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Overwhelmed by OCD
Helping Kids Who Can't Stop
By Judi Bailey
(HarperCollins, 1996), writes, "It's as if the brain gets stuck in gear."
But not stuck as in "can't move" – stuck as in "doing a behavior over and over again." Schwartz compares the OCD brain to a car without automatic transmission. It can't shift from one behavior to another. The individual has to manually force thoughts to go to the next thing.
The back cover of Brain Lock shows actual PET scans of energy use in the typical brain and that of a brain with OCD. Experts speculate that the repetition of the same behavior causes certain areas of the brain to heat up. This might be creating or contributing to Caleb's exhaustion.
Mitzi Waltz, a researcher in the field of childhood developmental disabilities and senior lecturer of journalism at the University of Sunderland in England, says the tiredness is also the constant feeling of being on edge. "It takes over your thoughts and just won't go away," she says. She compares this to the discomfort and disruption of being continually nauseous.
Some researchers are finding a link with the auto-immune system. Dr. Hugh F. Johnston, clinical associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, says OCD has a number of causative factors coupled with some complicated genetic ties.
"When children acquire strep throat, for example, the antibodies that attack the bacteria can cross-react with other tissues," Dr. Johnston says. "For example, when they react with heart tissue, rheumatic fever can result. If brain tissue is affected it can lead to OCD."