Introduction

A century ago, people with symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) were sometimes institutionalized for life or treated with frightening operations such as frontal lobotomies. In the twentieth century, psychoanalysis and other types of therapies began to offer more treatment options.

Stories of Individuals with OCD

In this book, you will read about:

• Lauren, a high school student whose OCD robbed her of friends, her social life, job, and future, leaving her too ashamed to reach out for help.
• Jacob, an eight-year-old who suffered a head injury and awoke from his coma with an all-consuming need to do everything seven times.
• Sal, a dependable, well-balanced husband and father whose sudden compulsion to bring home paper and trash changed his entire life.
• Laura, whose undiagnosed OCD led her to be placed in a school for children with mental retardation.
• Emma, whose frightening thoughts about hurting her baby sister drove her to pray for hours every day and to go to confession many times a week.
• Annaliese, a nurse who was accidentally poked by a patient’s needle a decade ago and has remained convinced ever since that she has AIDS.

Through these stories and the factual material accompanying them, you will learn about the huge ramifications OCD has on individuals' lives as well as the types of treatments available to help.

With the discovery of psychiatric drugs, doctors now have more ways than ever to treat, and in some cases altogether relieve, the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder explains how psychiatric drugs and other forms of therapy are making a difference in the lives of many people with symptoms of OCD.