FEARED CURSE BY ANTS
A married adult came into my contact and shared his extreme distress caused by three major problems in his life (1) terrified by dirty things (2) feared loss of business documents (3) fear of curse by ants if required to sit on the floor. He was troubled by these problems for many years. He described each of his problems in great detail.
He is a science postgraduate. He was severely troubled by his problems with dirty things. He had an established business of manufacturing metal objects. His had a supply network in neighboring states. He had good turnover in his enterprise. He was required to travel and stay in hotels for his business. He would carry his linens. In hotel, he would remove and replace the bedcovers which he carries to ensure cleanliness. He will wash the bathroom, taps, mugs, buckets in the hotel bathroom prior to using that. At home and outside, he had developed elaborate rituals and patterns for cleaning hands and taking bath. He would wash his hand many times in defined patterns and associated washing with counts. The patients with OCD develops counting system to deal with their repetitive tasks. He thought of himself as extremely dirty and would not allow any other person including family members to touch him. He thought that if anybody could touch him, that person will become dirty. He even did not allow his children or wife to touch him. He has a single room at the upper floor of his own house. He locked himself in that room. He was being served food by moving the plate inside his room. The chapatti will have to be dropped to his plate from above to ensure that no physical connection is established with the person through his plates. His plate is dirty, while serving chapatti, the chapatti will touch the plate and the contamination of his plate would pass on to the person through the chapatti. He will not allow any family member to walk over his footsteps, because his footsteps were contaminated, if any person would walk over those footsteps the contamination would spread over to that person. Thus, living inside and outside the home had become extremely troublesome for him.
He also feared that his business documents can get lost. He would check the pocket of his clothes several times to ensure that no document was left in his pocket. The documents of concerns were his bills and payments receipts which were of small size in thin papers. While riding the bike, he would turn backwards to make sure that his documents did not fall on the road. He escaped accidents because of this checking behavior while riding the bike. The feared loss of documents and consequent loss of money were also major issues he was facing.
For three years his business had declined and he had already incurred a loss of millions. He was not attending to his business. Whatever the business dealings were remaining that were being looked after by his brother. He had almost become dependent on his brother for financial help. The situation had become too much problematic for him.
He maintained a diary of his problems and treatment. He told me that he has already taken several group of medicines like serotonin reuptake inhibitors and he had a long list of medicines by brand names and their grouping according to the mechanisms of action. He also used John Wort by importing from United States. He was using web for gaining knowledge on his problems and treatment. He has a friend who is equally intelligent and helped him in his problems and search on the webs. He was having secondary depression. He did not get relief so far.
Through internet he came to know about Gamma Knife which uses laser brain surgery and employed in some case of OCD. He considered himself as a case of Gamma Knife. He located and visited a reputed hospital in Delhi having this facility and impressed them to subject him for this surgery even if the specialists were not fully convinced by its indications in him. He shared that he also become aware that this surgery is partially successful and may even lead to more problematic side effects. He got afraid of side effects and also reasoned that what would be the use if only partial success is to be achieved.
He was a person with severe OCD with associated depression and prominent impairment in interpersonal and occupational functioning. He has good communication skills. He could describe his problems and issues in detail. He was on intensive and regular psychiatric treatment. I advised him to add Cognitive Drill Therapy to his treatment regime. He agreed to it and we began to work.
The underlying issues were semen linked with contamination, loss in business for document loss and curse by ants for losses. The drill therapy as usual was applied on him. He was exposed to real objects of fear such as toilet mug, wash basin, dirty clothes, clothes having patches and mental representations of objects such as actual loss of documents. He converted all future tense statements into past tense and repeated them.
He showed tremendous improvement in his condition within a few months. He locked the room on upper storey. Started living with family members, touching and allowing them to touch. He re-established his business and reclaimed his occupation over and above his previous level. He started visiting to other cities for his business purposes. He is a totally new person now. He is a live example of the miraculous approach of combination treatment.
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