flying planes, and being above the tenth floor of any building, presents an association of their own vulnerability to the extreme of terror. In contrast, persons with OCD tend to be biochemically fixated, on the theme of their previous condition prior to September 11th. For example, their neuro-chemistry could be a lot more distressed about the potential of suffocating their own child, or of possibly being gay, than with managing the ambiguities of white powder or low flying planes.
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The Health Benefits of Journaling

By Maud Purcell, LCSW, CEAP

I’ll bet you write (or word process) daily. If you are like most women, you record only what you must. In an effort to change your mind and your habits, I’ll let you in on a well-kept secret: A pen coupled with paper can serve as a powerful life tool.

Journaling (or keeping letters or diaries) is an ancient tradition, one that dates back to at least 10th century Japan. Successful people throughout history have kept journals. Presidents have maintained them for posterity; other famous figures for their own purposes. Oscar Wilde, 19th century playwright, said: “I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train.”

Health Benefits

Contrary to popular belief, our forefathers (and mothers) did know a thing or two. There is increasing evidence to support the notion that journaling has a positive impact on physical well-being. University of Texas at Austin psychologist and researcher James Pennebaker contends that regular journaling strengthens immune cells, called T-lymphocytes. Other research indicates that journaling decreases the symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. Pennebaker believes that writing about stressful events helps you come to terms with them, thus reducing the impact of these stressors on your physical health.

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Mentalization Based Therapy (MBT)

By John M. Grohol, Psy.D.

Mentalization based therapy (MBT) is a specific type of psychodynamically-oriented psychotherapy designed to help people with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Its focus is helping people to differentiate and separate out their own thoughts and feelings from those around them.

People with borderline personality disorder tend to have unstable and intense relationships, and may unconsciously exploit and manipulate others. They may find it difficult or impossible to recognize the effects their behavior has on other people, to put themselves in other people’s shoes and to empathize with others.

Mentalization is the capacity to understand both behavior and feelings and how they’re associated with specific mental states, not just in ourselves, but in others as well. It is theorized that people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) have a decreased capacity for mentalization. Mentalization is a component in most traditional types of psychotherapy, but it is not usually the primary focus of such therapy approaches.

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Anger Therapy

By Sonia Neale

Aristotle said: Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody’s power; that is not easy.

When I entered therapy thirteen years ago, I was very angry; only I didn’t know it. I thought everyone else was the problem. My limbic system was out of kilter and went Chernobyl if I was crossed in any way; be it by my family, my mother, my co-workers, the vacuum cleaner, the dish-washer or the video machine, I would have a well-deserved brain snap. I could literally feel the poisonous, toxic hormones exploding, flooding and melting down my brain in a mushroom cloud of fear, loathing and impending catastrophe.

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Growing Up with a Parent with Mental Illness

By Candida Fink, MD.

I grew up in a household with mental illness in a parent. The illness was never fully identified or named, yet it decimated our family life. I was enormously relieved to realize, over time, what was going on in my family when I was growing up. It helped me understand my parent more and to tell my family story in a way that is less judgmental and critical and more compassionate – toward my parent with mental illness and toward me and my siblings and my other parent. As a professional and as someone who lived with this, I feel strongly about the need for honest, open communication in families when a parent is struggling with mental illness.

The battle to fight stigma in the outside world is important but can’t be done without first facing it at home.

Growing up with a parent with mental illness impacts children at many levels, but too often the effects on children and the children’s responses are pushed to the side. Sometimes there is simply no time or energy left in the family system after taking care of the parent who is struggling with mental illness. More often, it is simply too hard and too scary to deal with.

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How to Cope with Job Loss When You Have a Mental Illness

By Jennifer Steele

Losing a job is difficult to handle and the challenges it presents can be overwhelming and devastating, especially for someone with bipolar disorder, depression, an anxiety disorder or other mental illness. It is important that you don’t lose your motivation or allow yourself to get discouraged. If you don’t know what to do or how to remedy the situation you may make some choices that have negative repercussions for months or years to come. The following strategies will help you avoid common pitfalls associated with job loss.

1. Address your emotional challenges.

Typically, when a person loses their job unexpectedly or unfairly a majority of his/her decisions are based on his/her emotions. Negative emotions tend to lead them astray and when this happens they have less power to change their situation. Therefore, negative emotions need to be addressed first and foremost.

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