Freedom from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (A Personalized Program for Living With Uncertainty)

Obsessive thoughts; paralyzing fear of contamination; unmanageable "checking" rituals; excessive concern with order, symmetry, and counting: nearly six million Americans suffer from these symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder. In this revolutionary book, Dr. Jonathan Grayson offers OCD sufferers his compassionate and innovative program for finally breaking the cycle of overwhelming fear and endless rituals. For more than two decades, Dr. Grayson's extraordinary methods have included taking patients at his Anxiety and Agoraphobia Treatment Center on an annual camping trip, during which they participate in activities even nonsufferers might find difficult to endure. They sleep in tents, use latrines without the benefit of running water, and take torturous hikes through mud and muck. Dr. Grayson's remarkably empathetic treatment program empowers sufferers not only to surmount these challenges but also to make enormous break-throughs in coping with their behaviors and feelings. Grayson argues that when properly understood, OCD is not a disorder of hopeless torment, but instead one that can be overcome.Freedom from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder offers a self-guided version of Grayson's program, a highly personalized treatment plan that emphasizes lasting recovery and relapse prevention. His program demystifies the process of OCD assessment and treatment; helps sufferers make sense of their own type of OCD through frank, unflinching self-evaluation; and provides the tools and instructions that give readers the knowledge of how to change and the courage to do it. This is, above all, a book that offers hope, and Grayson is a doctor who believes -- and who has shown in his successful treatment of OCD -- that anyone who is consumed by anxiety over life's uncertainties and enslaved by ritualistic behaviors can be treated effectively. With such a compassionate, knowing guide, Freedom from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder can help you take control of your life.