Archive for November, 2009
Hypochondria and Health Anxiety in the 21st Century
Technorati Claim Token: 6FUVRXRBHDQZ
Lately, the OCD Center seems to be getting more and more calls from people suffering with Hypochondria, also known as Health Anxiety. Many in the public, as well as many physicians, don’t take Hypochondria very seriously. Their attitude is often that this is not a “real” problem, and that people with Health Anxiety are simply being neurotic or seeking attention. Numerous physicians I have spoken to have complained that patients with Hypochondria use a dramatically disproportionate share of doctors’ limited time. › Continue reading
Is Compulsive Overeating OCD?
Just in time for Thanksgiving, the Los Angeles Times weekly health section ran an issue this week dedicated to binge eating, also known as compulsive overeating. This special issue had four articles on binge eating, with a strong focus on the question of whether or not this problem should be formally identified as a psychological condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, also known as the DSM. › Continue reading
Cy Young, Zack Greinke, and Social Anxiety
Baseball’s best story of 2009 just got better.
As reported in a previous entry here (July 2, 2009), major league baseball has in recent years seen a spike in the number of players reporting symptoms of Social Anxiety. Perhaps the most noteworthy example of this trend is Zack Greinke of the Kansas City Royals, who missed much of the 2006 season due to his struggles with the condition.
What a difference a few years makes. › Continue reading
Exposure Therapy for OCD and Anxiety
At the heart of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for OCD and related anxiety disorders is the process of “exposure therapy”, during which we help clients repeatedly do the very thing that most terrifies them. For a client with OCD, this might mean purposely touching doorknobs without then washing. For someone with Pure Obsessional OCD, this could mean purposely thinking about being a pedophile or a murderer. A client with Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) may be asked to go out for a walk without the hat they usually wear to hide their face or to go to a brightly-lit restaurant with a group of friends. Someone with Panic Disorder exposure might mean driving on the freeway or taking a plane flight. And an individual with Social Anxiety may be urged to go to the mall to initiate conversations with strangers. › Continue reading
Social Anxiety / Social Phobia Research
Anyone who has ever been socially rejected or had their heart broken knows that it really hurts. And now, researchers at UCLA have discovered evidence of a biological basis for this pain. It appears that people with a variation of a specific gene are not just more sensitive to physical pain, but also more sensitive to social pain. › Continue reading
Subscribe
Recent Posts
Topics
OCD Archives
Links
Contact
