Half a year ago, you saw a short video on our website about a young girl suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). But what was that disease again? OCD is a psychiatric disorder characterised by fear. You can recognise a person suffering from this disorder on the basis of the compulsions he or she shows: repeated actions that seem useless in the eyes of others, such as opening and closing a door several times. Compulsions are performed in reactions to obsessions: unwanted and intrusive thoughts that cause a patient to live in fear; a fear that loved ones will get hurt or a fear that the patient him/herself will get infected. To prevent these fears from happening, patients thus perform the abovementioned rituals.
Let us go back to the girl you saw in our short video and let her tell you her story. You will discover if she made some improvements with regard to her disorder and if her New Year's wish came true in last several months.
Has the OCD become better or worse?
"Unfortunately I haven't found the right way to deal with my OCD, despite of all the medication I have been using. I really hope that this disorder will play a less central role in my life in the future and that I will be able to accept it a bit more. As you can guess, my compulsions haven't decreased. Though, it can really make a big difference if I am anxious or not, because my fears reinforce the compulsions. The reason why this happens is because I'll try to get more control over my fears by performing certain compulsions. Have you never as a child, or maybe even now, obligated yourself to jump over exact 2 tiles, because if you didn't ... your mother or father would get hurt or you couln't get the boy or girl you liked? I think many people have experienced cases similar to this.""At this moment I am more anxious than I normally am. That is not strange, as my sister gave birth to a beautiful child, just after the video was taken of me. Of course, with a newborn child worries will come, also for me as an aunt. This has made my compulsions a bit stronger. So, sometimes my compulsions are a little weaker and sometimes a little stronger, but they have never really gone away."
What has become of her New Year's wish?
"At New Year's eve I wished that my head would get more piece in my head. In addition to this, I wished that people would understand me more in the future and that I wouldn't have to be ashamed anymore for my OCD, so that I could perform my rituals in public.""Unfortunately, I'm still not stable with regard to the rest and piece in my head. So in that sense, nothing really has changed. However, I hope that the video has caused people to understand me and my disorder more. I do have heard some people say they didn't know I was suffering from my OCD so badly. Thus, I do think some people understand it more now, and that really relieves me. Concerning me performing my rituals in public, I sometimes just have to because some rituals cannot be concealed. The ones I can conceal, I still don't perform them in public. If people know what I suffer from I don't mind so much to show my compulsions. However, there are also people who don't know the disorder that I have and I still don't feel comfortable performing my compulsions when they are around."
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Living with Tinnitus: six months later
Six months ago we showed you a short movie of a man suffering from a disease called Tinnitus. Let us refresh your memory: Tinnitus concerns hearing a sound that is actually not there. In stead of an external stimulus, the brain or inner ear(s) create - what they call - a phantom sound. For patients living with this disease life isn't always easy, as they cannot escape from the sound. This makes leisure time less comfortable and sleeping sometimes impossible. Here's another story of a man dealing with this disease every day. This story tells you how he is doing now, six months later.
What was
"A few months ago I showed you what my everyday life looks like in a short video. The video showed how I have been dealing with a restriction I have developed in 2010. Back then, caused by the air conditioning system at my new office, I catched otitis. Ultimately, this has resulted in the fact that I have lost a big part of my hearing in my left ear. However, the thing I have been suffering from to a far larger extent is my Tinnitus, which has developed at the same time. What is
"A few months have passed since then. In the mean time a thing or two has changed. I have accepted my disease more in the sense that I talk about it in private conversations. During these conversations, it has become clear to me that several family members and friends of mine also recognise symptoms of Tinnitus in themselves. Often they only experience a little noise in the background. In a few cases, people seem to have realised to have been hearing a heavy beep for a longer while. When people are suffering from a mild form of Tinnitus it clearly seems that people have to be alerted to the sound before they actually become aware of it.""I, myself also have another concern at the moment. Since a week I have a heavy inflamed throat, including an associated bass voice. Now and then I feel some stinging in one of my ears or both ears. This concerns me, as my Tinnitus in my left ear has developed this way. The cause of the laryngitis seems to be the same as the cause of my otitis. All my colleagues have taped the air conditioning in their office during the last couple of weeks. Annoying air flows don't bother them anymore, but they bother me all the more. This is why I haven't been in my office since thursday. I have indicated that a solution has to be found first, before I will place myself behind my desk again. I assume a solution will be found this week."
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