Everything You Need To Know About Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is characterized as a person’s obsession with rituals in order to neutralize intrusive thoughts. This is a major anxiety disorder.
There are recurrent and constant impulses, thoughts or images that the person experiences at any given time. The person tries to suppress or ignore these thoughts, images or impulses through another action or thought. Sometimes the person recognizes his thoughts and regards them as obsession but he is not able to remedy it himself. There is also the tendency to exaggerate small details.
Oftentimes, this disorder is defined as the repetitive mental acts or behavior that the person feels he should perform in order to respond to his obsession. It is as if there are rules and he can never break the rules. These mental acts and behavior are often aimed in reducing distress of the individual. When he does not do the action, the more stressed he would be.
What are the symptoms of OCD?
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is manifested in so many forms. If you remember the 1997 movie “As Good As It Gets”, Jack Nicholson is an example of a person suffering from OCD. Another recent one is Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Aviator.”
The symptoms are constantly hand washing, specific counting technique (like counting in fives, grouping objects in threes). There’s also counting the steps from destination A to destination B. They also tend to align objects in right angles.
People with OCD also cancel their bad thoughts and replace them with good thoughts. When they imagine that they are harming a child, they replace it with the child playing happily so that the previous thought can be canceled out.
There are also sexual obsessions. There are some cases when the person does not want these sexual thoughts. Two examples are the fear of being homosexual or a pedophile. In these cases, the sufferers obsess whether they are or are not aroused by people of the same sex or children.
There is also the fear of contamination. You remember how Jack Nicholson would always bring his own plastic utensils to the restaurant. There’s also the scene with Leonardo DiCaprio giving a queasy look after Cate Blanchett drinks from the same bottle of milk as he is drinking. They fear the human body secretions like sweat; saliva, tears or mucus can cause them harm.
There is also the need for the body to always be balance. Jack Nicholson evades cracks on the floor just as Leonardo DiCaprio is seen walking with a cane. (To remind the readers, the Nicholson here pertains to his character in “As Good As It Gets” and the Dicaprio in “The Aviator.” They both played personages with OCD.)
People with OCD know that these behavior and thoughts are irrational but they are still compelled to do what they have already been used to in the first place. If not, there will always be feelings of dread or panic.
It is important to note though that people with OCD have different behaviors than those people who have gambling problems or are over-eaters. People with OCD typically do not experience pleasure from their rituals as opposed to the previously mentioned.
How do you treat OCD?
Interestingly enough, there is no cure for obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, anti-depressants can lessen the panic, anxiety and worry that it may eventually trigger when a particular ritual has not been done.
Medications include SSRIs like paroxetine, sertraline, flouoxetine and fluvoxamine. There are also the tricyclic antidepressants, specifically chlomipramine. SSRIs prevent the serotonin from being pumped right back into its original neuron that usually triggers the panic button to the brain. In that way, the person is eased off his obsessive-compulsive thoughts and excessive anxiety.
It may also be treated with behavioral therapy or cognitive therapy. There are cases that these two therapies are combined with medications. Psychotherapy helps in treating the disorder by exposing the person to a specific technique known as the Exposure and Ritual Prevention or ERP. This gradually makes the person learn how to tolerate his anxiety that is connected to his inability to perform a ritual that he has been used to doing.
