Living With Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

My Life With Obsessive - Compulsive Disorder

The difficulty I am having in writing about this is because I am living, most successfully with this awful disorder. How can I say 'successfully' and 'awful disorder' in the same sentence? Well, I'll try and explain. At this time I am 56 years old and I believe the symptoms of this malady came about at the age of 12. It has been quite a long time that I've been managing my life around it. One great source of help came to me by way of a therapist named James Priester, LISW-S, Ph.D. in Ohio. He introduced me to the teachings of a Dr. Claire Weekes, (1903 - 1990) who had a book out at that time, of her treatment for anxiety disorder, called Looking to the internet today I see she is termed "Anxiety Superhero." Thinking back to my therapy with Jim Priester, I can recall that he termed Dr. Weekes' book, 'the Bible for agorophobics.' My sessions with Dr. Priester and the information he gave to me about Dr. Weekes (and a set of cassette tapes of Dr. Weekes' treatment method, provided me with a lifetime of help with OCD. Because of this, I am living each day, practicing her methods; and living pretty successfully with this disorder. In life there almost always seems to be a 'but' or 'however' and in this case there is quite a big one. I am living with it daily and it still is a very difficult to live with. I came to the conclusion many years ago that, I wouldn't wish my life on my worst enemy. The main reason is the OCD. Obsessive compulsive disorder and the anxiety and sometimes agorophobia which comes with it; the rituals alone... are something that will bring an average guy to his knees. Or an average woman, and it did bring me down quite a bit. --> At this time I am going to stop writing about my life with OCD. What I will be doing is making a video about my feelings and my experience with this disorder. I feel that I can talk about my thoughts easier than write about them. If you have OCD - please know that Dr. Weekes' therapy does work and I would recommend it highly. It has helped me to manage my life pretty well. I'd really rather not have this troublesome disorder, but if I have to have something, it's not that bad! Huh? If I find another story of a fellow sufferer, I will put that information on this page also. I'll do that a.s.a.p. Nancy Gurish