When An Obsession Takes Over

Imagine being so obsessed with something, you spend much of your life trying to avoid it. It’s called obsessive compulsive disorder and nearly one million Americans live with it. People who suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, just can’t help themselves.

Licensed psychiatrist at Phobia and Anxiety Center told us:
“They are not crazy. And that’s what’s so frustrating to them, is that once that thought hits and the anxiety rises they feel that they have no choice.”

Stacy, OCD patient:
“I thought I had gone insane. I was afraid to tell anybody because they would surely put me away.”

Stacey was deathly afraid of germs.

Stacy:
“Actual terror. Almost a dead panic that if I did not get this clean, that some huge catastrophe would befall myself or my family.”

Dr. Wilson:
“I’ve seen people with their hands virtually raw, red and standing at a faucet and maybe washing for thirty, forty five minutes.”

Stacy:
“I would take up to a five hour shower. My whole body was chapped from top to bottom.”

When that wasn’t enough, Stacy cleaned herself with rubbing alcohol… Then she retreated to her bed for almost two years.

Stacy:
“I really thought I was going to die in my room, in my sterile little bed.”

Finally Stacey asked for help. Six months later…

Stacy:
“I leave the house everyday. I only take a fifteen minute shower and that’s only to wash my hair.”

Dr. Wilson:
“We’ve made tremendous strides because of the medications that have come out that have been very effective in treating OCD in about seventy percent of cases.”

Fear of germs and the need to check something over and over again are the most common obsessions. For help or information on obsessive compulsive disorders, contact the OCD Association.