Re: Therapist using CBT?

[Guest guest]

----- Original Message -----

> At the last visit, he told her that he was

> worrying about boogie boarding in the ocean on vacation. He broke his

> arm in April and has since been obsessing over his arm. The solution

> they came up with was to be really careful, visualize having a great

> safe time in the water, and to wrap his arm in an ace bandage. Is

> this CBT? I've been reading about it and I know that exposure is the

> form of CBT that our kids need, but it's still hard for me to judge.

*****No, CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) would focus on identifying OCD

worries as error messages that can be safely ignored. They feel real, but

are not real.

ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention--the " action " part of OCD therapy

treatment) for this situation would be behaviors that provide exposure to

the reality that indeed, your son may break his arm boogie boarding, or

doing anything else, the possibility exists and no one can know the future

for sure. OCD is all about having to know things absolutely, a level of

certainty none of us can have. This chronic doubt can be crippling.

The suggestion of your son wrapping his arm in an ACE bandage to reduce his

anxiety/fear from the obsession he could break it, is the opposite of ERP!

It's as though his therapist is trying to come up with compulsive behavior

for him to do. OCDers do not need any one else thinking up new compulsions

for them LOL especially not a therapist being paid to help him *reduce* his

symptoms.

Kathy R. in Indiana