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Rewind, Replay, Repeat by Jeff Bell

Rewind, Replay, Repeat by Jeff Bell. About the Author. Jeff Bell Afternoon News Anchor at KCBS 2 children Wife OCD sufferer (my words, not his). About the Book. Personal Memoir Inspiring Teaches life lessons

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Rewind, Replay, Repeat by Jeff Bell

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  1. Rewind, Replay, Repeatby Jeff Bell

  2. About the Author • Jeff Bell • Afternoon News Anchor at KCBS • 2 children • Wife • OCD sufferer (my words, not his)

  3. About the Book • Personal Memoir • Inspiring • Teaches life lessons • "The best first-person account available on life from the point of view of the OCD sufferer." - Jeffrey M. Schwartz

  4. About Obsessive Compulsive Disorder • Obsessive – preoccupy or fill the mind of (someone) continually, intrusively, and to a troubling extent • Compulsive- relating to or relating to an irresistible urge. • Disorder – a disruption of normal physical or mental functions; a disease.

  5. About OCD (continued) • Hand washing? • Rewinding, Replaying, Repeating. • Healthy vs. OCD; We all have compulsions.

  6. About OCD (continued) • Scholars generally agree that both psychological and biological factors play a role in causing the disorder.

  7. Interview Can you give us an idea of how difficult it was to deny your compulsions? I can honestly say that fighting compulsions--especially during my worst years with OCD--was more difficult than any other challenge I've ever faced. OCD obsessions are so incredibly intrusive and anxiety-provoking that those of us with OCD will do almost anything to try to rid ourselves of that anxiety.

  8. We know our compulsions give us (temporary) relief, so we turn to them again and again. I remember many times when I found myself standing at a sink, scrubbing my hands in water so scalding hot that I wanted to scream, but feeling unable to break away because of an obsessive thought that my hands weren't clean.

  9. What do you think made you want to tell your story, when, a few years before, your OCD was a "deep, dark, secret"? My decision to share my story stemmed largely from a desire to give meaning to the many years I'd lost to my disorder. I decided that if I could help other people avoid some of the misery I'd been through, then I could point to some good that had come out of my battles with OCD. As I quickly discovered, this decision was incredibly motivating for me. The more I realized I could give others with OCD hope through my successes, the more determined I became to pursue those successes through treatment.

  10. You said in your book that OCD became a gift. Could you tell us a little more about that? When I was going through my worst battles with OCD, I considered it the worst curse I could possibly imagine. With the benefit of hindsight, however, I now see that I could never have learned so many lessons about the power of applied belief had I not been forced to confront the extreme doubt that my disorder brought me. Nor could I have learned how incredibly motivating the pursuit of service can be. In this sense, OCD has proved to be not only a gift, but the greatest gift I've ever known.

  11. Have you defeated your voice of doubt, or do you still fight "Doubt" everyday? This is a great question, and I'm very glad you asked it. From all that we understand about OCD, it is a neurobiological brain disorder. Through various forms of brain imagining, neuroscientists have found distinct differences between the OCD and the non-OCD brain--both functionally and structurally. I've been very fortunate to have learned (through therapy) how to manage my obsessive thoughts without resorting to compulsions, and medication has proved to be very helpful in reducing the intensity of these thoughts. That said, I do continue to fight obsessions as part of my daily life.

  12. Fortunately, the disturbing thoughts are FAR less intrusive and powerful than they used to be. And there is growing scientific evidence that part of the explanation for this is a phenomenon called neuroplasticity, in which the brain can essentially rewire itself in constructive ways through the continued breaking of dysfunctional patterns such as the obsessive-compulsive cycle. (I'm guessing your dad could give you a much better medical explanation than I just did!) The bottom line is this: I continue to recover from the worst of my OCD a little bit more every day. I suspect I will never be "cured" of the disorder, but I also know it will never run my life the way it once did.

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