Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a mental health disorder that affects all different types of people. It occurs when a person gets caught in a cycle of obsessions or compulsions but many times both. According to Columbia University Research more than 6 million Americans suffer from OCD. Obsessions can be categorized as unwanted, thoughts, images or urges that trigger a feeling of distress. Compulsions are behavioral attempts to get rid of the obsessions and reduce distress. OCD can waste a lot of time during the day and according to beyondocd.org, OCD can be diagnosed when something consumes excessive amounts of time (an hour or more each day), cause significant distress, Interfere with daily functioning at work or school, or with social activities, family relationships and/or normal routines.
Everyone experiences random intrusive thoughts but people with OCD simply cannot rid them. Although Obsessive Compulsive Disorders doesn’t have a definite cause, it is often linked to a brain dysfunction in the area of the brain called the basal ganglia, it is also linked to genetics, and can also be linked to environmental factors. Childmind.org. According to hope4ocd.com dr eda gorbis, research has shown that OCD is caused by damage to the basal ganglia. The two brain structures that communicate with the basal ganglia are more active in people with OCD. In terms of genetics, according to beyondocd.org, About 25% of OCD sufferers have an immediate family member with the disorder, and according to the same study, learning theorist have suggested that compulsions are actually learned behavior to help an individual deal with anxiety.
According to ODCUK, there are four types of Obsessive Compulsive Disorders. People will fall into the checking, Contamination, Hoarding, and Ruminations/ Intrusive Thoughts Checking ODC is the need to check which is the compulsion, the obsession the fear that if you don’t check, there will be a harmful consequence. Some checking includes memory, water tap, doors locks, house lights, car door, illness and symptoms online, and reassurance. This checking is often carried out sometimes hundreds of times, this waste lots of time which can damage relationships. It can also damage the objects that are being constantly checked.
The second ODC is contamination. This is described as the need to wash as the compulsion and the obsession is the fear that contamination may cause illness or death. Some of these fears include fear of using public toilets, shaking hands, touching door knobs or handles, visiting hospitals, being in crowds and excessive tooth brushing. The decontamination is often carried out multiple times until the person feels they are clean. This can affect a person’s ability have a steady job and can also affect a person’s actual body due to scrubbing. Contamination OCD is also very expensive due to the constant purchasing of cleaning products.
Hoarding is the third ODC. Hoarding can be described as the inability to discard of possessions. People who hoard have three main issues, they have difficulty ridding of items, they buy and save everything and they are unable to organize the items. Hoarders hoard for one or more of these reasons; they hoard to prevent harm. They feel harm will come their way if they throw anything away, they may feel that they need the objects for later, and/or they feel the objects hold a special place emotionally so they are unable to throw the objects away.
The fourth type of OCD is Intrusive Thoughts. This can be described as a person suffering from obsessive thoughts that are disturbing and repulsive. These thoughts can be fearful sexual thoughts, religious thoughts, violent thoughts, and thoughts about relationships. These thoughts about relationships can include doubting one’s relationship or one’s sexuality.
According to the World Health Organization, OCD is one of the top 20 causes of illness-related disability, worldwide, for individuals between 15 and 44 years of age. Nearly one-half of all cases begin in childhood and it’s rare to see OCD continue after the age of 35. Until recently, OCD was considered a rare mental health disorder. This is because people are able to hide their obsessions and compulsions. People master the art of camouflaging their symptoms. An example of this comes from psychcentral.com where it describes how for twenty-one years, an OCD sufferer successfully concealed from her husband that she had to repeat many activities in multiples of three.
Many people with this disorder feel as if there’s no help, but with the right treatment, this disorder is highly treatable. According to adaa.org Some treatments for OCD include, exposure Therapy, Imaginal Exposure, Habit Reversal Training, Cognitive Therapy, and Medication.
During Exposure Therapy, a psychotherapist would place the person who has OCD in a situation where they would normally perform a compulsive act. The patient will then be asked to not perform the compulsions that would usually ease their anxiety. The first step in this therapy is for the patient to describe your compulsions and obsessions. Then the therapist will ask patient to make a list of the most frightening to the least frightening. The therapist will ask the patient to face one of those fears on the list. If the patient is someone with a fear of contamination, you may ask them to touch an item in a public place.
Imaginal Exposure is used in patients who aren’t ready to jump into real world situations. This type of therapy is also knowns as visualization and can be helpful in paving the way for Exposure Therapy. The therapist uses images to create scenarios that would inflict anxiety on the patient. For example, if someone has a fear of heights, the therapist asks the client to imagine themselves climbing a tree and record their anxiety level. These visuals will bring them less and less anxiety over time.
Habit Reversal Training is an intervention that includes awareness training, social support groups, positive reinforcement and relaxation techniques. With awareness training, you will be asked to perform your compulsion in front of a mirror. This helps patients focus on the sensations that they feel before they engage in behavior making them more prone to stop when they feel this urge.
Cognitive Therapy helps the patient understand that their brain is sending an error message when they perform their compulsions. This therapy helps people learn to recognize the signs of this error and respond to them in a more controlled and positive way. Cognitive therapy helps us focus on the actual meaning of our experiences and shows us how we are misinterpreting them. For example, Cognitive Therapy helps you overlook a thought and analyze it using a more realistic approach.
This therapy focuses on negative thoughts. Many people are able to easily dismiss negative thoughts but people with OCD think these thoughts are important. When people with OCD experience negative thoughts they think they’re doing something bad but pushing them away may cause them to reoccur more often.
According to Columbia University Research, OCD patients are often treated first with serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs), but will continue to have symptoms. Serotonin is the chemical in the brain that sends messages between brain cells and is thought to be involved in regulating many functions. “Despite clinical intuition that anti-psychotics may be more effective in severe cases, this study suggests that EX/RP should be the treatment of choice to augment SRIs,” says the study’s principal investigator, H. Blair Simpson, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and director of the Center for Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders. Simpson states this due to the fact that SRIs often help for short term OCD treatment. It has been found that therapy is more effective across all demographic and clinical variables.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a disorder that effects about 1 in 40 adults and 1 in 100 children have OCD, in the United States. This is a disease that often makes people feel as if they are losing their minds and control. OCD can be diagnosed when something consumes excessive amounts of time (an hour or more each day), cause significant distress, Interfere with daily functioning at work or school, or with social activities, family relationships and/or normal routines. Many people with OCD feel as if they are hopeless and will forever be stuck in the cycles, but with proper therapy, OCD can be severely controlled.