A Plague Of Tics By David Sedaris

The following is an overview about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), one of the most difficult psychiatric illness to be understood. The way of doing certain behaviors, thoughts or routines repeatedly is the essential condition of a person with OCD. In general, it is known and described by someone who is extremely perfectionist and meticulous. Unfortunately, they do realize those habits and be able to stop doing it. Common behaviors are such as checking locks, doors, stove bottoms, and lights, hand washing, counting things, or having recurrent intrusive thoughts of hurting oneself or somebody else.

My mind is telling me it is not actually there until I count and see that the object is still in the same place. Lastly, if I have an important document or something that is very valuable I will have to stare at it until I can talk myself into knowing I still have the object. Sometimes I have to confirm what I see with my close friends to put my mind at ease faster, yes I understand this is odd, but I get bad anxiety if I do not follow these traditions. I am not exactly sure why or when these habits started but it seems the more I follow what my head is telling me then the worse my own tics get. My behaviors put me at ease but also bring anxiety and anger, because I know it is not normal and to a certain extent I can control these traditions but in reality, overall I cannot and that adds a greater anxiety. I try and not let a lot of people realize or know about my OCD habits because like Sedaris I do not want them to perceive me for being a strange person because I am not. Another thing is I like having assurance and control but over time it seems the tics are starting to control me instead of me controlling them.

David Sedaris has an excerpt called The Plague of Tics from his book Naked detailing the obsessive compulsive behaviors that riddled his childhood & remained consistent into adulthood. Sedaris actively uses satire & humor throughout his text in order to weave a pleasant story for his audience despite the abnormal behavioral tics that he couldn't overcome for a great majority of his life. Sedaris uses this humor as a base to formulate his story & this humor ultimately helps him convey his purpose to his audiences. The purpose of this excerpt is to show obsessive compulsive behaviors in a light that a reader can comprehend while also bringing awareness to just what exactly goes on in the minds of people with obsessive compulsive behaviors. Sedaris

Such as, inflated sense of responsibility and the tendency to overestimate threat; perfectionism and intolerance of uncertainty; and over-importance of thoughts. Those who have OCD can vary in insight, either good or fair insight, poor insight or even absent insight/delusional beliefs. It is common for those who have OCD to avoid people, places, and things that trigger obsessions and compulsions. Those with OCD have varied obsessions and compulsions, such as, contamination obsessions and cleaning compulsions, fears of harm to oneself or others and checking compulsions or hoarding. Those with OCD become distracted for a certain amount of time, impairing them from continuing their daily activity until they neutralize their obsession and

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, also known as OCD, is a psychiatric anxiety disorder that is characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts along with repetitive behaviors. These unwanted thoughts are called obsessions and the repetitive behaviors are called compulsions. Repetitive behaviors such as hand washing, checking, counting, and cleaning are usually performed with the hope of making these obsessive thoughts go away or even preventing them. These repetitive behaviors are often referred to as ‘rituals’. People with OCD perform these rituals to help deal with the anxiety that the obsessions cause. These rituals only provide temporary relief for the person and usually end up controlling their life. About one in every fifty adults have

According to the DSM-IV-TR, people with OCD suffer from recurrent obsessions and/or compulsions. Obsessions, defined as "persistent ideas, thoughts, impulses, or images that are experienced as intrusive and inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or distress" (Criterion A.1), which are difficult to dismiss, despite their disturbing nature. These experiences are more intrusive than excessive worries about real-life problems, and they are unlikely related to these kinds of problems. (Criterion A.2). Persons who suffer from OCD try to ignore, suppress or neutralize their obsessions with some other thought or action (Criterion A.3) and recognize that they are a product of their own mind (Criterion A.4).

People with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder suffer from a wide variety of obsessions but, most people follow similar symptoms. Their symptoms included an obsessive continual thoughts that keeps recurring causing the person anxiety. People with OCD feel that they have not control of the obsession and compulsions. Then the compulsive act come into play to help ease the anxiety temporarily. Some common obsessions fearing germs, constantly checking locked doors and

represents a disturbance of a distinctly human function: doubt. (The Brain from Top to Bottom.)”

According to Norman Doidge, in his book “The Brain That Changes Itself,” mental illnesses are not a matter of intelligence, but rather a physiological phenomenon, in which the orbital frontal cortex, cingulate gyrus and caudate nucleus are hyperactive, which Doidge describes as a “brain lock,” because “the caudate doesn’t “shift the gear” automatically,” but rather “[continuously] fire off their signals, increasing the mistake feeling and anxiety” (120-121). Because of this “brain lock” and misfiring, the automatic gearshift that sequesters the transition of thoughts and ideas is inhibited, which eventually develops into obsessions, as the mistake feeling and anxiety become more intense (120). In “The Brain that Changes Itself, Doidge mentions about Jeffrey M. Schwartz and his theory that the OCD circuits can be unlocking by rewiring the neural networks between the orbital cortex and cingulate in order to normalize the function of the caudate (121). Similar to Schwartz’s treatment, which emphasizes the importance of “shift[ing] the caudate manually” and “distinguishing between the universal form of OCD . . . and the content of an obsession” (121), in order to change and overcome my anxiety issues and OCD symptoms, I plan on relabeling my anxiety triggers, understand the cause of the panic attack and then reflect in order to understand and distinguish between the OCD thoughts and the content of the obsession. By doing so, I can learn how to refocus my attention and do something else, in order to manually “shift the caudate gear”

I have always been fascinated with behavioral disorders, especially OCD. I learned about OCD a few years ago when I was reading a medical journal. At first, it seemed like something very odd. The idea that otherwise normal people can do such strange things, and not be able to control themselves was fascinating. I wanted to know more about this topic, which is why I chose to write my paper on it. I thought that by knowing more about the subject, I will be able to better understand how these people's lives can be literally taken over by their constant worries and anxiety. Also, I think a lot of people exhibit these behaviors and aren't even aware that they may have a severe problem, and more importantly, that they can be getting

OCD plagues people with intrusive, unwanted thoughts or obsessions, which are rarely pleasant. People who have these obsessions recognize that they are senseless. Still, they are unable to stop them. They may worry about

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a disorder that causes someone to have unwanted and troubling thoughts and repetitive behaviors (Lack, 2012). People may self-diagnose themselves to be obsessive compulsive. But people with obsessive compulsive disorder need to spend at least 1 hour daily on obsessive thoughts and rituals (Ellyson, 2014). This disorder is broken into two parts. The first part is obsessions, thoughts or images, and the second part is compulsions, the repetitive behaviors caused by the obsessions (Brakoulias, 2015). An example of obsessive compulsive disorder would be someone checking the locked door multiple times to reduce anxiety about forgetting to lock the door. On average 5% of the population has subclinical symptoms which are considered to be symptoms that are not disruptive enough to meet criteria to be diagnosed obsessive compulsive (Lack, 2012). Dropping what you’re doing to go back and check if your curling iron is unplugged is an example of a subclinical symptom. This paper will discuss what obsessive compulsive disorder is and provide a brief history. It will also include current treatments, suggestions on how to treat the disorder, and a summary.

Intrusive thoughts (ITs) refers to intense and sometimes unpleasant thoughts, images or impulses that are similar to obsession but are less frequent and can be dismissed relatively easier(Purdon & Clark, 1994, as cited in Julien, O'Connor, & Aardema, 2006). The appraisal model suggested ITs occur in general non-clinic populations, and some individual's stronger dysfunctional belief domain will escalate their ITs into obsessions, and thus lead to OCD (Julien, O'Connor, & Aardema, 2006). According to the model, what makes obsession much more intense and uncontrollable than ITs is a stronger dysfunctional belief

Time is only running out, and it is one of the most vital and overlooked qualities of life. Albert Camus highlights the theme of time in his 1947 novel, The Plague. Through the use of allegory and point of view, Camus substantiates that when people are not aware of time and its advancing, they are wasting the precious and limited time of their lives. He constantly establishes that the amount of consciousness obtained by a person is the difference between spending time wisely and foolishly.

In a general view, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is associated with obsessions and compulsions. The obsessions are recurrent thoughts, fears, images, ideas, urges, and doubts. Patients suffering from this disorder often go through fluctuating episodes of compulsion which are in response to an obsessive thought, such as arranging, touching, repeatedly checking on something, and recurrent hand-washing. The patient experiences repeated rise in anxiety from the obsessions, that compels them to indulge in their compulsions as a form of relief (Brown University, 2013). Most of the patients suffering