mentalblog.com comments:
Zoe mixes two separate concepts:
One he says, current lifestyles cause this problem. It's a reasonable statement, clearly we have a phenomina of exploding mental disorders and either society is causing them due to environmental factors, lifestyle factors, or the physical-chemical environment of thsi age, or we're doing the reverse of defining deviancy down, we're defining normalcy up, narrowing the range of what's normal and what needs treatment.
Two he says, bad parents, bad parents, you didn't recognize little Yaakov had OCD, know what it is and how to deal with it, and therefore you're a PARENT FAILURE for not teaching him potential coping mechanisms when he was little to deal with it.
Funny thing about kids, you don't order up the kind you want, and frequently you wonder how in the world did you end up with this little person who's so similar yet so different. Somehow the Ribono Shel Olam says that's the best match for this neshama.
A quiet calm parent may have a hyper kid and haven't a clue there's even an issue. Of course, the reverse may be true, a very active parent may have a depressed child and haven't a clue it's an issue.
It's called life. Somehow we simple human's don't have that view that sees everything. That's not bad parenting, that's life. Wish it was easier.
I wish I had more to contribute to this topic. By the way, that PS deserves a second look because in the end, the second opinion concluded that the psychologist was wrong and that there was no bipolar disorder. Anyway, I'm sorry this post of yours didn't go anywhere. It seemed furtile for debate. -Zoe
I found your entry while searching for web info on OCD, something i've done for over a decade now.
Honestly, I think you are completely full of BS and have no idea what you're talking about.
My son has severe OCD. He has been receiving treatment for it since he was 4. His problems had been going on before that for quite some time, obviously being why I sought treatment in the first place. After a year's treatment, there was no diagnosis, but we were taught coping skills, behavioral therapy, etc. Then at age 6 my son's problems blew up very quickly and I we went back to the same therapist. This time, we began to see a psychiatrist as well. It was during these sessions that he was finally diagnosed with OCD.
My son is now 13 and has had to see a therapist on and off the entire time. He will go quite some time with very little symptoms. If some come up, he has behavioral coping skills he manages them with. But I can always tell when they get out of his control and the coping skills stop working. He struggles and struggles as the symptoms get worse. Finally, we have to seek treatment again. This has just begun happening again in the past 6 weeks and just today we have had to seek out another therapist. These cycles of symptoms suggest a chemical problem, NOT an environmental one. Also, my son's personality undergoes such a change that it is easy to see the biological connection as well.
OCD is an anxiety disorder. I have a family history of anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorders. Not everything is fully known about these illnesses. But from everything I've read and studied about them, they are mostly thought of as biological and chemical based. For instance, people with depression don't produce enough seratonin. That is a malfunction of the brain that they are born with. Now, of course, a parent could easily do things during a child's upbringing to exacerbate these problems. But that is not the same as these disorders being a by-product of poor parenting. And I'm sorry, but after years and years of trying to figure out the best way to raise my son and help him get the absolute best help he can get with his disorder, I find your notion of it being an environmental problem absolutely offensive. And really, I'm not so sure how I could've planted a life-long, highly disruptive disorder in my son's brain within the first 3 years of raising him. I would think if it were merely LEARNED behavior, 9 years of therapy out of 13 would've more than likely corrected it by now.
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