Can anyone help

[cthorne111]

Hi,
My husband has been living with social phobia and OCD for all of his adult life. We don't live in an area of the world where we can access a good cognitive behavioral therapist, and since he has such an intense fear of doctors, getting prescription medication is also out of the question (besides the fact that since he can't work, we don't make enough money to afford prescription meds anyway). I can't seem to find anything online about how to put cognitive behavioral therapy into use, everything just says to find a good therapist. He has made amazing headway in fighting the OCD by resisting the compulsions and also he is on St. John's Wort which alleviates a lot of the obsessive symptoms he used to have and helps a little with the social anxiety.

In particular his major issue is fear of criticism. If he's having one of his not so good days and happens to be socializing with anyone, anything they do or say that possibly can be, is taken as criticism and he just shuts down and refuses to talk to them anymore because of a terrifying fear of an argument. I know the other person isn't trying to argue with him but it's like a switch goes off and he turns off and that's it, and later on he develops all kinds of hostility to them that he has to work through. I just want to know what I can be doing or helping him to realize so that he can work on this and not just fall into this trap over and over. If there's any web sites out there that actually explain cognitive behavioral therapy, so I know where to start, I'll try anything. I was a psychology major in college and it's been due to my input and helping him rethink things that he's gotten over a lot of hurdles (fear of public speaking being one of them) so I'm sure I can apply the principles, if I can just find some information to start us off on the right track.

 

[emmdee]

I googled it, however i did not get any information on how to do it, only what it is. Sorry. =[

 

[hamandcheese]

Hi CThorne111

I am just after reading your post and thought I could be of help. I suffer from a Social Anxiety and a General Anxiety disorder. I've been really successful at treating the SA myself over the last few years as my life has changed dramatically for the better, and I have never gone to a therapist.

I found a great book that puts the CBT techniques to treat SA into a practical format.

Overcoming Social Anxiety: A Self-help Guide Using Cognitive Behavioural Techniques by Gillian Butler

This is the Amazon url if you want to order it from the U.S.

http://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Social-Anxiety-Shyness-Behavioral/dp/0814798748

As there is a whole series of "Overcoming" books covering a range of disorders, I found one in the same series for OCD.

Overcoming Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder by David Veale and Rob Willson.

I only found that this was available to order from Amazon in the U.K. but here is the url anyway.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Overcoming-Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder-David-Veale/dp/1841199362

I found the SA book to be invaluable and it helped me get through a lot. Right now I'm reading one for my GAD. I think they're great and they are in no way long, boring or technical, just short, to the point and comprehensible.

Hope they are of some help.

Good luck!

 

[cthorne111]

Thanks very much, I will see if I can order them!