OCD Signs: A Short Story

Like stated in “A Plague of Tics” by David Sedaris, “A person had to do these things because nothing was worse than the anguish of not doing them.” A “normal” individual might argue, “Why not just stop focusing on that and stay positive instead?” To a “normal” individual that might seem realistic but it’s not so for someone like me. We all experience an innumerable amount of thoughts throughout the day, but the issue arises when one thought becomes recurring and more and more prominent in your thoughts. In a combination of anxious thoughts and my OCD, I can find myself entertaining the same thought for hours on end. This fixation on my anxious worries is what often at times causes me to choose stressing over sleeping. I’ve found myself thinking about one thing at 10pm and have that thought carry over until 4am when I can finally convince myself it’s just an unrealistic worry. What was that thought? It was whether I had bubbled my ID number in correctly on my scantron. Looking back I know that it’s ridiculous because I always check my scantron multiple times before I hand it in just to make sure I didn't make a mistake. Even after checking my scantron five times I still feel the urge to check again so I have to force myself to hand it in and trust myself. In the moment these things don't seem irrational. The over-focusing on thoughts and the rechecking of things seem like logical conclusions just to make sure I didn’t mess up. I mean everyone makes mistakes right? It’s sometimes hard to draw the line where it becomes obsessive. Like in the essay, I too find myself succumbing to my OCD because ignoring it would cause even more distress than I already am

In the movie, “As Good As it Gets”, Jack Nicholson’s character Melvin, has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or also known as OCD. This disorder is critically crippling to him. It limits him from everything that he does. It also changes the way he reacts to other individuals in his life. When situations don’t go perfectly according to his plan and the way that he sees it, he gets upset with who or whatever changes it. He has a strict ritualistic nature and has a particular order in which he does everything throughout the day.

Underestimated, unnoticed, and sometimes ignored, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) lurks in the shadows of other illnesses. OCD is a mental condition that has severe to minor effects, but help is always available through Exposure with Response Prevention Therapy and medication. OCD obliterates the ability to think and live freely, leaving its victim trapped in a world of repetition.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is defined as a “disorder in which intruding, recurring thoughts or obsessions create anxiety that is relieved by performing a repetitive, ritualistic behavior or mental act (compulsion)” (Ciccarelli & White, 2012, p.543). OCD is a neuropsychiatric disorder that once was considered to be rare (Stein, 2002). Today it affects two to three percent of people across the globe (Treating obsessive-compulsive, 2009). It is a disorder that is “equally common in males and females” as adults, but for children, obsessive-compulsive disorder seems to appear more in boys than girls (American Psychiatric Association, 2000, p.459). OCD has a lifetime prevalence of 2.5% in adults, and a 1%-2.3% prevalence in children (American Psychiatric Association, 2002). These results were based on community studies and appear to be similar in cultures that exist all over the world (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). According to the Solomon & Grant (2014), the World Health Organization classifies obsessive-compulsive disorder as the “leading global cause of nonfatal illness” (p.646).

In the movie As Good as It Gets Jack Nicholson's character, Melvin Udall, suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, known as OCD for short, is a type of anxiety disorder.

For this assignment I interviewed a man named Bob (not his real name) and he suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). This interview took place over a couple of days so I could understand and see what he was telling me was true. Bob has three types of OCD and all three he stated led to his wife divorcing him. of the three he said that only two were that were devastating to his marriage to his wife Debbie (not her real name). For one he says he likes to have things in a certain order, such as he stated that everything he had in his living room had to meet his standard of satisfaction, such as the coffee table had to be set a certain way along with the end tables, as well as the lamps which had to face a certain direction. He reportedly stated

The story is an intriguing tale that I would argue explicates and profoundly depicts the different

come up with these “rituals” just to get rid of some of the anxiety. “OCD basically affects

I would always try to forget about the worry by immersing myself in other thoughts or situations, but the worry would always end up coming back around in the end. I am now aware that this happened because I was using thought suppression rather than actually forgetting about the worry. I was instead just pushing it farther down into my mind until it could no longer be contained.

I've always had the privilege of being the sister of someone with borderline OCD. The inside of her room gleams like the interior of an Apple Store, her bed looks fresh out of a catalogue and there is no mess on the floor preventing you from freely walking around it without the impending fear you'll lose a toe from stepping on an unknown object, therefore acting as the perfect contrast for me. As someone who lives in a world of scattered clothes, lost homework and around 1000 plastic bottles filling my shelves and floor, I've always tried to support all of my millions of justifications for this with Einsteins words “if a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, then what are we to think of an empty desk?”. But even the wise words of Einstein can't justify that random orange strategically situated next to my empty foundation bottle. Or that tinfoil ball next to my books. And my unusual excuse for this? Well, science says it makes me more creative. Although just to what extent is this actually true?

While it is important to remember that all cases are different, all people suffering with OCD “pay undue attention” stressing over issues.  This undue attention in turn immobilizes them in a variety of areas in their lives (OCDA).

Hello! I’m so excited to be back. Oh how I’ve missed writing! This post will be more of an update on what has happened these last few months, so, lets get started. After getting out of Rogers Memorial Hospital for my OCD and Anxiety, I had one week home and then I went right off to college. It was a pretty scary step for me. Just a few months earlier I couldn’t handle anyone mentioning the word “school”, let alone actually attend. But that is exactly what I did, and surprisingly, I felt ready.

Josephine P. Briggs, M. (2010, June 25). Exploring the Power of Meditation. Retrieved from National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health: https://nccih.nih.gov/about/offices/od/2010-06.htm

Growing up I knew I was different from most kids. For as long as I can remember I’ve suffered from a mental illness called anxiety. According to WebMD anxiety is “a nervous disorder characterized by a state of excessive uneasiness and apprehension, typically with compulsive behavior or panic attacks.” When I was a child I remember over worrying about everything. For example, writing cursive on the board in front of my class or even just casually talking to my classmates.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, involves anxious thoughts or rituals one feels and can't control. . For many years, OCD was thought to be rare. The actual number of people with OCD was hidden, because people would hide their problem to avoid embarrassment. Some recent studies show that as many as 3 million Americans ages 18 to 54 may have OCD at any one time. This is about 2.3% of the people in this age group. It strikes men and women in approximately equal numbers and usually first appears in childhood, adolescence, or early adulthood. One-third of adults with OCD report having experienced their first symptoms as children. The course of the disease is variable. Symptoms may come