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  #1  
Old Sep 18, 2013, 09:23 PM
Missy Muffet Missy Muffet is offline
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Hello, there! I'd love to hear opinions about the difference between phobias and paranoia from people who experience OCD themselves.

I have been helping my 21 year old son with his mental illness for the past 7 years. He recently became more severe and paranoia became a new symptom when depression occurred. He doesn't trust mental health professionals so I've pretty much been it for most of these years. FYI, my older sister had identical problems. It's definitely genetic because he never met her due to her dying after surgery when she was in her late 30s.

Official professional diagnoses: GAD, Social Anxiety, Trichotillomania, various Phobias, OCD, Racing Thoughts, Intrusive Thoughts and more recently Paranoia.

It all started with social anxiety in 9th grade that presented itself with trichotillomania. Later diagnoses were added GAD, OCD. His trichotillomania went into remission in 11th grade and didn't return until two months ago when he started having paranoia.

Basically, this is what I understand. He became depressed due to a life situation that would cause depression in anyone. That increased his anxiety. That increased his OCD intrusive thoughts. He says the racing thoughts are tolerable but then the intrusive thoughts start racing he can't bear it.

Here's where paranoia started. He began to fear that his intrusive thoughts would get out into the world, that people would learn his mind thinks these horrible things. Such as fear he would blurt it out (he never has) or text it (he never has) or tell someone on the phone (he never has) or on the internet (he never has). So now he's paranoid of windows being open (so nobody will hear if he does verbally say something that he has never verbally said), and all types of electronics----computers, telephones, etc.

Two months ago the MD added an antidepressant to the antianxiety meds. That improved the racing thoughts and most of the intrusive thoughts. What few intrusive thoughts he would get would just float away. He was down to just one intrusive thought per day that he only OCD'd about for 15 minutes, whereas in the past he would OCD about one intrusive thought for days. BIG IMPROVEMENT.

But the paranoia remained. He knows it's irrational. He always has. It seemed he was more in the habit of being afraid of these things. So he started an antipsychotic three days ago. The paranoia instantly started to subside. He's not all the way there yet because he just started the medication, but it's definitely heading in the right direction.

Right now, he is PLAYING A VIDEO GAME. Not on the internet, but it's the first time he has used a computer in months.

My question is for anyone who has had paranoia with their OCD. Phobias are supposed to be challenged head on via exposure. If you've ever had paranoia, what has helped you overcome it? In so many ways, his paranoia is very similar to phobias. If we accidently leave a cell phone on the table, it's like he saw a spider if he had a spider phobia (which he doesn't.)

Am I off track here with connecting phobias and paranoia together when it comes to people with OCD? What he's really paranoid about is his own mind. It's like he doesn't trust his own mind. He explained it best to the MD: He has psychosis about his neurosis.

I forgot to add that mental health professionals have told me that it's very common for people with anxiety disorders to develop anxiety/paranoia about their anxiety disorders.

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  #2  
Old Sep 19, 2013, 04:41 PM
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Stockbroker Stockbroker is offline
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How healthy is his lifestyle? Does he eat healthy, get plenty of exercise, try and get plenty of sleep?

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  #3  
Old Sep 21, 2013, 06:28 PM
Missy Muffet Missy Muffet is offline
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He is a professional athlete so he's in great physical shape. At the beginning of this two months ago, he was sleeping 12 to 16 hours per day. Now he is sleeping about 8 to 10 hours per day. His diet could be improved, and I'm working on that. I plan to ask the doctor to test him for vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

As for lifestyle, he doesn't have one since the paranoia set in. He rarely leaves the house and prefers his bedroom. At first, I was able to get him out with me each day---canoeing, hiking or something. Then he got the flu and regressed even further. Got into the habit of being inside and started saying he didn't feel like going anywhere.

I can't seem to motivate him to leave the house. But he is making progress. For the first 6 weeks, he had to have my husband or myself in the same room with him at all times. Over the past two weeks, we can now be in other rooms. He can have the windows open now, and he's starting to use the computer more as long as it's not hooked up to the internet. We need to work on phones and cell phones BIG TIME because he's not going to be able to function in life without using phones.

He went from living independently for two years in another state a thousand miles away to rarely leaving his bedroom here.

I'm in the process of trying to find an appropriate therapist, who won't cause more harm than good, that he can relate to and tolerate. Easier said than done, but I'll find the person. I'm so hopeful that he finally agreed that he would like to talk to a therapist.

Last edited by Missy Muffet; Sep 21, 2013 at 06:40 PM.
  #4  
Old Sep 21, 2013, 09:45 PM
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Hey, to me the paranoia seems unrelated to the OCD. Generally, almost ALL OCD sufferers are aware of how irrational their thinking is. Based on your explanation, it seems he thinks his paranoia is rational/cautious thinking.

Im sure that since he is paranoid that that is why he doesnt trust mental health professionals, but this may cause a problem.

At this point i think you need to get him out of that room and into the "scary" world. Maybe dont jump into the deep end, but expose him to the things that he fears...little by little. Eat very healthy. Vitamins & supplements may be necessary.



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  #5  
Old Sep 21, 2013, 10:18 PM
Missy Muffet Missy Muffet is offline
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His distrust of mental health professionals happened YEARS before the paranoia started a couple of months ago. The psychiatrist increased his dosage of Prozac too quickly and it caused suicidal thoughts. We stopped the med, informed the psychiatrist, and by the time we saw him a week later, he was only interested in covering his *** legally and wanted to institutionalize my son when he was no longer having suicidal thoughts because we stopped the Prozac.

This paranoia is a very new symptom in the past two months, and it's extremely possible for people with anxiety disorders and OCD to develop paranoia. He hasn't rationalized his paranoia. He knows it's irrational. His problem is that he doesn't trust his mind right now. His intrusive thoughts started racing for weeks on end without stopping, and he was going insane when he came to me for help because he was considering suicide because it was the only thing he felt could stop the horrifying intrusive thoughts. He is slowly getting better but still doesn't trust his mind.

I've made great strides with the diet now that his appetite is back. I'll try to get him to take supplements, but he feels he's already taking a lot of pills. In addition to the psych meds, he's also taking pain medicine (his wisdom teeth were removed two days ago) and allergy medicine. That's like 10 pills per day right now. Once he's done taking the pain meds, I can try to get him to take vitamins. I already talked to him about D since he's not drinking milk. He has other dairy products but they don't contain D.

I'll get him back out there into the big world. I've done it before. As with most people who have social anxiety, he can be a bit agoraphobic sometimes and keep his world small. But his sport season will be starting soon, and he's hoping to move out of state in a few months. It's a big relief he is starting to plan for the future. I'm a little nervous he's not ready for this season, but I haven't shared my worries because it might hinder him from progressing. Who knows, maybe he'll just snap out of it when it's time to get back to work.

Once he gets past this paranoia, he's going to be in better shape than he was for the past 7 years because he has been coping with OCD without medication all those years. Now he's finally on Zoloft and it's made a huge difference. His racing thoughts have completely STOPPED. His intrusive thoughts are now very rare, less than once a day, and he doesn't OCD about them for more than 15 minutes. This is way less than he has dealt with for years. I feel he really has a chance at having a peaceful mind once he trusts it again. He's such an amazingly strong person. He stopped trichotillomania by sheer willpower in the past. I really hope he pulls through this.

He's finally ready for therapy. After all of these years, he's ready. And he's not paranoid about therapists. He just doesn't trust like psychiatrists because he encountered one who abused his power. Nobody has ever considered his mistrust of psychiatrists to be paranoid because it's rooted in reality.

I've never told him this, but my sister experienced the same thing. She was voluntarily inpatient to adjust medication, and the psychiatrist relocated her to a floor with severely mentally ill people because she refused his treatment plan. She was living in a different state. My father had to go to the state she was in and higher a lawyer to get her out of the mental hospital. She was a perfectly sane, highly successful professional. There was no reason whatsoever for the psychiatrist to keep her there against her will.

Thank you for your ideas.
Thanks for this!
Stockbroker
  #6  
Old Sep 22, 2013, 08:07 AM
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The fact that he knows it is irrational is very good.

Study "mindfulness for OCD"

Also there is a book called "The mindfulness and acceptance workbook for depression" That is an excellent read.

He is definitely too attached to his own thoughts, he needs to learn to just view them and observe them without becoming tangled up in them. Of course that is easier said than done in the short-term, but through practice it will get much much better

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  #7  
Old Sep 22, 2013, 11:04 AM
Missy Muffet Missy Muffet is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stockbroker View Post
Study "mindfulness for OCD"

Also there is a book called "The mindfulness and acceptance workbook for depression" That is an excellent read.
Thank you for these suggestions. I'll get them ASAP.

I was thinking this morning that he should go inpatient. Paranoia is a big deal and his future is at stake. Even though I could force him inpatient because he's not able to care for himself, I can't do that because I can't risk him losing trust in the two people he trusts most----my husband and I.

So I need to figure out a way to convince him to go inpatient. One big obstacle I anticipate is he is a smoker. Most of the mental hospitals around here don't allow smoking. There has to be one somewhere in the country that does let mental patients smoke.

If I can't locate one, I'll talk with him about partial-hospitalization, where he goes all day for 3 to 5 days per week. I hope he agrees. I'm not going to talk to him about this for about a week. I want to give him time to heal from having his wisdom teeth out, get all my ducks in a row as far as treatment options are available, and talk with his father about how to go about an intervention.
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