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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: A Case Study

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OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER Karina Henry Webster University Graduate Counseling Program Counseling 5150: Psychopathology Dr. Jennie Band, Ph.D., LPC/S July 28, 2015 INTRODUCTION Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, or OCD, is defined in the fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as being “characterized by the presence of obsession and/or compulsions. Obsessions are recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges, or images that are experienced as intrusive and unwanted, whereas compulsions are repetitive behaviors or mental acts that an individual feels driven to perform in response to an obsession or according to rules that must be applied rigidly” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Obsessive-compulsive …show more content…

Because of this “dysfunction of CSTC” (Hou et al., 2012), individuals with OCD showcase several obsessive and/or compulsive symptoms. “While the specific content of obsessions and compulsions varies among individuals, certain symptom dimensions are common in OCD, including those of cleaning (contamination obsessions and cleaning compulsions); symmetry (symmetry obsessions are repeating, ordering, and counting compulsions); forbidden or taboo thoughts (e.g., aggressive, sexual, or religious obsessions and related compulsions); and harm (e.g., fears of harm to oneself or others and checking compulsions)” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Some individuals with Obsessive-compulsive disorder do not have difficulty with controlling their thoughts alone but also have issues with objects. “Some individuals also have difficulties discarding and accumulate (hoard) objects as a consequence of typical obsessions and compulsions, such as fears of harming others” (American Psychiatric Association, …show more content…

Important criteria for the diagnosis are that the person has an internal impulse to think or to do something even though they know the thoughts or acts do not make sense and, therefore, that they offer resistance to the impulse” (Hofer et al.,

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