What is OCD? OCD stands for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a psychological disorder that makes an individual have a great deal of anxiety due to unwanted thoughts. The individual will try to reduce it by engaging in repetitive behaviors or compulsions. OCD is a part of an individual’s everyday life, so it is natural to have some obsessive thoughts. However, when it interferes with your every day lifestyle, then the individual knows that it’s a disorder. An example of the most common OCD that someone may encounter are contamination, accidental harm to others, perfection when it comes to washing, cleaning, or arrangement of things. Obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms can change over time. It is most common
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) was once considered a rare disease, but today, it is one of the most prevalent psychological disorders present among society. OCD is described as “intrusive thoughts or images (obsessions), which increase anxiety, and by repetitive or ritualistic actions (compulsions), which decrease anxiety” (Stein, 2002). In the DSM-IV, Obsessive compulsive disorder can be diagnosed through observable behaviours or repetitive mental habits. Symptoms include; the constant washing of hands, and/or fears concerning danger to others or to self – resulting in frequent paranoia. OCD has been linked with lesions in various neurological circuits of the brain due to the consumption of dopamine agonists (for example, cocaine). In order for obsessive compulsive disorder to take clinical significance, dysfunction and distress must follow symptoms. The treatment of OCD was initially developed in the Freudian era, as psychoanalytical treatment was seen as the most effective treatment at the time for mind management. Conversely, recent empirical evidence proved otherwise. Pharmacological therapy and cognitive-behavioural therapy, also known as systematic desensitization are nowadays the most prominent remedies used in treating obsessive compulsive disorder.
Considering the secrecy surrounding OCD symptoms, it is important for family members to pay attention to early signs of ritualistic behaviors becoming troublesome. When OCD is suspected, a comprehensive clinical evaluation – including detailed interviews with parents and, if possible teachers – is required in order to check the obsessions, sensory phenomenon and compulsions in the case. In younger children, OCD features might appear subtly during play activities or drawing. It is vital to differentiate between obsessive compulsive symptoms and normal childhood behavior, such as the normal practice or actions during playtime, food time or bedtime. In this context, the information about degree of distress, impairment and time consumed performing rituals should provide enough data to decide whether or not treatment is warranted. Moreover, it is also important to assess insight and the family’s perception of the symptoms, as well as how family members deal with the patient.
What did you do this morning when you woke up ? did you have a routine ?. You usually do each day get dressed, read a newspaper and head out of the door but some people are in prison by rituals. Ocd is a repetitive thoughts and actions, which can cause disruption to peoples life, waste of time ,because of the endless thoughts keeps on popping in their mind and can get in the way of important activities the person values, everyone wants to experience life and do the things that they enjoy and love but people with ocd don’t have enough time and they will find it more challenging to perform daily activities., as well as their mind gets stuck on a thought or image that is being replayed constantly, together with the thoughts come an intense anxiety, which is the brain that controls your actions to tell them to respond and do something or else they will be in danger for example sometimes they feel afraid that bad things could possibly happen to them or sometimes they feel things aren’t just right and make sure its in proper order. When it comes to the cause of ocd the simple answer is that researchers have found that ocd affects parts of the brain also experts found out that ocd runs in the family and that genes play a role in development of the disorder.
Obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, plays a big part in the society that we live in today. Sufferers of OCD who have intrusive thoughts generally have recurring images in their minds that are disturbing or horrific. These thoughts can happen because of something that happened in the person’s life, or they may happen for no specific reason. Obsessive compulsive disorder is a disorder that produces excessive thoughts that cause very repetitive habits and worry Everyone has an amount of OCD, but some are more threatening to an individual’s well-being.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, also called OCD, is characterized by two behaviors – obsessions and compulsions. A person with OCD has an obsession or persistent, intrusive, and unwanted thought, which leads them to do actions or compulsions that’s ritualistic in nature. They do these actions to temporarily relieve the anxiety that they feel with the persistent thought, and for this reason, they feel compelled to perform these actions. For example, someone with OCD might be worried about getting sick or being infected by germs, and they might engage in excessive hand washing or cleaning. Their anxiety is relieved once they’ve cleaned or washed their hands a lot. Of course, this relief doesn’t last for a long time as the thoughts are persistent
When I was sixteen, I was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder. I remember vividly, one winter day during my junior year of high school I started washing my hands, and, without reason, I could not stop. I scrubbed for minutes, refusing to slow even after my skin cracked and knuckles bled. That week I was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder. I started seeing a psychiatrist on a regular basis and I started taking medication to help deal with the mental illness. I never realized before the diagnosis how much my schoolwork had been affected by my OCD. There were days where I missed up to ten minutes of class because my hands weren’t properly cleaned after going to the bathroom. Other times I failed to comprehend entire class periods,
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric disorder that is characterized by constant intrusive thoughts (obsessions) that normally cause anxiety or distress which can only be alleviated by performing repetitive actions (compulsions) (Rahimi, Haghighi, and Shamsaei, 2015). Nearly everyone has experienced something similar to these obsessions and compulsions at some point in their life but this experience can only be labeled as OCD when it occurs at least one hour per day and correlates with high levels of distress (Abramowitz et al., 2010). It’s important to distinguish the differences between the actual psychological disorder and informal use of the term “OCD.” For example, many people claim they have “OCD” because they are particular about how something is done such as doing the dishes or making the bed in the morning. However, true sufferers of this disorder suffer from great anxiety and torment from their obsessions and cannot restrain themselves from giving in to their compulsions (Huffman & Dowdell, 2004, p. 462). OCD, according to the World Health Organization, is among the top ten most disabling medical conditions (Rahimi et al., 2015).
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a common, chronic and long-lasting disorder in which a person has uncontrollable, reoccurring obsession or compulsions where he or she feels the urge to check things repeatedly, perform certain routines repeatedly or have certain thoughts repeatedly. This disorder can influence those of all ages, gender and ethnicities. Individuals cannot control either their activities or their exercises for more than a moment. Normal exercises include hand washing, counting, putting items in order, and verifying whether an entryway is closed or locked. Some may experience issues when tossing things out, identifying with hoarding disorder. These exercises jump out at such an extent, to the point that the individual's
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.
Obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, is a common disorder that can continue for a long time affecting the brain and a person’s behavior. The disorder causes uncontrollable severe anxiety and reoccurring thoughts in the form of obsessions and compulsions which takes up a lot of a person’s time. The obsessions and compulsions cause the person to feel urges to repeat over and over. This creates endless sequences of repetitive thoughts and behaviors that can damage some lives. OCD usually allows little time for other activities because the person is so focused on an obsession and compulsion, resulting in a lower value of life.
I snuck a quick scan of the classroom. No one was watching. I flipped the paper over again. After stealing another glance at the teacher, I flipped it one last time, completing the ritual twelve times. I could feel my hands shaking out of fear that a friend would notice my behavior. I was safe, for now. But my fear continued throughout the day. My eyes watched the clock tick to eleven, the time of day that always sent panic coursing through my bones. My responsibility for the week was to be the caboose of the line, meaning I had to close the classroom door. This task petrified my eight-year-old self because I viewed the door as a contaminated reservoir for germs. I lagged behind, peered around the corner ensuring my classmates were gone, and
It makes me feel satisfied and relieved knowing that I have control over almost everything that I do and I can make it as neat, and equal as possible. I truly believe that my OCD has also made me more organized, efficient, and overall a smarter person due to the obsessions of making sure everything is “perfect”. There is almost never a mistake that I have made that I did not notice and fix before it turned into a disaster. When I was about thirteen years old, I newly found out about OCD and after going to the doctor’s office to get her opinion on my behaviour, she suggested that I might have this disorder. After watching numerous documentaries, I found myself saying “I do that too!” to many of the people and their symptoms and came to the conclusion that I have this disorder. I always wondered why it was considered a terrible thing to be obsessive-compulsive and why it was referred to as a disorder. Because the entire idea about being obsessive-compulsive is being orderly and doing things in an orderly manner, how can there be a disorder of order? I thought it was natural to live life in a systematic way, regardless of how that made you feel. But, OCD is like a monster inside your head; the more you feed it, the stronger and bigger it becomes. In my case, my monster was overly fed, and along with it came
The following is a case study of a male client, Carl Landau, who suffers from an anxiety disorder. In particular, obsessive compulsive disorder. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) are unnecessary thoughts that tend to be obsessions that lead to repetitive behaviors, also known as compulsions. It is characterized by irrational thoughts and fears that can lead to compulsive behaviors. It often focuses on topics such as the fear of germs or the want to place things in a specific manner. Individuals with this disorder typically recognize that their obsessive behaviors and thoughts are illogical but even so, they feel as if it is something that is uncontrollable. The client was diagnosed and given a valuation with the aim of defining the
Obsessive compulsive disorder is influenced by neurological factors with symptoms such as repeating steps, continuously washing their hands, and having a fear of objects like germs. Although there is no cure, there are treatments such as medication and therapy that can help lessen the patient’s anxiety and discomfort.