With May being mental health awareness month, the Electrical Industries Charity (EIC) demonstrate the services they can provide through a case study of industry member Tom.
We are progressively seeing more public exposure on the complexity of an individual’s mental health experience and most importantly the subjectivity of that experience. No experience of mental health is the same and the charity therefore ensures that the support provided is tailored to meet the needs of the individual; we advocate and practice inclusive support by including the individual in the decision-making process. We are responsive, collaborative and committed to supporting our industry members.
A case which evidences the charity’s tailored support is that of Tom.
A concerned family member
The EIC was contacted by Tom’s wife on October of 2018; she communicated that she was very concerned about Tom who had been suffering for a long period with obsessive thinking, intrusive thoughts and the construction of false memories. These symptoms were causing Tom significant distress and he just wanted it to stop.
Tom’s employment role required long working hours and he was not comfortable with taking time off work to attend appointments. We respected this and worked together with Tom to develop a plan of action to support him and his wife.
OCD – busting the myths
OCD is a mental disorder which is often misunderstood. You will find people making comments like ‘it’s just my OCD’ or ‘I am a bit OCD with ……’ As a result, the seriousness of the disorder has been muddied and people can be less inclined to seek help as they feel stigmatised.
Psychology Today (2019) defines OCD as “An anxiety disorder in which people have unwanted and repeated thoughts, feelings, images, and sensations (obsessions) and engage in behaviours or mental acts in response to these thoughts or obsessions” (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Psychology Today UK). Commonly, the individual will carry out the obsessive behaviours in order to reduce the obsessive thoughts but in most instances, this only relieves the individual of their angst and distress temporarily. To date there has not been a single cause found for OCD, but causation is attributed to neurobiological markers.
Relatedly, Tom was fixated on an incident that happened seven years ago and as he cannot remember what happened, this exacerbated his feelings of worry and angst which in turn caused intrusive thinking about whether he had harmed someone. To silence his thinking, he would feel compelled by his thoughts to obsessively search the internet for answers – news clips, speaking to his friends who were there that evening and seeking certainty from his wife. Tom did everything and anything to achieve certainty and this obsessive thinking psychologically and emotionally tormented him.
Consequently, Tom was engaging in suicidal ideation as he felt desperate to silence his mind. A protective factor for Tom was that his wife was pregnant with their first child, and he felt it important that he was here (alive) to support her and his unborn baby.
This period was very difficult for his wife and we suggested telephone counselling so that she received emotional support during a very complex and uncertain time.
Tom’s treatment
We discussed treatment options with Tom, who had been diagnosed with OCD three years ago by a therapist and had received two series of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), a talking therapy used to reconstruct thinking patterns and behaviours and is most used to treat/manage anxiety and depression. Tom felt the CBT was ineffective in relieving him of his symptoms. We decided a formal diagnosis was necessary and referred him to our online psychiatry services who provide psychiatric assessments with an assigned psychiatrist with specialism in the area of OCD.
Tom was averse to medication, he felt it was a short-term fix and really would not unearth the truth about what happened that evening, it would merely suppress the thoughts and associated behaviours. Tom consulted with the psychiatrist and received a formal diagnosis, medication review, and recommendation for talking therapy. As Tom had engaged in CBT previously, we decided with him to try an alternate route with a private clinic.
Tom attended the seven-day clinic in Somerset which provided a mixture of face-to-face support, group meetings, and the development of coping and management strategies. Tom found the clinic helpful, although ongoing support was necessary, and this was provided by skype sessions with a clinician from the OCD clinic. Tom used the cognitive reframing and behavioural responses to combat his symptoms of doubt and seeking certainty. Another crucial element was that Tom used his exposure response prevention exercises – defined as “a therapy that encourages you to face your fears and let obsessive thoughts occur without ‘putting them right’ or ‘neutralising’ them with compulsions” – to assist him in times of distress.
Tom still experiences days of difficulty; however, he is doing better and both he and his wife know that should he need further support the EIC will be here to support them.
There’s always help out there
OCD is a complex disorder and affects individuals and their family members subjectively with varying degrees of severity. However, if a tailored support strategy is provided to support an individual’s needs there can be progress made. There are no ‘quick fixes’ when it comes to mental health but there are multiple resources and services available through the Electrical Industries Charity that will support you and your family.
Moreover, during this period of pandemic, individuals who have a diagnosis of OCD are likely to feel increased anxiety and distress and it is important that industry members who are struggling to cope in isolation and to manage with the whirlwind media coverage of Covid-19 reach out to the EIC for support.
To learn more about what the EIC can do for you, visit their website.
