OCD and Music Therapy

                           

Music has always had a profound effect on my life. From as early as I can remember, I have been fascinated with listening and playing a variety of music. Even as a child, I instinctively knew the power that music has to heal and whenever I felt anxiety, music always calmed me. 

Now there is scientific proof that Music Therapy can help many conditions, both physical and mental. Many operating rooms play music during surgeries and in recovery rooms, and it helps patients to heal faster. Music is also a great stress buster, and mood enhancer. 

I found some information about Music Therapy you may find useful...

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http://stress.about.com/od/stressmanagementglossary/g/MusicTherapy.htm

"Definition: Music therapy is a branch of health care designed to aid physical and emotional health through the use of music, either with listening, song writing, performing, exploring lyrics or other activities related to music. Because of the effects of music on the body, it is often found as part of stress management programs or used in conjunction with exercise, and is uses in a variety of health care settings, with very good results in both short-term conditions and more serious long-term ones. For example, music can slow the body's physiology and facilitate physical relaxation, or can speed up the body's physiology to create increased energy. Music can influence emotions virtually instantaneously, which can help with stress relief as well.

While music therapy is an emerging field, music iteslf has many benefits for health and stress management, and can be used in daily life to relieve stress and promote wellness. (This is not formal music therapy, but it can be effective for stress relief.) Read this article for more information on music and music therapy. Read this for more on how to use music for daily stress relief. The book, "Your Playlist Can Change Your Life," provides more research on how music affects physiology and can be used for stress relief or other uses.

Music therapy and OCD 

Music Therapy is just one of a number of alternative therapies that can be used alongside the more traditional routes to treat Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

In cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a therapist will help you to deal with situations that can cause the anxiety that leads to the obsessions and compulsive behaviour. The right music has often been used to relax people and it is possible that, by playing music, anxiety levels can be reduced. Through CBT someone with OCD could be taught to recognise the situations when anxiety levels may rise and to use pre-chosen pieces of music to reduce them.

Music therapy and OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) - 

Learning to play an instrument is also a positive way to reduce the opportunities for obsessive thoughts. Replacing negative compulsive behaviours with a positive one - learning to play an instrument would have two benefits. The main benefit would be to reduce and eventually eliminate your compulsive behaviour, the second is to be able to play either a new instrument or play it better.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/459388

from- http://stress.about.com/od/tensiontamers/a/music_therapy.htm 

Brain Waves: Research has shown that music with a strong beat can stimulate brainwaves to resonate in sync with the beat, with faster beats bringing sharper concentration and more alert thinking, and a slower tempo promoting a calm, meditative state. Also, research has found that the change in brainwave activity levels that music can bring can also enable the brain to shift speeds more easily on its own as needed, which means that music can bring lasting benefits to your state of mind, even after you’ve stopped listening.

Breathing and Heart Rate: With alterations in brainwaves comes changes in other bodily functions. Those governed by the autonomic nervous system, such as breathing and heart rate can also be altered by the changes music can bring. This can mean slower breathing, slower heart rate, and an activation of the relaxation response, among other things. This is why music and music therapy can help counteract or prevent the damaging effects of chronic stress, greatly promoting not only relaxation, but health.

State of Mind: Music can also be used to bring a more positive state of mind, helping to keep depression and anxiety at bay. This can help prevent the stress response from wreaking havoc on the body, and can help keep creativity and optimism levels higher, bringing many other benefits.

Other Benefits: Music has also been found to bring many other benefits, such as lowering blood pressure (which can also reduce the risk of stroke and other health problems over time), boost immunity, ease muscle tension, and more. With so many benefits and such profound physical effects, it’s no surprise that so many are seeing music as an important tool to help the body in staying (or becoming) healthy.

Using Music Therapy:

With all these benefits that music can carry, it's no surprise that music therapy is growing in popularity. Many hospitals are using music therapists for pain management and other uses. Music therapists help with several other issues as well, including stress. For more information on music therapy, visit the American Music Therapy Association's website."

From- http://stress.about.com/od/lowstresslifestyle/a/daily_music.htm

"You can wake yourself up with music, and start your day feeling great, setting the tone for a lower-stress day. 

During a Commute:

Put an end to road rage by playing your favorite music in the car. It can reliever some of the tension you feel from the commute itself and the day so far, and help you feel less like you’re wasting time in traffic, and more like you’re having some nice time to yourself. It can also take your mind off of all that you need to get done once you reach your destination, so you’ll arrive less stressed and more prepared to take on what awaits you.

Cooking:

Good nutrition is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, and it can actually keep your stress level down. Eating at home is a great way to ensure healthy meals and less expense, but many people find themselves too tired to cook once they get home. If you put on some smooth jazz or other genre of music that you enjoy, cooking becomes a fun activity rather than a chore, and you’ll likely find yourself relaxed and in a better frame of mind once dinner starts, which can enable you to savor your dinner and your company as you eat.

While Eating:

As you’re eating your meal, music can also be a helper. Soothing music can trigger the relaxation response, which can lower cortisol levels, making it easier to digest food. Also, studies have shown that classical music in particular can help you eat less, digest better, and enjoy your food more.

Cleaning:

Keeping a simple, organized home can really help to cut down on your stress level, but cleaning itself is a chore that many busy people don’t have the energy to face after a long day. However, if you throw on some energetic music, hip-hop or pop, for example, you can raise your energy level and have fun as you clean. If you tell yourself that you only need to clean for a certain amount of songs and then you can be done, you may work more efficiently, and even come to look forward to doing the job.

When Paying Bills:

We all need to pay bills, but the job doesn’t always take a high degree of concentration. Playing music while you write your checks can help take your mind off of financial stress you may be feeling, and make the task more enjoyable.

Before Bed:

Getting enough sleep is important for proper functioning, and getting enough sleep can help you handle stress better. Unfortunately, stress can also interfere with sleep in several ways. Playing music as you drift off is one way to counteract the effects of stress by taking your mind off of what’s stressing you, slowing down your breathing, and soothing your mind."

In using Music Therapy, you can also create your own personal playlists. It is good to remember that music causes emotional memories for many people. When you hear a song from the past, that song can instantly transport you back to either a good or bad time, so it is important to use songs that elicit good feelings when making a personal therapy playlist. As music is a very personal thing, use

songs, or pieces of music that create the mood or memories that make you feel joyous, relaxed, enlivened, etc. You can create several different playlists, for the specific moods you would like to create.

I hope this helps, and I hope all the music you hear or make is beautiful!

OCD and Limbic Attention Deficit Disorder

Attention Deficit Disorder often co-exists with OCD.

The type of ADD I am addressing today is the lesser-known and often overlooked Limbic ADD, a non-hyperactive type. Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD, often co-exists with OCD, and many times is overlooked in diagnosis. One reason for this is that there are six different types of ADD, and some of these have  very different symptoms than the hyperactive type that people are most familiar with. I  think it is important that people know more about Limbic ADD so they may be able to identify the symptoms in themselves or others. Treatment for Limbic ADD is very different from the hyperactive type- stimulants do not work, and can make Limbic ADD much worse!
Here is some information that I got from:
http://www.second-hand-news.com/limbic.html

"Limbic ADD SYMPTOMS
 
•Moodiness
 •Negativity
 •Low energy
 •Frequent irritability
 •Tends to be socially isolated
 •Frequent feelings of hopelessness, helplessness or excessive guilt
 •Low interest in things that are usually considered fun
 •Sleep changes (too much or too little)
 •Chronic low self-esteem"

"People diagnosed with Limbic ADD typically have short attention spans, low energy, are often unfocused and disorganized and suffer from frequent negative thoughts and excessive guilt. They are usually misdiagnosed with clinical depression, but often find that antidepressants increases their moodiness.
 
Mood problems can occur when the limbic system of the brain is overactive. The limbic system is about the size of a walnut and lies near the center of the brain. This is the part of the brain that helps determine how positive or negative you are in your outlook, and also affects motivation and drive. It controls the sleep and appetite cycles of the body, and affects the "bonding mechanism" that enables you to connect with other people on a social level, which in turn influences your moods."

From all the research I have done, I believe that natural supplements and dietary changes may provide the same results as prescription medication in many cases of Limbic ADD.

"Nutritional intervention can be especially helpful. Our deep limbic system needs a balanced diet of containing protein, "good fats" and carbohydrates to function properly. That means including healthy fats (such as the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish), complex carbohydrates (which increase serotonin levels) and protein in every meal.

Nutritional supplements can also increase levels of brain serotonin and decrease negative emotional reactiveness. "SAMe (S-adenoslmethionine) is a naturally occurring compound found in all living organisms. SAMe is critical in the maintenance of cartilage and in the manufacture of important brain compounds such as neurotransmitters." According to this site, as well as the site of Dr. Daniel Amen   www.amenclinics.com
"Calming Amino acids GABA: 500-1500 mg 2-3 times per day. L-Tyrosine: 500-1500 mg 2-3 times per day." Also, Inositol (which is great for OCD symptoms) and Grape Seed Extract, can help.  "Other alternatives to prescription medication for limbic ADHD patients include the use of soothing natural botanical and herbal remedies such as hyoscyamus, tuberculinum, arsen iod and verta alb."

For foods that help Limbic ADD I found this on: eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/facts_4869912_limbic-adhd-treatment.html#ixzz2QGvK4agr

"Foods that increase Dopamine

Food sources of dopamine increasing tyrosine include almonds, avocados, bananas, dairy products, lima beans, pumpkin seeds, and sesame seeds.

Dopamine is easily oxidized. Foods that are rich in antioxidants such as fruits and vegetables may help protect dopamine-using neurons from free radical damage. Many healthcare professionals recommend supplementing with vitamins C, vitamin E, and other antioxidants."

 Also, I read that it may be helpful to substitute regular sugar with Monk fruit raw sugar sweetener (LoHan).

From researching, I read that exercise can also provided much needed relief from distressing Limbic ADD symptoms. Walk as much as possible, and take the stairs whenever possible. Brisk walking, or any aerobic activity done for a minimum of a half hour several times a week is ideal, however, "always, consult your doctor or a certified personal trainer before starting a rigorous exercise program." Getting the proper amount of sleep is important too, strive for 8 hours whenever possible.

Stay away from negative people, bad news, and depressing stories as much as possible! People with Limbic ADD tend to struggle with low grade sadness much of the time, and these things will only make it worse. Uplifting people, great music, anything that is inspiring, and happy or funny movies should be substituted as much as possible.

I hope this helps those with Limbic ADD, and I wish everyone health and much happiness!

I have freed myself from OCD by natural methods, and want to help others find freedom too!

My book OCD and Me, My Unconventional Journey Through Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, published by PlantaPress, is available at: 

http://www.amazon.com/OCD-Me-Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder/dp/0957332882/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369128873&sr=8-1&keywords=9780957332881

http://www.amazon.co.uk/OCD-Me-Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder/dp/0957332882/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369128739&sr=8-1&keywords=9780957332881

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ocd-and-me-bess-cunningham/1117911898?ean=9780957332881&itm=1&usri=9780957332881

OCD and What Teachers Need to Know

This is an especially important blog for me to write because it could have changed my life, and may change the lives of others.

The school year is just around the corner, and can be a very difficult time for kids with OCD. Life would be much easier for many of them of they had the understanding and  support of their teachers. Unfortunately, as many kids tend to hide the severity of their OCD, many teachers remain unaware of the signs of OCD in their students. If they could be alerted to the symptoms, perhaps they would be able to detect potential problems and save many children much suffering. Also, if teachers was aware, they could potentially alert unaware parents and get suffering the help and support they so desperately need.

Teachers are with students every day for several months. Sometimes, students see their teachers more than their parents for a variety of reasons: parent's work schedules, second jobs, cooking or cleaning- and kids can have after school activities, or spend time in their rooms after school. Often when the family is together, there may not be a lot of quality one on one time during a normal school week, as things can be hectic.

The following excerpt is from my book, OCD and Me, My Journey Through Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which will be available as of Sept. 30, 2013. This is why I failed Algebra...

"That day, I was sitting in my first period algebra class, my mind drifting off about my sick Uncle Pat, when, out of the blue, I had an uncontrollable urge to align the long nails of my index fingers, from the cuticles, making them touch together until I got to the tips. I thought that if I didn’t do this perfectly, a certain number of times, Uncle Pat would die, or someone else would get sick. It became a daily ritual, and an exhausting one.
As my nails are curved, they would almost always separate from one another while I was doing this. I would think, “Oh, no…okay, relax.  You can do it—just one more time and you won’t have to do it for the rest of the day.” And then, as I failed to accomplish this ritual, I would mentally scream, “Not again!”
Sometimes I’d get so nervous that I would sweat profusely. I felt that if I didn’t align the nails perfectly, something awful was going to happen. This feeling of dread remained with me, and focusing on anything else was very difficult.  I could not concentrate on my algebra due to this extreme anxiety.
Consequently, I failed that class and had to attend summer school. I hated to sit in a hot classroom all summer, but Uncle Pat seemed to be doing better, and I believed that perhaps I was saving him. At home I began to hear criticism of my schoolwork. “You were always such a good student. What is happening to you?” No way was I going to embarrass myself by explaining something so ridiculous, so I would keep silent and just shrug.
Perhaps, if my teacher had been aware that I was ritualizing throughout the entire period, she could have alerted my parents, and I may have been saved many years of suffering instead of failing me by one point! I would have known that I was not alone with my condition, my suffering was not normal, and I would eventually feel better. Also, I would have been aware that these problems were not my fault, and I would have gotten the help that I needed in order to avoid a life of mental torture."


Also from my book, this is what Teachers Need to Know. These are some Red Flags of OCD in School:

Raw, chapped hands

Unusually high rate of tissue, soap or paper towel usage

Chronic procrastination, such as spending too much time in the bathroom or putting off doing homework or assignments

Sudden drop in test grades

Requests for teachers, other students or family members to repeat strange phrases or keep answering the same question

Repeating actions, such as opening and closing books over and over again or wearing the same clothing over and over

Excessive counting of pencils, papers, etc.

Persistent fear and avoidance of illness (showing agitation when someone sneezes or coughs, etc.)

Excessive slowness whilst taking a test, completing an assignment, changing classes,  etc.

Constant daydreaming

Expressing fear that something terrible will happen to another student or teacher
Constant checks of the health of others

Holes from erasers in homework assignments

Excessive lateness

Desks, lockers, or backpacks filled with scraps of garbage
Poor or strange eating habits

Excessive preoccupation with details or constantly aligning things on desks

Of course, there are many parents who are aware of their child's OCD. They need to meet with teachers and inform them about their child's problem. This article may be useful for parents who are aware of their child's problem..

"Preparing the School for Your Child with Obsessive - Compulsive Disorder
By Terri Mauro, About.com Guide

Teachers can be great allies in keeping your child with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder safe and successful in school, but you'll need to make sure they have all the knowledge they need to help. Use these suggestions to create a information packet to bring educators up to speed.

Five Things Teachers Need to Know

1. My child's obsessions and compulsions may appear to be voluntary behaviors, but they are signs of a mental health problem, not a disciplinary problem.

2. Please don't compliment my child on "perfect" work. This may reinforce his need to obsessively check or re-do things.

3. If there will be any sort of change in my child's classroom or routine, please notify me as far in advance as possible so that we can all work together in preparing her for it.

4. My child has significant challenges, but he also has many strengths and gifts. Please use these to help him have experiences of success.

5. Please keep the lines of communication open between our home and the school. My child needs all the adults in her life working together."

Awareness by both Teachers and Parents is key in the development and well being of children with OCD and all of the related disorders. Perhaps there could be a seminar, or a pamphlet to alert Teachers. I sincerely hope that this information will be made known to all so that children will be able to get the help they need in order to lead happy and productive lives!

OCD and The Layers of Fear

People can exist under several layers of fear, some of which they don't realize. The top layer of fear is experienced by all, this is collective fear, which is the fear that entire societies have. There is no mystery to this- It consists of anxiety about another terrorist attack, political upheaval, weather disaster, etc. We have all experienced this. Do you remember 9/11 or the last tornado, tsunami  or hurricane warning? 

Then, there is conscious anxiety, fear for personal safety or safety of a loved one. Many people are also aware that they suffer from these- fear of illness, divorce, bankruptcy, or any other event which directly impacts a person's life. We can add our phobias to this also- fear of heights, closed spaces, spiders, snakes, etc. Even though we are aware of these, many people have no idea where they come from.

All to often, lurking under all of this, is emotional and subconscious anxiety. These fears often get buried in the far off recesses of the mind. Events can become distorted and fear develops. Here is where we can say fear is "False Evidence Appearing Real"! This type of anxiety is usually suppressed and rooted in childhood. It consists of actions and influences from other people, events, things that we have  absorbed from  the environment, any fears passed down through generations. 

Some  people claim that there is also spiritual anxiety, which is directly related to our karma and the condition of our souls, fears brought into this lifetime from a past life.  I can understand this, but also realize these may be personal and religious beliefs, so I won't go into detail here.

Wow, that is a lot of stuff to be going on, enough to make one paralyzed in layers of fear! This can be how OCD develops, as a "remedy" to lessen our fear with the erroneous belief that a ritual can stop our feared event from happening. And its not only OCD, fear is responsible for a wide variety of mental disorders. 

What can be done about it? The first thing would be to understand our fear logically instead of letting it envelop us. Thinking of fear usually enhances fear, but if we can attempt to do this calmly and consciously, the layers and sources of fear may become apparent.  Sit quietly and in your mind's  eye go back to your childhood, reflect on yourself as a child, see yourself feeling anxious and try to remember what caused it.  Once you identify the source of it, you can try to find out how to deal with it. An event from childhood may have repercussions you are not aware of. This realization in itself can be very helpful for self understanding and awareness.  It can teach you to identify all the other sources of your fears, and see how irrational they can be- the formula is the same. Once you see the layers, you can begin to unravel them, one layer at a time. This knowledge can also help you to not telegraph your fears onto others. This has helped me a lot.

 When I was very young, a plane crashed about 2 blocks from our house. I remember the sound of the plane descending and then the crash, it was the loudest thing I ever heard. Many people were killed and the neighborhood was in total chaos. I knew that my fear of low-flying planes was born then, but what I did not realize until much later on was that I also developed separation anxiety from the event. For years I feared that if my parents went out together something terrible would happen to them. My fears escalated to include other people and I became afraid of many unrelated things and developed OCD rituals for safety. Much of my early life was lived in terror, not realizing that the plane crash was the catalyst of all these fears. 

I found a very interesting article that written by Rachel Waxman, titled, "The Layer Cake of Anxiety." It is about parenting, but it explains my point...

"When I brought my small son to preschool this morning and he clung to me as I said goodbye, I started worrying that perhaps he was having a hard time adjusting to preschool...Was I letting my own irrational anxiety show? Maybe, I thought, my son was noticing subtle signs of my tension and he was becoming more anxious and clingy as a result. Oh, no! Maybe I was making my son have trouble adjusting to preschool. Now that would really be something to worry about!

That kind of catastrophizing about my own emotions is a distinctly human trait. People have a beautiful capacity for self-reflection, which enables us to set personal goals and plan how to achieve them, recognize and correct our errors, and build a more meaningful future. However, we can also turn our self-reflective ability against ourselves. This often happens in the case of negative emotions. We might observe ourselves feeling upset, and react to that observation by intensifying the emotion. It is fairly common for people to feel depressed about their depression, angry about their anger, or as in my case, anxious about their anxiety. And it needn’t stop there! Imagine recognizing that you are anxious about anxiety and then thinking, “Uh, oh, maybe this means I’ll never break free of the anxiety cycle!” That thought frees you up to worry about all the potential consequences of your future anxiety. A truly determined worrywart can keep layering new cognitions on top of old fears indefinitely, building an anxiety structure as complex as a wedding cake (but much less palatable).

Fortunately, we can bring that same self-reflective capacity to our rescue. For instance, when I found myself catasrophizing about my maternal anxiety, I took a step back and noticed the absurdity of the whole thing, which helped me cut the cycle short. I also noticed something else: the fact that I have a tendency to worry easily, especially about the welfare of my children. But this reflection didn’t make me worry at all. Instead, I found it encouraging to recognize my own predisposition, because I can use that self-awareness to evaluate and de-fuse future anxiety experiences. Although many of us have certain emotions that come to us easily, acknowledging our own emotional habits may help us respond to our layered thoughts a little more realistically and thereby introduce a new, more pleasant flavor into our mental experience."

I truly hope that by calm self-reflection people will be able to realize the beginnings of their fear-inducing thought patterns and begin to peel away their layers of fear. Self knowledge is a very powerful thing!

OCD and How To Change Negative Emotions

                     

Having depression, anxiety, OCD, or any of the related disorders, can cause people to constantly experience negative emotions such as fear, anger, and apathy.  Over time, these negative emotions can become ingrained in their minds, and this will be their dominant mental state. Their brains actually become hard-wired to trigger unwanted emotions at the slightest thought. For these and many other people, it can be very difficult to transition  from a negative emotion to a positive one. Some people may say, "just think of something good," but a person experiencing obsessions may find this advice very difficult to follow.

According to Deepak Chopra, There are only two emotions -fear and love. Obviously, all negative emotions stem from fear, and all positive feelings are generated by love. Dr. Chopra, and all of the teachers of The Law of Attraction state that to attract what we want in life, we we must envision it with positive feelings. Believe me from personal experience, this is easier said than done, especially if you are a victim of negative conditioning.

I have experienced good results in changing my mood by playing music, engaging in physical activity, and by thinking of a great time that I had in the past. However, sometimes, depending upon the severity of my mental state, even these have not worked, or I have been unable to apply them- (one example was feeling so depressed I couldn't even get up to take a walk.)

In researching supplements to help me, I have had very good results with The amino acid L- tyrosine and GABA, they have greatly improved my mental focus and mood. I take 500 mg a day of each, but you should read up on this in order to see recommended dosages for ADD and other disorders.( I plan to write more about this in future blogs).

I was looking around the Internet for something that would be helpful to me and others who have had this difficulty. I came upon this article about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that you may find interesting...

How to Change Your Emotions

By Brenda Scottsdale, eHow Contributor

http://www.ehow.com/how_8163182_change-emotions.html

     

 Cognitive-Behavioral therapy is very effective for disrupting negative thought spirals.

Personality is a three part system composed of thoughts, feeling and behaviors. Changing how you think about something will help change how you feel about it, and, ultimately the choices you make. It can be easy to become stuck in the mire of a negative thought spiral. However, following some simple steps will help you disrupt this pattern.These methods are based on Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, an evidence-based approach validated by over 30 years of well-controlled scientific studies.

 How to Change Thoughts and Behaviors Easy Methods for Blocking Negative Thoughts

Understand and Challenge your Negative Thoughts

1Understand that thoughts influence feelings. Negative, untrue thoughts are known as cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions typically form early based on negative experiences, and can rob a person of joy and happiness in life. An example of how a negative thought-feeling pattern can develop is during the first dating experience. If this was bad, a person may develop thoughts such as "I'm the ugliest person alive" or "no men are interested in me." Absolute statements are not reality based thinking -- there is always an exception. Negative thoughts such as this lead to negative behaviors such as not going out on dates, not trying new hairstyles or makeup and not attending to personal hygiene. Keep a list of these negative thoughts and their positive counter-thoughts. You will discover that you tend to recycle the same six or seven negative beliefs. Over time you can try different positive counter-thoughts to disrupt these six or seven negative beliefs, finding what works best for you.

2

Understand that feelings influence thoughts. In the dating example above, if someone has insulted you, perhaps even inadvertently, depression may develop. Because you feel depressed you may start to think, "I will never have a successful dating experience."

3

Challenge negative thoughts that lead to negative feelings. Distorted thinking patterns are best eroded with logic. If you are thinking "I'm the ugliest person on the planet," you should remind yourself of instances where people have complimented your looks, that there certainly are less attractive people than you, or that, in the overall scheme of life, looking like a supermodel is not the most important thing.

4

Remember the two-to-one rule. For every negative thought, you need to have at least two positive counter-thoughts. Negative thoughts about yourself usually begin in childhood so they are strong and can be difficult to break. Once new habits are learned, however, more and more of your thoughts will become positive, leading to increasingly positive emotions.

The A-B-C Method

5

Use the A-B-C method. First invented by Aaron Beck a co-founder of Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, the A-B-C method has been used successfully to disrupt negative thought spirals for over 30 years. The "A" stands for activating event, the thing that happened to precipitate your negative feelings.The "B" stands for your belief about the event, while the "C" stands for the consequences of that belief, such as that you are feeling depressed.

6

When you become aware of a negative consequence, or "C" in the model's terms -- such as not going out on many dates, look at the activating event ("A") to discover what happened to trigger your behavior. You may recall some negative dating experiences that caused you to fear rejection.

7

Look at your beliefs ("B") about the activating event. If you believe, for example, that your negative experience means that you are unattractive or not likable, the behavior that you are demonstrating now (isolation) makes sense. Ask yourself if that belief is logical or distorted.

8

Change distorted beliefs with positive counter-thoughts.Think about logical alternatives. Perhaps you are not ugly, maybe the man you dated was a jerk, for example. Remember and use the two-to-one rule.

9

Reinforce new, positive counter-beliefs. Every time you find yourself thinking positively, focus on how good you feel. This is known as a positive thought spiral. Happy emotions lead to positive thoughts, leading to positive behaviors. Practice these skills and your emotions will tend to become more positive over time.

I hope this helps! I will continue to research, experiment, and write more about this in the future. Here's to only Happy Thoughts- Cheers!

OCD and Bad Dreams

Last week I had one of those nights. I was drifting in and out  of a restless sleep and then had a nightmare. In case you want to know, I dreamed that I woke up in a bed in the middle the sidewalk in New York City with crowds of people watching me sleep. Startled, I jumped out of bed, and In my pajamas, I ran into a store. first thing I noticed was that there was something on the floor. I picked it up, and was horrified to see I was holding a dead bird. I felt bad for it and repulsed by it, and began running around with it, looking for a place to bury it. I woke up covered in sweat, heat pounding. Needless to say, I was not in the best of moods upon awakening. Do you blame me?

I immediately became obsessed about the meaning of my dream, and my initial anxiety quickly grew. I began frantically trying to find out why  I dreamed this, searching the Internet for dream meanings. Also, I wondered if this was a psychic dream, which also scared me. I once read that a psychic dream takes place in real time and in color, and a psychological dream jumps in time and is disjointed. I was wasting way too much time dissecting all of this and my day was not getting off to a good start, as I was running late.  I realized that left unchecked, this anxiety might even have cause me to ritualize, and reactivate my OCD, and I really did not want that to happen!

I began looking around the Internet for solutions, and came upon this article which made a lot of sense. My brain chemicals could have been be slightly off...

http://voices.yahoo.com/natural-remedies-bad-dreams-336697.html?cat=68

"Bad dreams plague everyone from time to time. To know how to treat them, it helps to know the physiological causes of your nightmares. There are prescription medicines to ease sleep but they often come with unwanted side effects and treat only the symptoms of sleep disturbance. If you treat the problem that causes the nightmares with herbs and vitamins, you treat the symptom, the bad dreams themselves.

Low dopamine levels could be the culprit. Dopamine provides pleasant feelings in order to entice people to perform the behaviors again which caused the rise in dopamine. It rewards activities such as eating and sex. Low dopamine levels in the brain cause people with a REM sleep behavior disorder, in which they act out their dreams, to have the most violent dreams. So it follows that if you're dreaming that someone is going to hurt you, or you are hurting someone else, it could be that your brain is producing too little dopamine.

If you are having violent types of bad dreams, dopamine levels can be increased by upping your intake of B vitamins. Common herb remedies such as drinking chamomile tea, putting lavender essential oils in the bath or drinking peppermint tea also may help. Powdered lavender can also be burned like incense. Peppermint is most often eaten in cookies or candy but can also be used in a crockpot roast. Chamomile can be put into a bath, infused into baby shampoo, used in water to rinse hair, or put into a foot soak. In extreme cases of nightmares try Kava Kava or Valerian root, both of which can be found online or at your health food store, but take them at bedtime because they can make you sleepy.

Medical studies also show that bad dreams involving pain, fear or anxiety can be caused by stomach problems. This may be why eating right before bed seems to cause bad dreams, because you experience poor digestion when you fall asleep on a full stomach. These stomach problems can be caused by fear in waking life and in your dreams, which creates a vicious cycle of gastric upset and bad dreams.

Increase the intake of both fiber and water when you are having fearful or painful nightmares. Decrease sugar intake. Other natural remedies include vitamin C, E and B supplements and taking herbs such a echinacea, anise and caraway seed. Echinacea is found in pill form at the drugstore or health food store. Anise can be found at the grocery store and is used in baked goods to produce a licorice flavor. You can also eat anise by using it in recipes for German foods, in Indian soups and stews, and in pepperoni or sausage. Caraway seed, also in the spice aisle, is found in rye breads and sauerkraut, can be put in turkey pot pie to complement the flavor of the turkey, goes great when cooked into a reuben sandwich, and is a savory herb to use as part of lentil soup.

Herbs, used for medicine since the beginning of recorded history, have only recently been eclipsed by modern artificial medicines. Don't let relatively new prejudices against natural healing keep you from trying these safe and inexpensive ways to calm your bad dreams."

This made sense to me, and I have been using several of these therapies, and so far, have slept much better since that restless night. I hope that people with OCD and related disorders realize that brain chemicals may have to be tweaked once in awhile, and that it can be done with natural remedies. I hope your sleep deep and peaceful, and all you dreams are happy ones!

Happy 2013- Are You Afraid?

Happy New Year 2013! This is perhaps the most feared year this century because it contains the number 13, which is making millions of people around the world very nervous. They even changed the law in Ireland because of fear of 13- when a new car is sold, the last 2 digits of the year are required on the license plate, but because of superstition, the plates will now read 131 for the first half of the year, and 132 for the second half in an attempt to encourage people to purchase cars. Some may think this is ridiculous, but the facts are that on every Friday the 13th, the economy loses a fortune because people don't buy, get married, close on homes, etc. Heck, the Navy will not even launch a ship on that date! Now, we have an entire year of 13's which will no doubt stop people in some form.

Here is excerpt from an article I found...

2013 | Are you superstitious?

It’s 2013: Good luck with that

How will we survive an entire year of ‘13’?

BY JAMES A. FUSSELL

The Kansas City Star

We managed to make it through the Mayan apocalypse. Now let’s see if we can survive — bum bum bummm! — the unluckiest year of the century.

Time to hide in the basement, all you Superstitious Sallys and Bad Luck Barneys. Its 2013.Big deal?It could be. National Geographic once estimated that on each Friday the 13th the economy loses more than $800 million from consumers avoiding travel, moves, movies, dinner, weddings and more. You have to wonder: How much more will be lost in a whole year branded with the number 13?

Ignore triskaidekaphobia — fear of the number 13 — at your own risk. Sure, Missouri and Kansas made you put a 2013 sticker on your license plate when you renewed your registration last year. But the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles doesn’t want any part of that bad juju. The office is offering an option. Instead of renewing for one year, drivers can renew for either two or three years so their stickers read 2014 or 2015..."

“Am thinking of a 2013 wedding,” posted one bride 

to be, “Jennifervola.” “Does anyone consider it bad luck to get marriwhen 13 is involved, or am I just being crazy?”

The answers were all the same:

“Crazy.”

“Deff being crazy.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake!”

“Jordyana” had more to say: “I’m graduating (from) college in 2013 (and) getting married in 2013. Wanna know something extra scary? I’m getting married on July 13, 2013! No, neither (my fiance) nor I believe in superstitions. We do poke fun, though, and say we won’t be cursed for getting married then since we’ll have been together for seven years. Hopefully the seven will outweigh all the 13s.”...

Still, some people really do worry about 2013, said Donald Dossey, founder of the Stress Management Center/Phobia Institute in Asheville, N.C. Dossey has been studying phobias for 18 years, including triskaidekaphobia and paraskevidekaphobia, the morbid fear of Friday the 13th. He estimates that up to 19 million people around the world fear the number 13.

“It will be problematic for some,” Dossey said of 2013. “They might think something ominous will happen, that they might have a wreck, get ill or even have marital problems. It’s just a nagging sense of impending doom.”

But the biggest problems, he says, will come in September and December, months harboring the year’s most ominous dates — Friday the 13th, 2013!

“On Friday the 13th some people won’t even get out of bed,” said Dossey.

“Here we go again,” said Joe Nickell, an investigative writer for Skeptical Inquirer science magazine.“No matter how often it doesn’t come true when people gather and wait for doom, (some) people always take the bait the next time. You would think eventually they would learn.”

They don’t. What about the hundreds of hotels and office buildings that choose not to have a 13th floor? Or the hundreds of airports, including Kansas City International, that don’t have a Gate 13? Or developers who bypass 13 when numbering new homes? Or the auto industry group in Ireland that predicted sales of 2013 models would plummet by one third in that country (where they know a thing or two about luck)?

No, this has been going on a while: Long enough for somebody to figure out that Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer and Jack the Ripper all have 13 letters in their names.

Long enough to stretch back to early Christianity (where Jesus was betrayed by Judas, the 13th guest at the Last Supper), and Norse mythology (where Loki, the 13th guest at a dinner party, had Balder the Beautiful shot with a mistletoe-tipped arrow, plunging Earth into darkness).

Long enough, even, for one researcher to discover that ancient Babylon’s Code of Hammurabi, dating to about 1772 B.C., omitted the number 13 in its list of laws.

Cesar Camarillo, a machinist from Kansas City, Kan., doesn’t put much stock in “curse of 13” as his grandfather called it. Just the same he’ll be wearing his gold cross every day, carrying a lucky amulet in his pocket and getting two tattoos on his chest this year — one of praying hands, the other of the Virgin Mary.

“I don’t really believe in this stuff,” he said, smiling and turning quickly to glance behind his back. “Then again, why tempt fate? You know?”

Oh, we know. That’s why we’re looking out for you — just in case.

The Irish auto industry notwithstanding, local car dealers say they aren’t worried. Jesse Egarta, sales manager at O’Neill Honda in Overland Park, hasn’t seen any superstition-fueled slowdown.

“Our sales of 2013 models have actually sped up faster than we anticipated,” he said. “I don’t even think about the hype that everybody’s talking about.”

So will anything bad happen in 2013?

As they say, the best predictor of the future is the past. So if 2013 really is going to be this scary year of bad luck, as some people fear, it just makes sense that something really horrible must have happened 100 years ago in the last year that ended in 13.

OK, how’s this? On Feb. 3, 1913, the states ratified the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving the government the power to impose and collect … income tax.

Uh-oh...."

Looking around, there are many sites and articles relating to this. I feel sorry for the Queen of England, who will not even sit at a table with 13 people. What is she going to do for the rest of the year? Seriously, this could be very bad for some people with OCD, as it might make their ritualizing even worse. Unlike a building with no 13th floor, we can't get away from this one. And two super 13 days are approaching -Friday the 13th in September and one in December.

So, if you're feeling a little anxious, you're certainly not alone. However, year may bring benefits, as it can be one huge lesson in behavioral therapy, as we have to face the number 13 every single day. Eventually, some people may become free of their fear. I really hope so and I wish everyone a very happy and prosperous New Year!