Re : update on my psych treatment

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Hello It is right that exposure therapy is a "standard" (if any) therapy used for phobia and OCD.So I wish you a lot of courage for this, but I am sure something will come out of this, and I hope you will share it with us.By the way, my boyfriend is my biggest trigger as well, and I understand how you feel. I am grateful to him that he is patient enough and I guess so is .Good luck,CarolineDe :

À : Soundsensitivity Envoyé le : Jeu 7 Janvier 2010, 14 h 11 min 47 sObjet : update on my psych treatment

I haven't written in a while so I need to update you on how my psych treatment is going. The 4S got so bad, esp. at home, really affecting my relationship with my darling .... the shame and desperation of the constant barrage of trigger sounds at home and feeling so hopeless and powerless and weak finally lead me to seek out psychological treatment back in early October. As a reminder -- I have tried this before but didn't find a good doc, also have met with an audiologist (above normal hearing), neurologist (migraines diagnosed but all he could suggest was Avert which helps for migraine pain only), ob-gyn (never heard of 4S and no ideas), regular doc (never heard of 4S or knew how to treat)...

I love both of my docs and feel hopeful for the first time in years. It's not helped me with the 4S. The trigger sounds are still there and accumulating steadily as before. But there is one big difference now. I feel that I have two good medical professionals (a psych nurse prescriber and a psychologist) interested in 4S, and trying to help me. I have an arsenal ready to try and am trying. Also, the current med I'm on, Clonazepam, is helping me deal with the aftereffect of stress from the 4S as it is calming. I take one tab at night and 1/2 tab during the day and no side effects! I've also tried several other meds (Risperidol, Abilify, Prozac, Zoloft, etc.) to work WITH the Clonaz but all have had side effects of heart racing or insomnia or even tremendous weight gain. If you're interested in which did what, post me the questions here. But that's a long story as I've tried 6-7 other meds. Did anything help with the 4S? NO. Not one has made

me react any differently. All any med has done is to calm me down, but as we all know we can be half asleep or concentrating intently on some project at work or home or totally happily in our own heavenly worlds when we'll hear a trigger sound and completely SNAP, PANIC, PAIN, RUN, SCREAM, etc.

Okay, the most important thing is this: We have begun, my psychologist suggested this as part of my therapy, to try exposure therapy. This weekend my boyfriend and I (who is my biggest trigger sound maker) are going into her office together and for two hours, he is going to make two of my worst trigger sounds (one session at a time) and I HAVE to stay there and take it. I can't do any of the avoidance I usually do, no ear plugging, running away, etc. I just need to react normally and she hopes that if I stick it out, the disturbance will eventually abate. She will be observing and facilitating in case sees my crying and upset and stops too early. I'll let you know how it goes. I've chosen two of my worst, daily trigger sounds to work on first: plastic snack bags opening/closing/ rattling and crunching the chips, eating them AND eating from and clanging on a dinner plate with metal utensils.

Wish me luck. I promise to get you all an update as to how it goes. It's going to be torture. And afterward, she said if there is ANY improvement at all in the office, I have to maintain my courage and NOT practice avoidance techniques with these two trigger sounds ever again or she said I'll just revert back to the same associated panic behavior.

This is going to be hard, esp. knowing it might not even work. She said that this is therapy that works for OCD victims and is the closest therapy she can suggest for 4S, not having heard of it before.

Toodles,