Monday, August 9, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
I cant touch that dirty 18 lakh cheque #OCD #psychiatry #medtweeps
An elderly man comes to the outpatient department with his son. His face is familiar because he keeps frequenting the hospital, every time with a complaint which grows in complexity. He was looking very worried, his son even more. He is a known case of OCD (Obsessive compulsive disorder), a disorder characteristically marked with persistent thoughts of contamination, among many other things, that are experienced as coming against one’s will. This causes lots of distress and some indulge in washing their hands all day long. This man is retiring from his job and on the day of the farewell ceremony that his company had arranged, they were presenting him a cheque of Rs.18,00,000. It was his hard-earned money. But he saw at the ceremony that the cheque was touched by many people and some of them from a lower caste. So he refuses to accept this cheque as its contaminated, apparently it had become untouchable. His family members go crazy with his behavior and bring him to hospital to somehow make him to accept this cheque and get it signed, so that they get the money. Despite weeks of medications and persuading, he still remains hell-bent on not taking that cheque. Its very hard to imagine that somebody can deny 18 lakhs due to the fear that his hands may get dirty. This just shows how difficult it can become to treat this condition…