Is American OCD less treatable?

[Tikirob]

In America we have great practitioners here, my current therapist is awesome but because I have severe OCD I need complimentary therapy and was told with my current health insurance I will not be able to see a general psychologist.

From my experience as a patient comprehensive care is lacking for those who severe OCD in the US. In search of adequate severe OCD treatment I have called hundreds of numbers if not a thousand. And today here I am still calling 4 years post diagnosis, explaining to case managers that the mental disorder I have cannot be adequately treated where I live.

Yet I don’t live in a rural area, I live in New York City. According to the stats there is over 200,000 people in the tri-state area NY, NJ, CT that have OCD, not sure how many are in treatment or have yet to be diagnosed, but in my travels to 5 different treatment centers, a group meeting, I have maybe met 20 other people with OCD. I have had extensive conversations with 4 of them. 4 out of 200,000. And 2 of those people were Psychologists who have OCD, one treated me the other was in a group.

So we have this small city population of OCD patients stuck in Gotham and there is no where to go for residential treatment. When you ask directors of OCD centers here who are doing good work why there are no residential centers they can only respond with a shrug and the acknowledgment that rules have a way preserving the treatment methods but prolonging the process of getting help. I believe one head told me, “It just wont happen in this city.” And perhaps he is right.

But...it should happen.

OCD would be more treatable if we had a National center for OCD related issues. Because Nationally if 1 percent of the population has OCD we are now talking millions of patients. We do have an international charity that gives out information but not a a hub where anyone with this disorder can make one phone call, not 100s, and be considered for treatment at a top facility.

And It’s crazy that a person could be considered disabled in the States for having severe OCD yet the medical coverage the government awards you is not good enough to accepted for full or intensive treatment at any of our residential OCD programs.

Basically if you lost your money to OCD because we all know how easy it is to throw away a bag of groceries because someone sneezed near it, or had a therapist that gave us the mind reading eyes we could never get effective treatment from, or lost our job, family, friends, home do to chronic reassurance seeking, my point being is that OCD in America can leave you broke as a button and then you have no money to get the most effective treatment you need.

So I ask this question with the 2,999,996 people who have OCD that I have never had a chance to converse with in my mind, is American OCD harder to treat? Without an affordable nationalized center for OCD treatment where people on Social Security can get adequate care, without a residential OCD center in the largest city in America, and with very few opportunities for OCD patients to interact I say it may be, it may be but not sure how it is in England, France, Mexico, Canada, etc? Anyone from those areas care to share their experiences? Any info would be great, thanks for reading.

[nncwtrs]

I live in British Columbia, Canada. My daughter has suffered with severe OCD for over 4 years now. We live in a town that has a tertiary hospital that serves around 130,000 people. There are no Psychologists or Psychiatrists in the Community that are qualified in ERP (Exposure Response Prevention Therapy) - the most effective treatment for OCD . We luckily, have found a Psychologist in Vancouver, who, after a 4 month wait list, is treating my daughter. Navigating the Mental Health system has been extremely frustrating - Primary Care Physicians don't have a great understanding of this disorder. Have had to educate them myself. There is no system in place to co-ordinate Primary Care, Psychology or Psychiatry practitioners. I have had to request these people have teleconference meetings to construct a care plan for my daughter. Public Health does have an intake process, but the patient has to self refer. My daughter (being over the age of 18) is resistant to that, so it is a dead end. In order to qualify for out of province funding to go to a Residential Program - (only one in Ontario which is across the country, and still a voluntary program) - she has to prove failure in conventional therapy. Several thousand dollars into this, she has shown very slight improvement. A very few (good days) - still many "bad days". There needs to be more resources put into helping/treating/coordinating care for people that suffer with this debilitating disease. It affects everyone.

[Gimi44]

Hi there. I am from Spain, living in the capital. The public health insurance here is quite good here in general but we do not have good CBT/ERP specialist in OCD. So it's hard to find therapist. People still do not consider this disorder as a real illness. So we can get meds from psychiatrist but in order to get proper therapy, me personally, I had to educate myself with books and podcast from specialist in the UK and the USA. It's not the best way but it's better than going to a psicologyst who treat you with psicoanálisis ir talk therapy. Thanks for sharing your experience in the USA and Canada. I thought it was easier over there

[Tikirob in reply to Gimi44]

Thanks for your response! And I think we do have it better we have ERP specialists and some insurance covers it but in the US at least its only if you are wealthy you can get treatment by a psychologist. Otherwise you have to apply to experiment programs or a teaching hospital and work with pre-doctorate students then there is a lower scale of pay and insurances accepted.

It’s great you treated yourself - I have met a person in the states here that has done that to and gone on to treat others for an affordable fee. How were you able to keep up with your exposures? That seems to be an issue with me is doing the exposure work by myself.