Product Description

Newly Revised and Updated!

Are you tormented by extremely distressing thoughts or persistent worries?

Compelled to wash your hands repeatedly?

Driven to repeat or check certain numbers, words, or actions?

If you or someone you love suffers from these symptoms, you may be one of the millions of Americans who suffer from some form of obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD.

Once considered almost untreatable, OCD is now known to be a highly treatable disorder using behavior therapy. In this newly revised edition of Stop Obsessing! Drs. Foa and Wilson, internationally renowned authorities on the treatment of anxiety disorders, share their scientifically based and clinically proven self-help program that has already allowed thousands of men and women with OCD to enjoy a life free from excessive worries and rituals.

You will discover:
• Step-by-step programs for both mild and severe cases of OCD
• The most effective ways to help you let go of your obsessions and gain control over your compulsions
• New charts and fill-in guides to track progress and make exercises easier
• Questionnaires for self-evaluation and in-depth understanding of your symptoms
• Expert guidance for finding the best professional help
• The latest information about medications prescribed for OCD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7796 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07
• Released on: 2001-07-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 253 pages

Review
?By far the best self-help book for people with obsessions and compulsions that I have ever read. Unusually clear, exceptionally precise, and immensely practical.?
? Albert Ellis, Ph.D., author of A New Guide to Rational Living -- Review

Review
“By far the best self-help book for people with obsessions and compulsions that I have ever read. Unusually clear, exceptionally precise, and immensely practical.”
— Albert Ellis, Ph.D., author of A New Guide to Rational Living

From the Publisher
"Regain control over your life. If you find yourself tormented by unwanted, disturbing thoughts or compelled to perform rigidly set action to reduce your stress, you may be one of the millions of Americans who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). It may be as mild a doubting whether you tumed off the iron before leaving the house, or it may be as sever as disabling as washing your hands for hours each day. But whatever its degree, OCD is distressing, uncomfortable, and can disrupt your life or destroy your most important relationships. Until recently, OCD was considered to be almost untreatable using conventional forms of therapy. Now it is known to be a highly treatable disorder using behavior therapy. Drs. Foa and Wilson, internationally known authorities on the treatment of anxiety disorders, have developed a revolutionary self-help program that can help relieve crippling obsessions and compulsions. In Stop Obsessing! you will discover: A series of questionnaires to help you analyze the severity of your obsessions and compulsions. An initial self-help program to overcome milder symptoms and reduce more severe cases. The most effective way to help you let go of your obsessions and gain control over your compulsions. An intensive three-week program for anyone who spends more than two hours a day on obsessions or rituals. Expert guidance in determining whether you need the added help of a professional.Stop Obsessing! 's powerful and reliable techniques have helped thousands of patients with OCD reduce or eliminate unwanted thoughts and rituals. Today, you or someone you love can recover and lead a normal life, free of excessive fears and worries. So why wait?

"By far the best self-help book for people with obsessions and compulsions that I have ever read. Unusually clear, exceptionally precise, and immensely practical"--Albert Ellis, Ph.D., President, Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy, and author of A New Guide To Rational Living.

Customer Reviews

Seriously
This book saved my life nine years ago. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My life is no longer ruled by anxiety. Thank you R.W. and E.F.

Not quite perfect
This was listed as the top choice for obsessive-compulsive disorder by the Carlat Report for December 2005 in a review of self-help books in psychiatry (www.thecarlatreport.com).
It is very much a self-help book, directed at patients rather than professionals, but some of the methods recommended seem to assume that a professional is involved and it discusses the use of medication. Indecisions and mentisme are not covered but hoarding (which is seldom due to OCD)is. As with several other self-help books it is without references or statistics so that we have to take some of the claims for effectiveness on trust. The professional reputations of the authors are so high that I would be inclined to trust them, although in some of the cases described the remedy looks worse than the disease. Their recommendations for dealing with contamination fears, and also their techniques for coping with contrast ideas, might be quite distressing.
An academic quibble is that the techniques mostly seem to be plain vanilla behavior therapy, rather than cognitive. The cognitive therapy of Beck (and its avatar, the rational-emotive therapy of Ellis) involve arguing patients out of their symptoms by convincing them of the logical errors of their thinking, a futile endeavor in OCD. This book recommends the kinds of treatment that many of us have found useful empirically whatever our theoretical background.
Sigmund Freud (in one of his letters to Binswanger) discusses a case of OCD and recommends what is called in Norman Guterman's translation "counter-compulsion." (His classic paper on OCD is usually considered the 1909 "Rat Man" whom he did treat by psychoanalysis. That was published as "Der Familienroman der Neurotiker Bemerkung einen Fall von Zwangneurose" for those of you who own the Sammlung kleiner Schriften. In the Collier paperback series, edited by Philip Rieff, the "Rat Man" case is in "Three Case Histories" )
Where Foa and Wilson fall short of Freud, and of Judith Rappaport's "The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing," is in literary merit. They write clearly and understandably but this is not something that the general reader would want to read cover to cover.

Just what the doctor ordered
This book comes highly recommended by my doctor and is living up to its reputation!