Introduction:
Publius Syrus once stated that the pain of mind is worse than pain of body.
We all catch ourselves sometimes repeating habits over and over like we are lost in a broken record, but for those who struggle with OCD- it is a constant battle.
Today I’m going to inform you of the effects of OCD and how the disorder turned my brother’s life into a whirlwind.
I. The beginning symptoms of OCD are like trying to see the sun shine on a very cloudy day.
A) In the beginning stages of OCD, many people aren’t even aware that they have this disorder.
1. When my brother was 16 years old, he was the normal teenager. Life was going extremely well at this time of his life.
a) He kept God first, he had a great family to support him in everything he did, and he kept straight A’s all throughout the school years. My brother, Mark, was a stand out athlete in every single sport he played. He was extremely confident and had everything going for him. However, around the middle of his junior year- we all started noticing some drastic changes.
2. Mark began to mumble and his anxiety increased dramatically.
b) His insecurities doubled and had become more apparent. This wasn’t the confident person I knew my brother used to be. It was strange to see Mark talking to himself, and even stranger seeing how his personality took a complete 360 degree turn.
a) Nearly 6 million Americans suffer from symptoms of OCD.
b) 10% of Americans will go their whole life untreated.
c) ?
d) ?
e) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder- an anxiety disorder that is characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts and/or repetitive behaviors.
II. OCD slowly takes over and we are never prepared for the struggle.
A) After three years, Mark’s obsessions and compulsions were only getting worse- so we had to seek medical help. After many sessions of counseling and doctor visits, we could see that all of this wasn’t enough.
1) The anxiety was at its worst. More tears were shed than I can even remember. He had grown bitterer and the disorder was draining all of our energy. It had become something we had to deal with on a day- to- day basis.
a)His anger tripled and the aggression was being taken out on other people. The disorder began to cause him to even lose his self control.
B) When an individual is diagnosed with OCD, it isn’t rare that they could also develop a case of Tourettes Syndrome. His Tourettes caused him to have motor ticks. When people think of Tourettes, they often think about the verbal ticks- in which curse words often fly out of their mouths. The new disorder made it hard to carry on a conversation with Mark because he was constantly twitching his eyes and wrinkling his forehead.
III. It had all become so consuming that we needed to seek professional help.
A) Mark was now 22 years old and we were looking for something more than just counseling and doctor visits. Kentucky did not have much to offer, so we looked up a place in St. Louis, Missouri. This place was in the Top Ten OCD treatment centers in the United States. We were desperate for the first opening and that’s where we felt like God led us.
1) Being in St. Louis was motivation for us all, and it gave us the hope we needed to keep pushing through.
a) At the clinic, my brother started out with breathing lessons. Then he started working on listening to the words repeatedly that once triggered his OCD. This process was called “Exposure and Response Prevention.” The next step was trying to resist and delay rituals. The last obstacle was conquering his fear of me dying. The task was to walk through a cemetery holding my picture. It sounds weird to us, but we can only imagine how difficult it was for him. He checked out of the clinic after 30 days and was 75% healed of the disorder.
Today, I have explained to everyone how ugly of a wrath OCD really is. The disorder is exactly like quicksand; everything seems normal on the outside, but on the inside there is a huge mess.
At age 16, Mark was displaying his first symptoms of this disorder. We can all see by now just how fast that OCD can take over. It works simply by unwanted thoughts, repetitive activities, and mumbling- turning into multiple panic attacks, thoughts of hopelessness, and even thoughts of suicide. Truly, my brother was lost in a broken record.
Publius Syrus once stated that the pain of mind is worse than pain of body.
We all catch ourselves sometimes repeating habits over and over like we are lost in a broken record, but for those who struggle with OCD- it is a constant battle.
Today I’m going to inform you of the effects of OCD and how the disorder turned my brother’s life into a whirlwind.
I. The beginning symptoms of OCD are like trying to see the sun shine on a very cloudy day.
A) In the beginning stages of OCD, many people aren’t even aware that they have this disorder.
1. When my brother was 16 years old, he was the normal teenager. Life was going extremely well at this time of his life.
a) He kept God first, he had a great family to support him in everything he did, and he kept straight A’s all throughout the school years. My brother, Mark, was a stand out athlete in every single sport he played. He was extremely confident and had everything going for him. However, around the middle of his junior year- we all started noticing some drastic changes.
2. Mark began to mumble and his anxiety increased dramatically.
b) His insecurities doubled and had become more apparent. This wasn’t the confident person I knew my brother used to be. It was strange to see Mark talking to himself, and even stranger seeing how his personality took a complete 360 degree turn.
a) Nearly 6 million Americans suffer from symptoms of OCD.
b) 10% of Americans will go their whole life untreated.
c) ?
d) ?
e) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder- an anxiety disorder that is characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts and/or repetitive behaviors.
II. OCD slowly takes over and we are never prepared for the struggle.
A) After three years, Mark’s obsessions and compulsions were only getting worse- so we had to seek medical help. After many sessions of counseling and doctor visits, we could see that all of this wasn’t enough.
1) The anxiety was at its worst. More tears were shed than I can even remember. He had grown bitterer and the disorder was draining all of our energy. It had become something we had to deal with on a day- to- day basis.
a)His anger tripled and the aggression was being taken out on other people. The disorder began to cause him to even lose his self control.
B) When an individual is diagnosed with OCD, it isn’t rare that they could also develop a case of Tourettes Syndrome. His Tourettes caused him to have motor ticks. When people think of Tourettes, they often think about the verbal ticks- in which curse words often fly out of their mouths. The new disorder made it hard to carry on a conversation with Mark because he was constantly twitching his eyes and wrinkling his forehead.
III. It had all become so consuming that we needed to seek professional help.
A) Mark was now 22 years old and we were looking for something more than just counseling and doctor visits. Kentucky did not have much to offer, so we looked up a place in St. Louis, Missouri. This place was in the Top Ten OCD treatment centers in the United States. We were desperate for the first opening and that’s where we felt like God led us.
1) Being in St. Louis was motivation for us all, and it gave us the hope we needed to keep pushing through.
a) At the clinic, my brother started out with breathing lessons. Then he started working on listening to the words repeatedly that once triggered his OCD. This process was called “Exposure and Response Prevention.” The next step was trying to resist and delay rituals. The last obstacle was conquering his fear of me dying. The task was to walk through a cemetery holding my picture. It sounds weird to us, but we can only imagine how difficult it was for him. He checked out of the clinic after 30 days and was 75% healed of the disorder.
Today, I have explained to everyone how ugly of a wrath OCD really is. The disorder is exactly like quicksand; everything seems normal on the outside, but on the inside there is a huge mess.
At age 16, Mark was displaying his first symptoms of this disorder. We can all see by now just how fast that OCD can take over. It works simply by unwanted thoughts, repetitive activities, and mumbling- turning into multiple panic attacks, thoughts of hopelessness, and even thoughts of suicide. Truly, my brother was lost in a broken record.
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