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margharris
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Body dysmorphia: Two months update.

Permanent Linkby margharris on Sat May 02, 2015 11:53 pm

I has been two months since starting the blog. I will list the important changes as I see it.
1. We are now at a world renowned psych who is part of a research team. He is of the opinion that BDD is primarily biological. Neurotransmitter imbalance or structural abnormalities is creating over and underactivity in the brain so thoughts are too intrusive and then cannot be diffused. This results in circuitry loops that seem hard wired and not at all plastic. The drug regime is Prozac 50mg ( We started with 10mg on 26th March ) and Lyrica as needed for akathysia symptoms of apathy and agitation. The bed syndrome.
The Lyrica is rarely prescribed by your usual psychs as it is not PBS funded. It costs a couple of dollars a day. Less than a coffee so still affordable at our dose of 150mg a day. Lyrica seems to be for those who found alcohol was a benefit. But it doesnt seem to trigger compulsive behaviours in combination. There has been no increase in appetite. Yesterday he actually felt a bit nauseous. My son stopped alcohol since 16th January. He has been a binge drinker to handle anxiety so the Lyrica was an obvious adjunct for him.

2. His intrusive thoughts are still there but he is not calling out and in such distress with them. He has no disorganised speech in recent days. We have had times when, Sink holes or Sonic sounds going backwards has been yelled from his den of doom. This is not happening now. I did fear we were heading for schizophrenia. But my son always told me it was just happening because he was so terrified and just couldnt think. It was as though the anxiety was coming in like an ECT shock.

3. All his compulsive urges are still there even if he isn't doing them as much. He has a shower only because he wants a Propecia tablet and I want him to do the exposure. Despite my best efforts he still touches and never thinks to put on any barrier to stop himself. He wears his hat to get to the car in the driveway in a quiet suburban street. He is depressed and suicidal but still not exercising. He lives in his underwear and watches NBA from a laptop on the bed. Surgery is still an option he would consider.

4. On a positive note, he has stopped asking me about his stories in the last couple of days. He actually said his amygdala was firing once. I hope this is the start of creating some distance from the content of the thought. A bit too hopeful maybe.

The aim is for my son to recognize he has a brain disorder and be able to say he has these bizarre thoughts because of his brain. This perspective should allow him to disconnect from any emotion the content of the thought could generate. This is not likely to be easy when the thoughts have been hardwired into the panic alarm part of his primitive brain. I am not sure really that the alarm system isn't firing first and then the contextual thoughts follow. Still we do know that if you stop compulsions the thoughts generally stop with OCD so hopefully we can do his with BDD too.

We are now at least on a positive path and have some direction to follow. Hope we all get through this. Marg

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