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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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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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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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Success Stories – #7

by Anonymous

Lesbians Everywhere: A gay spiker confronts her pure-O theme about getting an answer to her sexual orientation question

This particular tale of OCD begins with a crush on a boy named Sam.

I was a very happy girl. I was about to graduate at the top of my high school class, spent bags of time with my friends, and was enjoying my crush, of course. Sam, however, didn’t like receiving my attention as much as I liked giving it. About four months after we met, I heard from a mutual friend that Sam was gay.

I was a bit depressed and slightly embarrassed. Sam hadn’t turned out to be the love of my young life. Mostly, though, I felt relieved to know his true colors, and hoped that he (and I) would be happy with future boyfriends.
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Success Stories – #6

by Anonymous

From prisoner to gate keeper…A woman exposes her children to perceived risks so that she might liberate herself from the confines of OCD and pursue a career in psychology.

During my second pregnancy, at age 18, I experienced the onset of OCD. This 18 year time lapse is due to the following reasons. During this time period there was progressive expansion of peculiar feelings, fears and behaviors and I had no concept that these symptoms related to any disorder. I didn’t even know there was such a disorder as OCD. I thought I was overprotective (giving away my children’s puppy to keep them from harm), a worrier (spending fruitless hours problem solving what hazards threatened them), and a little off the wall (I wouldn’t let them visit friend’s houses who had pets).
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Success Stories – #5

by Anonymous

A responsibility OC combats her obsessive concerns for harming others while managing medical school.

I was born with OCD. My mother tells me that as a toddler I would pull out my hair. This was probably baby trichotilomania, which is associated with OCD. For almost 30 years OCD caused me mental anguish that I’m sure only few people can appreciate. My story is probably not an unusual one for sufferers of OCD. It’s replete with pain and confusion, difficulties with family and friends, and extreme fears that strike others as ridiculous and bizarre. Professionals misdiagnosed me more than once.
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Success Stories – #4

by Anonymous

I was a happy little baby until it was time for first grade. I woke up everyday with a knot in my stomach that was only relieved by vomiting. I was scared of the teacher, of my fellow students, and of doing poorly. My first obsessive incident soon followed, and although I don’t remember, my father tells me that I used to throw fits every morning because I could not decide what to wear. Dad took away all of my outfits except two and the problem was solved. Unfortunately, there was more to come, as I began to develop physical habits; I breathed strangely, I did things with my feet as I walked, I crossed my eyes and I made noises in my throat. I did these things because I wondered “should I make a noise?” Or maybe I shouldn’t make a noise. Do I need to make a noise? I would make one and feel fulfilled for about three seconds. Then the voices would return, and the process would continue every second of every day. My parents and I began therapy but only discussed my nervousness and my daily separation from my mother.
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Success Stories – #3

by Anonymous

I am grateful for the opportunity to give a testimonial about my therapy with Steven Phillipson. I’m not a person given to hyperbole. But to say that Steven Phillipson changed my life is no exaggeration. My big problem was responsibility OC: an intense feeling of responsibility for the safety of others (and myself). I would check kitchen gas jets countless times to see if they were off. I would warn family members and friends about possible adverse effects from illnesses or drug combinations — and repeat my warnings many times for fear they didn’t understand my point. I would feel an urge to call the city transportation department every time I saw a pothole or a broken traffic light. Of course I knew that my thoughts and actions were problematic and undesirable. But I was powerless to change course.
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Success Stories – #2

by Professor Mike

I am presently fifty-four years old and have suffered from OCD since I was fifteen. Although originally a native New Yorker, I have been a college professor in the Deep South for at least twenty years. During my life my OCD has focused on different issues: e.g., concerns about scratches on eyeglass lenses, whether eyeglasses were properly adjusted, wristwatch straps that might cut off circulation, inappropriate noises in the environment. This last concern became so severe that eventually chronic obsessing about the origin of neighborhood noises prompted at least one relocation.

I have seen several psychiatrists. None of these really offered a therapy that worked. I have tried the following drugs at one time or another: elavil, limbitrol, sinequan, Ativan, Valium, Xanax, Prozac, Zoloft. Although some of these drugs relieved the anxiety and depression which accompanied my OCD, none eliminated the root cause of my distress which were obsessive thoughts and rituals. They also had bad side effects. Currently I take no drugs.
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