OCD/Eating Disorders Connection: Information And Resources

It is not uncommon for many who have an Eating Disorder to also suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.



Obsessive Compulsive Disorder:
 
a psychoneurotic disorder in which the patient is beset with obsessions or compulsions or both and suffers extreme anxiety or depression through failure to think the obsessive thoughts or perform the compelling acts—abbreviation OCD; called also obsessive-compulsive neurosis, obsessive-compulsive reaction.
 
Obsessions:

• Thoughts, images, or impulses that occur over and over again and feel out of the person's control.
• The person does not want to have these ideas.
• He or she finds them disturbing and unwanted, and usually know that they don't make sense.
• They come with uncomfortable feelings, such as fear, disgust, doubt, or a feeling that things have to be done in a way that is "just right."
• They take a lot of time and get in the way of important activities the person values.

What Obsessions Are Not: 

• It is normal to have occasional thoughts about getting sick or about the safety of loved ones.

Compulsions:

• Repetitive behaviors or thoughts that a person engages in to neutralize, counteract, or make their obsessions go away.
• People with OCD realize this is only a temporary solution, but without a better way to cope, they rely on the compulsion as a temporary escape
• Compulsions can also include avoiding situations that trigger obsessions.
• Compulsions are time consuming and get in the way of important activities the person values.

What Compulsions Are Not:

• Not all repetitive behaviors or "rituals" are compulsions.  For example, bedtime routines, religious practices, and learning a new skill involve repeating an activity over and over again, but are a welcome part of daily life.
• Behaviors depend on the context: Arranging and ordering DVDs for eight hours a day isn't a compulsion if the person works in a video store.

A person with OCD may recognize that their compulsive fears, thoughts, and actions are unreasonable yet these feelings are intense and feel very real. 
 

OCD can start at any age but estimates show that most common age ranges are:

• Between ages 10-12
• Between late teens and early adulthood
• OCD affects all ethnic groups and males/females equally,

OCD Stats:

• Adults: 1 in 100; 2-3 million adults in the US.
• Children: 1 in 200; approximately 500,000 kids and teens in the US.

• On average the time between OCD beginning and treatment being obtained is 14-17 years.

What a therapist looks for when diagnosing OCD:

• The person has obsessions.
• He or she does compulsive behaviors.        
• The obsessions and compulsions take a lot of time and get in the way of important activities the person values, such as working, going to school, or spending time with friends. (ocfoundation.org)

Treatment for OCD


OCD and EDs

"In relation to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, a common ailment and/or sign that is seen in both eating disorders and OCD is the obsession and ritualistic behaviors that tends to be cyclic and incapacitating to the patient. In anorexia nervosa, the afflicted individuals will have unusual methods of eating, dieting and exercising to satisfy their compulsive obsession to keep weight off.  According to Thorton & Russell (1997), anorexic individuals are much more likely to have a predisposition to acquiring anorexia nervosa from pre-existing OCD and in fact, almost 37% of anorexic patients have OCD.  According to Yaryura-Tobias the cerebral functioning and the primitive brain which contains the basal ganglia, is in particular, related to motor compulsive behaviors. Other psychiatric disorders which are related to this very area in the brain include hoarding, self mutilation etc. The true manifestation behind the compulsive ritualistic behaviors, tendencies and excessive thought processes are a result of a combination of higher cortical decision making melding with the primitive brain’s compulsive motor movements."...
"Eating Disorders may also be related to OCD Spectrum Disorders.  For example, Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), a spectrum disorder is highly linked to the eating disorders.  In both there is a distorted body image problem, an overemphasis of appearance and constant unremitting obsessions and compulsions centered around the body image.  Hypochondriasis may also be involved when the eating disordered individual begins to develop some physical symptoms.  Their may be an exaggerated preoccupation with the somatic symptoms."
Read more OCD/ED

OCD Self-Assessment Tests:

Way2Hope.org 
OCDChicago.org 
Psychcentral.com 
Thehealthcenter



OCD RESOURCES:

International OCD Foundation
 
Resource Database (International OCD Foundation Org)

AFOCD (OCDAwareness.com) 

ADAA Org (Anxiety Disorders Association Of America)  

OCD Ontario Org  
 
ARCVIC (Anxiety Recovery Centre Victoria)

OCD Online

OCD Tribe 

NAMI  (National Alliance on Mental Illness) 
 
MHA (Mental Health America) 

What a Difference a Friend Makes

Mental Health (OCD) 

Ofear.Com (Phobia Forum)

OCD Center Org 

Brain Physics. Com 

Dialy Strength Org (OCD Support Group)

OCD Ireland Org 

Anxiety Care Org 

OCD Action Org 

OCD UK Org 

MD Junction (forum)

Support 4 Hope 





 *See sidebar menu for more ED resources, hotlines, websites and organizations

sources:http://mw2.merriam-webster.com/medical/obsessive-compulsive%20disorder
http://www.ocfoundation.org/whatisocd.aspx?gclid=CJ7a0KKwm6QCFZZM5QodmDdRGA
http://www.ocdchicago.org/index.php/experts-perspectives/article/relationship_of_eating_disorders_to_ocd/
http://www.ocdawareness.com

pic source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/katrina-nicole/4530077826/

Inspirational Recovery Quotes: Perseverance

When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for it is just the place and time that the tide will turn.
Harriet Beecher Stowe

Perseverance:
per·se·ver·ance
–noun
1.steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., esp. in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.


Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.
Marie Curie

He conquers who endures.
Persius

The drops of rain make a hole in the stone not by violence but by oft falling.
Lucretius

I may not be there yet, but I'm closer than I was yesterday.
Unknown

How long should you try? Until.
Jim Rohn

Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.
Samuel Johnson

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
John Quincy Adams

Difficult things take a long time, impossible things a little longer.
André A. Jackson

Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. 
Newt Gingrich

It's a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired.
Robert Strauss

It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.
Albert Einstein

I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.
John D. Rockefeller

Don't be discouraged.  It's often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock.
Unknown

Try and fail, but don't fail to try.
Stephen Kaggwa

The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.
Unknown

Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men who kept on working.
Unkown

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.
Walter Elliott

Energy and persistence conquer all things.
Benjamin Franklin

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life. It goes on.
Robert Frost

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race
Calvin Coolidge

Fall seven times, stand up eight.
Japanese Proverb

Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it.  The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.
Earl Nightingale

I am not judged by the number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed: and the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I fail and keep trying.
Tom Hopkins

Boys, there ain't no free lunches in this country. And don't go spending your whole life commiserating that you got the raw deals. You've got to say, I think that if I keep working at this and want it bad enough I can have it. It's called perseverance.
Lee Iacocca

Edison failed 10, 000 times before he made the electric light. Do not be discouraged if you fail a few times.
Napoleon Hill

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't.
Henry Ward Beecher

Stay the course, light a star, change the world where'er you are.
Richard Le Gallienne

With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.
T.F. Buxton

A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.
Elbert Hubbard

If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.
Buddhist Saying

What we do not see, what most of us never suspect of existing, is the silent but irresistible power which comes to the rescue of those who fight on in the face of discouragement.
Napoleon Hill

Saints are sinners who kept on going.
Robert Louis Stevenson

Failure is often that early morning hour of darkness which precedes the dawning of the day of success.
Leigh Mitchell Hodges

The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground.
Unknown

I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.
Thomas A. Edison

When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs.  Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger.  If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.
Dale Carnegie

If one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces, never be afraid to pick one of those pieces up and begin again.
Flavia Weedn

Stubbornly persist, and you will find that the limits of your stubbornness go well beyond the stubbornness of your limits.
Robert Brault

Nothing could be worse than the fear that one has given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort which might have saved the world.
Jane Addams

You've got to get up every morning with determination if you're going to go to bed with satisfaction.
George Horace Lorimer

Don't ever, ever quit. Recognize that stopping now, regrouping to try a new approach isn't quitting. If you quit you'll regret it forever.
Rudy Ruettiger

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places.
Unknown

Even the woodpecker owes his success to the fact that he uses his head and keeps pecking away until he finishes the job he starts.
Coleman Cox

Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.
Louis Pasteur

Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.
Oliver Goldsmith

Never give up on something that you can't go a day without thinking about.
Unknown

If you are truly flexible and go until . . . there is really very little you can't accomplish in your lifetime.
Anthony Robbins

A champion is someone who gets up, even when he can't.
Jack Dempsey

Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance.
Abigail Adams

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Frederick Douglass

When your dreams turn to dust, vacuum.
Unknown

Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.
William Feather

If you are going through hell, keep going.
Winston Churchill

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.
Dale Carnegie

Success is sweet and sweeter if long delayed and gotten through many struggles and defeats.
Amos Bronson Alcott

You have within you right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw at you.
Brian Tracy

Thankfully, perseverance is a good substitute for talent.
Steve Martin

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
Confucius

Victory belongs to the most persevering.
Napoleon Bonaparte

The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man's determination.
Tommy Lasorda

Consider the postage stamp:  its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there. 
Josh Billings

When the world says, "Give up," hope whispers, "Try it one more time."
Unknown

It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get up.
Vince Lombardi

By perseverance the snail reached the ark.
C. H. Spurgeon

Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities, always see them, for they're always there.
Norman Vincent Peale

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are.  I don't believe in circumstances.  The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.
G.B. Shaw

Nobody trips over mountains.  It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble.  Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.
Unknown

Remember when you see a man at the top of a mountain, he didn't fall there.
Unknown

In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins- not through strength but by perseverance.
H. Jackson Brown

Defeat never comes to any man until he admits it.
Josephus Daniels

There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself to meet them.
Phyllis Bottome

You will come to know that what appears today to be a sacrifice will prove instead to be the greatest investment that you will ever make.
Gorden B. Hinkley

The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.
Roger Bannister

For I, the Lord thy God, shall hold thy right hand and say unto thee, fear not for I will help you.
The Bible

Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.
 Julie Andrews

It always seems impossible until its done.
Nelson Mandela

In order to get from what was to what will be, you must go through what is.
Unkown

I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.
Albert Einstein

Studies indicate that the one quality all successful people have is persistence.
Joyce Brothers

Man is not made for defeat.
Ernest Hemingway

When things go wrong as they sometimes will;
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill;
When the funds are low, and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but have to sigh;
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but do not quit.
Success is failure turned inside out;
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;
And you can never tell how close you are
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit-
It's when things go wrong that you must not quit.
Unknown

It takes a little courage, and a little self-control. And some grim determination, If you want to reach the goal. It takes a great deal of striving, and a firm and stern-set chin. No matter what the battle, if you really want to win.
Navy Seal Masterchief

All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a man has taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of your first.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pay as little attention to discouragement as possible. Plough ahead as a steamer does, rough or smooth - rain or shine. To carry your cargo and make your port is the point.
Maltbie Davenport Babcock

It's always too soon to quit!
Norman Vincent Peale


* See sidebar menu for more Inspirational Recovery Quotes and Quotes Of The Week



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