OCD What is OCD? OCD stands for obsessive compulsive disorder. This is a chronic disease that a person will have uncontrollable repeated thoughts and actions/behaviors. These are split up into two different categories, obsessions and compulsions. An obsession is when a person have images, thoughts, and impulses that take place multiple times, and that person feels that they can’t stop it. Usually, people with OCD have an uncomfortable feeling of doubt, fear, and the feeling that everything has to be right. These obsessions get in the way of daily life activities and are time-consuming. These things will differ, which will rule out whether or not the type of OCD a person has is a psychological or an obsessive compulsive disorder. Some people …show more content…
The first category is washing/cleaning. Washing your hands, taking a shower, even brushing your hair, cleaning your house. These are all things that everybody does. However, people with OCD have a certain way of doing these things. They might spend 5 minutes washing their hands, or brushing their hair 300 times in the morning, 200 times in the evening, and 300 times at night. People may repeat things such as writing or reading. This usually leads to a routine of doing things. You might say something before you go through a doorway. This also includes people doing things in multiples of a number. They’ll do a task, say 4 times, because it feels right and safe. Checking is another common thing. People will check to see that they have not caused harm to themselves or others. They might also check to make sure that they haven’t made any mistakes or that nothing bad happened. One of the last things on the compulsion list is mental compulsions. This one isn’t as common as most. These people may pray of harm coming to them, and try to do everything a certain way or else they believe that something bad will happen. A few other compulsions would be telling confessions that they feel guilty about. People feel that if they don’t confess, they will be punished. People also try to avoid situations that may provoke their obsessions to come into mind. A common compulsion is having to …show more content…
They’re theories because nobody actually knows what causes OCD. A lot of studies point to that the brain and genes of an OCD person are different than a normal healthy brain. The front part of a brain of an OCD person has more difficulties communicating to the deeper part of the brain. Serotonin, a neurotransmitter, goes through the brain sending the commands and what they have to do. What feelings they feel, even how safe you feel somewhere. That’s the thing about OCD though. OCD messes with your mind, and makes you feel unsafe and uncomfortable all the time. Other studies show that the brain looks more normal after taking medication to make serotonin levels to rise. It has been shown that OCD is more common to run in families. However, that only accounts as part of causes of OCD. Nobody knows how people get OCD, but studies also show that OCD appearing in childhood is different than OCD appearing in adulthood. It’s believed that OCD starting in the childhood period is more severe than OCD in adulthood. It’s also been shown that children who experiences abuse when they’re young have more of a chance of having OCD than non-abused
Obsessive compulsive disorder commonly (OCD) can be defined as an anxiety disorder differentiated by acts of compulsiveness or continual thoughts of obsession. Persistent thoughts, images, and desires are characteristics of obsessions. These thoughts, images, and desires are not typically willed into one’s mind as they are often senseless, illogical, aggressive, taboo, etc. Compulsive acts are unrealistic and repetitive behaviors. The fear of contamination with germs, dirt, or grease is the most common obsession, which leads to thoroughgoing or compulsive cleansing rituals. Religion, sex,
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a pattern of recurring obsessions and compulsions that are severe enough to be time consuming and interfere with a person’s daily functioning. They must cause marked distress (such as pain or physical harm to the person) or significant impairment. Usually, they take more than
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.
OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is the unwanted recurrent thoughts, actions, or impulses and repetitive behaviors and actions that a person feels driven to perform (Obsessive Compulsive Anonymous World Services, 1999). People suffering from OCD perform a variation of strange rituals everyday uncontrollably. There are different types of compulsive behavior people with OCD display. For example, hoarders fear that something bad will happen if they throw anything away or give anything away. They compulsively hoard things that they don not need or use. These victims of OCD can become obsessed with not only performing actions, but with keeping objects and possessions.
OCD follows a pretty typical cycle, in which patients have obsessions that can become triggered, and when they become triggered, the patient feels anxiety. In order to combat that anxiety, they will try to relive it by creating behaviors, called compulsions. The compulsions temporarily provide relief until the obsessions are triggered again. There are a few common types of OCD:
"OCD patients have a pattern of distressing and senseless thoughts or ideas- obsessions- that repeatedly well up in their minds. To quell the distressing thoughts, specific patterns of odd behaviors- compulsions- develop." (Gee & Telew, 1999)
OCD is the acronym for obsessive-compulsive disorder (What is OCD?). OCD is a mental disorder that is not common, due to the fact that only 1.0% of the population has been diagnosed with OCD (Facts & Statist). “A person with OCD has obsessive and compulsive behaviors that are extreme enough to interfere with everyday life” (What is OCD?). These obsessions and
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD is a medical disorder that causes unwanted thoughts and impulses that are hard to control. A person that has OCD is often aware that the obsession and compulsion that they are experiencing are irrational but they cannot control it. A person’s experiencing OCD has rituals that consume significant amount of time that can interfere with their daily lives and can cause a great deal of distress.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V) explains the criteria for OCD. OCD is considered to be an anxiety disorder in the DSM V. Obsessions are defined as experiencing recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses and urges, and can be invasive and unasked for which then cause noticeable distress and anxiety for the individual. The individual will try to ignore the unwanted thoughts and urges or they may try to neutralise them via
OCD is a condition “in which people experience repetitive and upsetting thoughts and/or behaviors” (OCDA). While there are many variation of the disease, those suffering from OCD show signs in either or both of two categories: obsession and compulsion. The obsessive factor varies from thoughts to images or to impulses. These obsessions are often frequent, upsetting, and
OCD stands for obsessive-compulsive disorder. An individual with OCD tends to worry about many different things. On average, one out of fifty adults currently suffer from this disorder, and twice that many have had it at some point in their lives. When worries, doubts, or superstitious beliefs become excessive then a diagnosis of OCD is made. With OCD it is thought that the brain gets stuck on a particular thought or urge and just can't let go. Most often people with OCD describe the symptoms as a case of mental hiccups that won't go away. This causes problems in information processing. OCD was generally thought as untreatable until the arrival of modern medications and cognitive behavior therapy. Most people
We often hear people say they are OCD because they want things organized a specific way or have expectations of how things should be done. They get frustrated, fix it and then move on. Patients that have been medically diagnosed with OCD meeting are not able to move on so easily. True OCD is separated into two different parts. The person first deals with the obsessive part of the disease, which then leads to the compulsive part.
Obsessions are unwanted ideas or impulses that repeatedly well up in the mind of a person with OCD. These are thoughts and ideas that the sufferer cannot stop thinking about. A sufferer will almost always obsess over something which he or she is most afraid of. Common ideas include persistent fears that harm may come to self or a loved one, an unreasonable concern with becoming contaminated, or an excessive need to do things correctly or perfectly. Again and again, the individual experiences a disturbing thought, such as, "My hands may be contaminated -- I must wash them" or "I may have left the gas on" or "I am going to injure my child." These thoughts tend to be intrusive, unpleasant, and produce a high degree of anxiety. Sometimes the obsessions are of a violent or a sexual nature, or concern illness. People with OCD who obsess over hurting themselves or others are actually less likely to do so than the average person. Obsessions are typically automatic, frequent, distressing, and difficult to control or put an end to by themselves. With these reoccurring obsessions continuously being played in the sufferers mind, they start performing repetitive acts that reassure them that their hands aren’t dirty, or the gas for the stove is turned of. This response to their obsession is called a compulsion.
Many people may think they have OCD simply because they have to have something in a certain order. While this may be a symptom of OCD, they usually don’t spend their whole day doing it over and over again. People who suffer from the disorder take their obsessions
Repetitive thoughts, desires, or impulses that are unwelcome and provide anxiety or distress are considered an obsession. While repetitive unwanted behaviors are a compulsion. Together these two words are contributing factors that make up Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. The American Psychiatric Association constitutes “OCD as an anxiety disorder in which people have recurring, unwanted thoughts, ideas or sensations (obsessions) that make them feel driven to do something repetitively (compulsions)” (Dougherty, Wilhelm, & Jenike, 2014, p. 432).