As Good As It Gets?: An Examination Of The Mechanism And Mode Of Treatment Of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive-compulsive disorder, often referred to as simply OCD, is a mental illness in which an individual experiences endless cycles of repeated thoughts and rituals, known as obsessions and compulsions, which she feels she cannot control (1). Although many people possess habits and routines that help them organize their every day schedules, people with OCD form patterns of behavior that are extremely time-consuming and interfere with their daily lives. Once believed to be a rare and incurable disease which people kept hidden for fear of embarrassment (2), OCD is now recognized as being far more common than previously
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The second major component of OCD are compulsions, or voluntary, irresistible actions that are apparently stereotyped or ritualistic (4). Approximately 80% of all OCD sufferers experience compulsions along with obsessions (4), while only 20% experience one of the two. A person with OCD may be driven to perform the compulsive act in order to produce or prevent another situation from happening. In most cases, the compulsive person is aware that the act is meaningless or unreasonable, however, avoiding the urge to perform the act often leads to unsurpassable amounts of stress and anxiety (4). Only when the act is carried out is the person's anxiety once again relieved. Examples of compulsions include: hand washing or wearing gloves, ordering and arranging items in specific ways, and checking rituals involving locks and appliances (2).
Strong evidence suggests that OCD has both psychological and biological components (3). In the past, the causes of OCD have strictly been attributed to external factors such as family problems or learned behaviors (such as an emphasis on cleanliness). However, when OCD-like behavior was observed in other animal species including dogs, horses, and birds, attention was redirected to finding a neurobiological cause for the disorder as
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 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)
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.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, also known as OCD, is a psychiatric anxiety disorder that is characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts along with repetitive behaviors. These unwanted thoughts are called obsessions and the repetitive behaviors are called compulsions. Repetitive behaviors such as hand washing, checking, counting, and cleaning are usually performed with the hope of making these obsessive thoughts go away or even preventing them. These repetitive behaviors are often referred to as ‘rituals’. People with OCD perform these rituals to help deal with the anxiety that the obsessions cause. These rituals only provide temporary relief for the person and usually end up controlling their life. About one in every fifty adults have
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is considered a neuropsychiatric disorder with a lifelong predominance somewhere around 2% and 4% which happens at a 1:1 male-to-female ratio (Olbrich et al, 2013). It is portrayed by intermittent and frequently incapacitating obsessions or compulsions that are perceived by the person as absurd. Obsessions are nervous-inciting, intrusive thoughts, normally concerning contamination, question, guilt, animosity and sex. Compulsions are exceptional practices that lessen nervousness, generally hand-washing, sorting out, checking, and praying. The etiology might be connected with anomalies of serotonin metabolism and also there are confirmations of heritability (Pogarell et al, 2006).
Obsessive-compulsive disorder, also known as OCD, is an anxiety disorder in which people have unwanted and repeated thoughts, feelings, ideas, sensations, or behaviors that make them feel driven to do something. There are many different forms of OCD such as checking and contamination.. People affected by the many types of OCD have to contend with overcoming them to live a normal life, but they should not have to deal with society’s incorrect stereotypes as well.
Obsessive compulsion disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder described by irrational thoughts and fears (obsessions) that lead you to do repetitive tasks (compulsions) (Obsessive Compulsion Disorder, 2013). When a person has obsessive-compulsive disorder, they may realize that their obsessions aren't accurate, and they may try to overlook them but that only increases their suffering and worry. Eventually, you feel driven to perform compulsive acts to ease your stressful feelings. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is often driven by a reason, cause, or fear for example, a fear of germs. To calm the feeling of this fear, a person may compulsively wash their hands until they're sore and chapped. Despite their efforts, thoughts of obsessive-compulsive behavior keep coming back. This leads to more ritualistic behavior and a brutal cycle of obsessive-compulsive disorder. OCD is the fourth most common mental disorder, and is diagnosed nearly as often as asthma and diabetes (Who We Are, 2012). In the United States, one in 50 adults suffers from OCD. Obsessive compulsive disorder affects children, adolescents, and adults. About one third to one half of adults with OCD report a childhood onset of the disorder, they felt these anxieties but were not diagnosed or felt no need to be diagnosed until the compulsions over whelmed them (Who We Are, 2012). The phrase obsessive compulsive has been used to describe excessively meticulous, perfectionistic, absorbed, or otherwise fixated person. While
Obsessive compulsive disorder is a common psychological disorder that is often associated with misconstrued stereotypes. OCD is considered an anxiety disorder consisting of obsessions that are often combined with compulsions. These obsessions are usually recurrent and persistent specific thoughts and be urges. Compulsions make up the second part of OCD. They are repetitive behaviors performed according to rigid rules that are completed in an attempt to help prevent obsessions from becoming true. The compulsions are maintained by negative reinforcement meaning that the patient continues to perform the compulsions because the obsessions are prevented. This idea forces the patient to continue the vicious cycle of performing compulsions to prevent
Obsessive compulsive disorder is when a person has unwanted thoughts and fears that can lead to continuous actions and behaviors. In the beginning of this disorder, you may not understand or realize that these actions or obsessions are anything to worry about. However, as OCD progresses your anxiety will grow and cause physical, emotional, and mental problems. Your mind makes you think that you need to do these compulsive actions so that the stress and anxiety will leave and you will feel better. Examples of OCD behavior might be the fear of being contaminated with germs and you need to wash your hands over and over again (Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), 2015).
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
Experts agree that Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an extremely disabling illness. People living with OCD live very frustrated and hindered lives. They feel trapped in an endless cycle of recurring thoughts and behaviors. Many of these distressing thoughts are rooted in fear. These fears lead the person to perform certain routines and/or rituals throughout their day. These rituals and compulsions are performed in an attempt to stop the obsessive thoughts in hopes to make them go away.
Obsessive compulsive disorder also known as OCD, is an anxiety disorder. People who have this disorder have repetitive thoughts and behaviors that they cannot control. A chemical imbalance of the neurotransmitter serotonin throws off communication in the brain. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians (2015), it can also cause impulses that manifest through obsessions, ideas, and images. The next part of this disorder is compulsions. These are the behaviors that people who have this disorder perform in order to get rid of the uncontrollable thoughts and feelings.
Knowing what OCD is the first step in understanding the psychology of the disorder. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, “Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a common, chronic and long-lasting disorder in which a person has uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions) that he or she feels the urge to repeat over and over” (NIMH). The obsessive part of OCD is intrusive, repetitive thoughts the cause anxiety, and the compulsion part is the need to perform an act or ritual repeatedly. The obsession causes anxiety and the compulsion relieves the anxiety.