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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in Children

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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in Children |

What is OCD?
Clinically Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder, characterized by the inability to restrain obsessive thoughts for sustained periods. In extremis, sufferers obsess identical thoughts for years, in an endlessly exhausting cycle. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) usually begins in adolescence or young adulthood and is seen in as many as 1 in 200 children and adolescents. OCD is characterized by recurrent intense obsessions and/or compulsions that cause severe discomfort and interfere with day-to-day functioning. Obsessions are recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses, or images that are unwanted and cause marked anxiety or distress. Frequently, …show more content…

In 17th century England, the concept of "religious melancholy" became established as the cause of a many mental disorders including those with OCD-like symptoms. According to Robert Burton's 1621 famous book "Anatomy of Melancholy", "It more besots and infatuates men than wars, plagues, sicknesses, death, famine and all the rest." Burton blamed "priestly superstition" as the prime cause of "religion run wild and frenzied". Mental distress caused by religious melancholy could be cured by “the comfort of cheerful friends and productive work" and the avoidance of "solitariness and idleness".
Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) believed obsessive-compulsive behavior is linked to unconscious conflicts manifested as symptoms of the illness. For example Freud described a case of "touching phobia" initiated when young children have a natural desire to touch and explore objects with their fingers. Later, an "external prohibition", such as the admonition of adults can develop, suppressing this desire to touch and becoming a repressed urge within the unconscious. Conflict develops between the desires and subsequent actions of the conscious and unconscious minds. OCD sufferers, frequently "compelled" to carry out actions giving only temporary relief from anxiety, still "know" it’s ridiculous or embarrassing to do so. Freud developed psychoanalysis

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