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“What Does OCD Look Like?” is Focus College’s Psychology Club Presentation

“What Does OCD Look Like?” is Focus College’s Psychology Club Presentation
National Spokesperson for the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation to Speak at Montgomery College on Oct. 8

19-year-old University of Houston sophomore, Elizabeth McIngvale, the new national spokesperson for The Obsessive Compulsive Foundation’s (OCF) first-ever public awareness campaign, will speak at Montgomery College’s Psychology Club monthly meeting on Monday, October 8, at 1 p.m. The meeting, which is open to the public as well as MC students, will take place in Building A, Room 102.

McIngvale is the daughter of Gallery Furniture owner, Jim "Mattress Mac" McIngvale, and is founder of the Elizabeth McIngvale OCfoundation.org called Peaceofmind.com.

The OCF’s national campaign, “What does OCD look like?” is targeted at the more than half-million teenagers in America with OCD.

“I want people to know that those of us who suffer with OCD are not freaks,” said McIngvale. “OCD is a mental illness. We don’t have to be ashamed, and we don’t have to suffer in silence,” added McIngvale, who was diagnosed with OCD at the age of 13. 

McIngvale’s OCD was so severe that it was believed at one time to be untreatable. Contamination issues made her a prisoner to washing her hands 75-100 times a day.  Her compulsions meant locking the door 42 times, sitting up and down her chair 42 times, and washing her hair 42 times, before she could move on to her next activity. Eventually, she was hospitalized and treated at the Menninger Clinic in Houston, Texas.

OCD is a medical brain disorder that causes problems in information processing. People with OCD often say the symptoms feel like a case of mental hiccups that won’t go away. Symptoms include unwanted thoughts, fear of contamination, hoarding, and endless rituals that include repetitive counting and checking. 

OCF is an international not-for-profit organization whose mission is education and research. Its Scientific Advisory Board, headed by Harvard professor Michael Jenike, M.D., is made up of a select team of researchers and clinicians pioneering the world’s foremost innovative and aggressive efforts to find a cure.

The Montgomery College Psychology Club is dedicated to educating students about the field of psychology. For more information about the club or the event, contact the club advisor Karen Buckman, associate professor of psychology, at (936) 273-7371.

For more information about Montgomery College, visit montgomery.lonestar.edu, or call (936) 273-7000. Montgomery College is located at 3200 College Park Drive, approximately one-quarter mile west of I-45 between Conroe and The Woodlands.

North Harris Montgomery Community College District, among the largest and fastest-growing community colleges in Texas, comprises North Harris College, Kingwood College, Tomball College, Montgomery College, Cy-Fair College, six satellite centers and The University Center.

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