But What If?
Worry sometimes begins with a negative possibility, a mere "What if?" Then it burgeons up out of information that originally was neutral or innocuous. One of my patients, Becky, calls these endless "What ifs?" SBPOWs, which stands for "spontaneously branching polymers of worry." (She pronounces SBPOWs as "spouse" because she claims her husband is the source of most of them.)
"A little worry can branch spontaneously with a vengeance," she explains. "It's like a pattern of frost that shoots across a cold pane of glass. In seconds I am fighting with an enormous net of dangerous, intricate detail. You can't believe how quickly I go from dealing with one worry to having a jumbled mess of them."
This kind of worrier broods incessantly. When the mind obsesses over negative outcomes at the mere hint of one, the worrier is suffering from a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). About 5 million Americans are afflicted with OCD, and though we do not have a cure, we do have excellent treatments which can drastically reduce the severity of the symptoms.
In OCD, worry rules the mind like a sorcerer. The individual even resorts to superstitious rituals in the hope that the rituals will magically rid him of the dangers he senses and fears. I once treated a man who had to hop on one foot whenever he was waiting in line, because he felt he would be in extreme danger otherwise. The sufferer of OCD is obsessed with a variety of intrusive, unwanted thoughts. He also feels compelled to act out certain rituals in an attempt to stave off (imagined) dire consequences associated with his unwanted thoughts.
Treatment for OCD has been revolutionized by our recent discoveries about the brain. We now know that there is a physical basis to OCD. We have even found differences in brain scans of individuals with OCD. Only two decades ago the standard treatment for OCD was to try to ferret out the psychological conflict that must be causing such bizarre behavior. People would stay in psychotherapy for years, while still suffering from OCD. Today we know that a combination of medication and therapy works best in this kind of obsessive worrying.
"A little worry can branch spontaneously with a vengeance," she explains. "It's like a pattern of frost that shoots across a cold pane of glass. In seconds I am fighting with an enormous net of dangerous, intricate detail. You can't believe how quickly I go from dealing with one worry to having a jumbled mess of them."
This kind of worrier broods incessantly. When the mind obsesses over negative outcomes at the mere hint of one, the worrier is suffering from a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). About 5 million Americans are afflicted with OCD, and though we do not have a cure, we do have excellent treatments which can drastically reduce the severity of the symptoms.
In OCD, worry rules the mind like a sorcerer. The individual even resorts to superstitious rituals in the hope that the rituals will magically rid him of the dangers he senses and fears. I once treated a man who had to hop on one foot whenever he was waiting in line, because he felt he would be in extreme danger otherwise. The sufferer of OCD is obsessed with a variety of intrusive, unwanted thoughts. He also feels compelled to act out certain rituals in an attempt to stave off (imagined) dire consequences associated with his unwanted thoughts.
Treatment for OCD has been revolutionized by our recent discoveries about the brain. We now know that there is a physical basis to OCD. We have even found differences in brain scans of individuals with OCD. Only two decades ago the standard treatment for OCD was to try to ferret out the psychological conflict that must be causing such bizarre behavior. People would stay in psychotherapy for years, while still suffering from OCD. Today we know that a combination of medication and therapy works best in this kind of obsessive worrying.
This entry was posted by Mandy, on
Wednesday, May 13, 2009.
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