OCD Support – Top 5 Tips for the Patient's Family

Have you already looked for OCD support groups in your  area? As a family member of an OCD patient, you'd want a support network that's bigger than just your family and a doctor. A doctor or consulting physician should be able to provide you with info on where to go for group therapy to supplement one-on-one sessions. You can also check out the nearest OCD support center.

Los Angeles, for instance, has an OCD Center (http://www.ocdla.com/). If you can't find an OCD center nearby, check your local hospitals. Even if the center or meeting is located in the next town, make the drive.

OCD Support Groups – How They Help

OCD support groups are designed to make whatever treatment the patient is receiving more effective over the long term. What's more, an OCD support network can give substantial comfort to an OCD patient's family in many ways.

For one thing, OCD support groups also help in educating family members on how to cope with and react to the symptoms of the disorder. These groups also share the burden with the patient's family in terms of listening to the patient and helping him/her verbalize and deal with the difficulties of everyday life.

OCD Support – Tips If You Know Someone With OCD

Here are five tips from the experts on dealing with a family member (or friend) who has OCD.

1. Educate yourself. Once a member of your family or a friend is diagnosed with OCD, your first job is to educate yourself about the condition. Often, unsupportive family or friends can make conditions worse.
   
   
2. Educate your friend or loved one. Share your OCD support research with your loved one. Take relevant brochures, books, and tapes into the home. Encourage not only other family members but also the patient to read/listen to them. Sometimes, simply letting the patient know that OCD can be treated gives him/her enough motivation to accept and work with professional therapy.  

3. Encourage acceptance not rejection. There's no need to repeatedly explain how your loved one's fears and behavior patterns are irrational — he/she already knows it! Effective OCD support encourages acceptance of the person in your home and among your friends, even as you provide calm but firm support (i.e., don't condone compulsive rituals).
   
   
4. Check your reactions. Did you know that frustrated reactions or criticism from the people around the patient could make OCD worse? This kind of pressure only increases anxiety. Be patient with slow progress. Be quick to praise successful efforts at dealing with compulsions or resisting rituals.
   
   
5. Don't baby-sit. Give your loved one some measure of independence. Trust him/her to be alone sometimes.