Guest guest Posted April 6, 2012 Report Share Posted April 6, 2012 Hi My 12 yr old son used loop tapes last year to help him with some of his obsessive thoughts and worries. It amazed me how well they worked. First he created a hierarchy with the help of his therapist, based on the level of anxiety each thought caused. Dr. S started with one with a level of 3 or 4 and worked her way up to the most anxiety-causing thought. During their sessions, my son would explain to her in detail, everything about a particular thought, including any sounds, smells, sights that may create the anxiety (hearing sirens, smelling smoke, etc). She would then record her voice reading a " story " meant to recreate the anxiety that my son was feeling. He was instructed to listen to it for at least 20 minutes a day, noting his anxiety level at the start, and stopping when the level came down to a 1 or 2. His biggest fear that he had for years was about something very bad happening to me, usually from a car accident. His second biggest fear was about something happening to my husband. At one point, he thought he was ready to work on the fear involving his dad. However, when he started to listen to the tape, his anxiety was a 10+, and he was crying hysterically. I told him not to continue, because it was obvious that this was just too much for him. After several weeks and a few other exposures in between, he went back to that dad exposure, and got through it very quickly. At some point, the tapes didn't seem to be working anymore, even though they were extremely descriptive and graphic. Dr. S changed things up a bit, and instead of recording her own voice, she typed up the story and had my son record his own voice. This did the trick, and the exposures were effective again. We worked on this all last summer, and by the time school started, he was fine. Fine. He's always responded very well to therapy and is always very motivated do the work and make the thoughts go away. His OCD has always been mostly bad thoughts. He went through a very short phase when he was about 8 or 9 when he had to touch something with one hand if he touched it with the other. He worked on this one on his own and got past it quickly. I feel like I'm always on the lookout for OCD trying to work it's way back into his mind. I remind him frequently that he needs to tell me right away if he feels like it's coming back, because the earlier he catches it and works on it, the quicker it will go away. Wow, this got really long! I've always considered my son to be a true success story. We know that he'll always have to deal with OCD. I just thank God everyday that he's not suffering right now. His first year of middle school has been his best year yet. He made so many new friends, and went from a class of 65 to over 450 and loves it! I thought this would surely put him over the edge, but once again, OCD makes no sense. Hope this can help somebody, and perhaps give some of you hope that it can get better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 7, 2012 Report Share Posted April 7, 2012 , thanks for sharing about loop tapes, I know others have said they help too. I've always wondered for those that tape their own how they manage to read them for the taping, think that would be a huge anxiety. Nice that the therapist taped them at first for him to listen to. Glad he's doing so well and in a larger school at that, and also in MIDDLE school, which is often the roughest years as a teen. > > > > Hi > > My 12 yr old son used loop tapes last year to help him with some of his obsessive thoughts and worries. It amazed me how well they worked. First he created a hierarchy with the help of his therapist, based on the level of anxiety each thought caused. Dr. S started with one with a level of 3 or 4 and worked her way up to the most anxiety-causing thought. During their sessions, my son would explain to her in detail, everything about a particular thought, including any sounds, smells, sights that may create the anxiety (hearing sirens, smelling smoke, etc). She would then record her voice reading a " story " meant to recreate the anxiety that my son was Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Hello, We also used tapes as part of my son's ERP and found it a powerful way to do ERP. I didn't use tapes when we first started, mainly because I was ignorant of the technique and had found other ways to do ERP. When we did decide to use tapes we started out simple - just 1-2 minutes and then increased both the time and intensity of content as we went along. I always encouraged my son to write the scenarios for the tapes but when he didn't put in enough detail to make it really work I would often add more. But, it was always his voice on the tapes, and I would always sit close by to make sure he was actually listening to the tapes and not trying to distract himself. Best, Joni > > , thanks for sharing about loop tapes, I know others have said they help too. I've always wondered for those that tape their own how they manage to read them for the taping, think that would be a huge anxiety. Nice that the therapist taped them at first for him to listen to. > > Glad he's doing so well and in a larger school at that, and also in MIDDLE school, which is often the roughest years as a teen. > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Could you explain more about the OCD symptoms that you worked on with the tapes and how often you used a tape and the degree of success it led to. Thanks! Re: ERP posts Hello, We also used tapes as part of my son's ERP and found it a powerful way to do ERP. I didn't use tapes when we first started, mainly because I was ignorant of the technique and had found other ways to do ERP. When we did decide to use tapes we started out simple - just 1-2 minutes and then increased both the time and intensity of content as we went along. I always encouraged my son to write the scenarios for the tapes but when he didn't put in enough detail to make it really work I would often add more. But, it was always his voice on the tapes, and I would always sit close by to make sure he was actually listening to the tapes and not trying to distract himself. Best, Joni > > , thanks for sharing about loop tapes, I know others have said they help too. I've always wondered for those that tape their own how they manage to read them for the taping, think that would be a huge anxiety. Nice that the therapist taped them at first for him to listen to. > > Glad he's doing so well and in a larger school at that, and also in MIDDLE school, which is often the roughest years as a teen. > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Could you explain more about the OCD symptoms that you worked on with the tapes and how often you used a tape and the degree of success it led to. Thanks! Re: ERP posts Hello, We also used tapes as part of my son's ERP and found it a powerful way to do ERP. I didn't use tapes when we first started, mainly because I was ignorant of the technique and had found other ways to do ERP. When we did decide to use tapes we started out simple - just 1-2 minutes and then increased both the time and intensity of content as we went along. I always encouraged my son to write the scenarios for the tapes but when he didn't put in enough detail to make it really work I would often add more. But, it was always his voice on the tapes, and I would always sit close by to make sure he was actually listening to the tapes and not trying to distract himself. Best, Joni > > , thanks for sharing about loop tapes, I know others have said they help too. I've always wondered for those that tape their own how they manage to read them for the taping, think that would be a huge anxiety. Nice that the therapist taped them at first for him to listen to. > > Glad he's doing so well and in a larger school at that, and also in MIDDLE school, which is often the roughest years as a teen. > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 11, 2012 Report Share Posted April 11, 2012 Hello, My son's (he is now 18) OCD centered maninly on sexual obsessions - that is, any sexual trigger, both internal and external, would set off his obsessions. So, the tapes we put together addressed issues of sexuality that I thought would have the most impact. We ended up doing several tapes and started off with simple scenarios. We then worked up to more detailed and complicated ones - but with each one, my son recorded himself. When we first started with the tapes, my son would be very anxious even though we had done ERP many times before. Somehow this techique reached his OCD in ways that the other exposures had previously hadn't. But, even though he would start out very anxious and would need time to steady himself, we found that he quickly would get used to the tapes; that is, they worked and he was no longer anxious about doing them. As for his symptoms, the tapes seemed to lessen his general obsessions. It's hard for me to say just how well ths technique worked for my son's overall treatment because I didn't think about working with it until after we had done other types of expsoures and after he had already had a siginifcant improvement in his OCD. But, I think that it helped us some and reached his OCD in a more general way. Somehow, by having him isualize his worst OCD fears in a very personal way, it helped him deal with his obsessions. If this doesn't make sense to any one, just keep asking me and I will try to answer as best as I can. Best, Joni > > Could you explain more about the OCD symptoms that you worked on with the tapes and how often you used a tape and the degree of success it led to. Thanks! > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.