My husband has ROCD. Is there any therapy to cure it? Also please tell me how I can be supportive.
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Yes, he can be given cognitive behavioral treatments. A thorough history would include the presenting problems, background of the problems, and personal history with specific emphasis on relational history and family history and environment. It is of outmost importance to gain a clear understanding of the nature, pattern, and duration of your husband?s symptoms within the relationship context and in previous relationships. Therapists should collect detailed information about triggers of obsessions, their frequency and duration, the expected feared outcome or worry about the obsessions, and the responses to these intrusions. Responses include emotions (e.g., anxiety, guilt), overt compulsions (e.g., checking, comparing, reassurance seeking), covert compulsions (e.g., thought suppression, monitoring of internal states, self-reassurance), and avoidance or safety behaviors. ROCD symptoms have been linked with significant personal difficulties (e.g., mood, anxiety, and other OCD symptoms) and couple difficulties (e.g., relationship and sexual dissatisfaction). The counselor will help him and you in the treatment process. There will be a lot of contaminated thinking and decontamination is a good therapy to use in this context. He may develop an obsession of a particular trait from any old association as desirable not because he really likes it but because he has got familiar to that feature, perhaps from a movie, and just has an affinity to it. He may however imagine it to be the ultimate among all traits and stay fixated to it. He needs a lot of love but not to be overdone. His fears may be discussed and your discernment is very important. You will need to very intelligently show him the reality from fiction. His family background and childhood may help to determine how to counter their influences. It is a long process and tedious too. If there are other OCD characteristics, then you will need to get treatment for them too. Remember that there is a lot of fear and confusion, and decision making will be near impossible. You could be of tremendous help to make decisions and remove that burden. This can only happen if you prove your intelligence and decision making art.
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