European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 19, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Actually gel a bump on my  abruptly those ears vanished replaced by something worse relentless incapacitating ears of losing control and stabbing her children. I had my suicide All  Jenny says. I was going to lock Mysell in he garage and turn on my  instead Jenny sought treatment at a Yale University clinic. Like an estimated two thirds of the old patients who undergo the new behaviour therapy or drug treatment she got better. Or. Wayne k. Goodman is chief of the obsessive compulsive disorder clinic at Yale. In three ears of treating old. I have seen it go away although most people Are not totally free of symptoms. After therapy the obsessions Are still there. The Ditle rence is they no longer have to perform the  today Jenny estimates her illness is with her 2 percent of the time. She keeps it at Bay with a Small maintenance dose of an anti depressant. When they do surface she says the thoughts Are manageable and easily discarded Jenny now works Lull time attends graduate school and helps run the North Haven  oco foundation an education information and referral service she founded with a Small group of patients. Jenny s obsessions Lear of disease and fear of harming others Are among the most common As Are fear of death dirt or germs of harming oneself of uttering obscenities or insults of discarding something. Of great value. Others include perverse sexual or violent images blasphemous thoughts exaggerated tears of chemical or environmental contamination. Compulsions often include ritualistic washing or cleaning counting to certain numbers or avoiding others continually checking doors windows stoves hoarding or collecting newspapers mail lint string arranging and rearranging drawers closets cupboards. Most people with old pass through a washing phase at some Point during their illness. While specific obsessions May change Over time the themes lend to stay the same Goodman says. For Many patients fear of cancer has been replaced by tear of aids a disease made to order Lor old victims one expert says. Or. Judith Rapoport of the National Institute of mental health believes thai compulsive behaviour Sandwa Snong checking or counting actually comes first followed by the obsession or rationale Lor the behaviour. Man is a rational being. When he finds himself doing something that looks purposeful for example repealed washing his logical mind has to find a reason she says. -. Obsessions and compulsions can turn up in families previously untouched by mental illness but Are More Likely to Cluster in families with histories of old or its Ito font companion depression. Although it alte cts men and women in equal numbers children with old Are twice As Apt to be boys. Ii often strikes Young adults but Many can recall bouts of obsessive behaviour irom childhood and doctors have spoiled it in children As Young As 3. Obsessive thoughts or compulsive Behaviours Lurk beneath the surface in nearly everyone. Most people regard neatness and exactitude As desirable trails. And who has t raced Home to double Check an appliance obsessive compulsive May feel the need to clean eym Leloora until Icey Are sterile. Worried excessively about cancer or gotten a tune stuck in his head. No one can pinpoint where meticulous Ness or rigidity leave off and illness begins. Slither experts agree that the periodic preoccupations of everyday life Bear Little resemblance to the relentless involuntary All consuming nature of old. At their worst according to Rapoport the habits of old patients become Gross caricatures and distortions of useful everyday behavior.". My patients fight exhausting Battles with invisible germs daily even hourly Rapoport writes in the boy who could t Slop washing the first popular Book on old to be published by . Dullon in january. Rapoport who s been treating the illness since 1972, is hoping the Book will lure More victims out of hiding. Al the Core of the doubting disease is the inability to be reassured by the senses Rapoport writes. Somehow the message that the House is clean or the doors Are locked does t get through in one Way or another she says every patient with old wants to know How to know unlike gambling overeating or other activities commonly labelled compulsive old s senseless. Rituals bring no pleasure. I haled to count says Mike a Young shoe Salesman. All i Ever wanted was to  i like others with the illness he had no Choice but to keep counting Steps stairs shoes everything Peggy a Secretary in her 30s with lowing Brown hair and a bubbly outgoing manner could t Stop cleaning a compulsion that literally popped up overnight. One weekend when t was 21,1 went away with my family she recalls. We walked into a Motel room and everything left dirty. When i brought my clothes Home. The next Day they fell dirty Loo. That was Iho  soon other things bothered Peggy the drugstore. The Hospital. The garbage truck. Anything that had to do with germs or  on a Good Day Peggy bathed with bar soap and water. On bad Days she scrubbed her skin raw wild Lysol. I stashed Lysol All Over the House like an alcoholic hides Booie. I carried it in my purse Over time Peggy s life became More and More disrupted. Though Taney. She stayed away from her parents and turned Down Dales to protect others from her  she did much of her work twice once at the office and again at Home where she put on rubber gloves and copied everything Over on clean paper. She bypassed the Corner grocery and drove to Distant supermarkets so As not to contaminate any Alores she might one Day need to go Back to. Ill d buy a new outfit suddenly ii would be contaminated. You either washed it to death or throw it out. I looked like hell. 1 could t use makeup because i d contaminate it. And How Many times can you a lord to throw away your makeup and buy All new stuff april whose symptoms Ocie similar. Became her own plumber and  her House was off limits to All but her husband and sons As soon is they got Home at night they were required to use the Shower april had installed in the basement. Showering in the upstairs bathroom was forbidden. Though she had two children and a full time teaching Job april could l accept help with the housework. I would have no Way of knowing what my husband had. Touched before he picked out our groceries or  her sons weren t allowed to go to movies or play in the Yard but were confined to a Concrete Patio april hosed Down each morning. At school she could l use the bathroom no matter How Long her Day and she retreated to her classroom whenever hallways were crowded. Ii a. Student inadvertently bumped her it would bother her for a week. What was life he it was hell says april a neatly dressed Middle aged woman with Short grading hair a tense Mouth and reddened eyes that Burn with sorrow if you have a cancer or a heart condition you can be consoled with this you d be ostracized. You have to hide it. People would think my judgment is impaired even though i m a Good  x her eyes fill and her voice quavers As she recalls her medical history i be been hospitalized put on mediates Given Shock treatments. The psychiatrists said to restrain me. To Lake away Ell my  unlike april who for 20 years never slopped seeking help Peggy would still be hiding if a Friend had t found out and urged her to gel treatment. Otherwise she might never have known her terrible secret had a  doctors Don t know either often mistaking. Old Tor depression or schizophrenia. Physicians want to diagnose things they can treat says Nap Pori who adds that until recently her profession had Little to offer old patents -. Far the time being most doctors View codes a chronic illness that can be controlled but not cured but Given stepped up research by scientists and drug companies around the world the prognosis is i. Increasingly hopeful. Erma Bombeck one of the big trends Pio Jec led Tor 1989 is banks., for kids. Assuming children will be Active in running them. God help an adult who wanders in seeking a loan. Based on my experience with children i would rather this comes hard Lor me even to write. I would rather live within my Means than borrow Money from them. Ii you had Ever borrowed $800 from a 3-year-old for a new septic tank you d decl the same Way. Some of you May ask How did children become Rich enough to warrant their own financial Center in the Lisl place mostly through those eight Little Donald Trump words do i have to use my own Money by the Lime our kids were 5 years old. They had enough Money from grandparents on birthdays and holidays to get their. Own apartments. Yet when there was some toy they were lusting after it was always do i have to use my own Money since their food lodging health care education entertainment clothing and incidentals were All provided free of charge the Only things they used their own Money for were deposits and investments in baseball cards.   they also stashed away big Bucks irom live sources of income paper routes rewards for Good grades., household and Yard chores allowances and breathing. I once gave a kid a Blank Check to Stop cracking his Knuckles while i was eating the great american allowance was supposed to give fiem a sense of what it s like to handle Money. Last year More than 5 million kids received enough Money from investments and other sources of incomes to file a lax return a3 Many As 100,000 of them out there Are delinquent and still wailing Lor an answer to do i have of us my own Money despite the act thai Mother s Day does not inspire a saturday november 19, 1988 boy to dip into his own resources there is one thing that will part him from his hard earned Cash. Thai s a girl he has known Lor two weeks. The sky s the limit. A girl will make a withdrawal irom her slash Only if it s a health problem. She will no longer breathe ii she does not gala designer sweater. What we re seeing Here folks is a new generation of tycoons who have outgrown the Little pig with the Slot in his head. It s not unrealistic to assume that in a few years Well have magnates at ago b. Authors of Best Selling books Wilh a title like lab Cha was a loser at age10, a takeover of the family House and car at age 15, and income tax evasion by age 16. Kids have figured out How to make Money. They just Haven t figured out what they re supposed to spend it on yet. Page 17the stars and stripes