Obsessive-Compulsive Case Studies

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,

The New England Journal of Medicine States: “The defining characteristic of a traumatic event is its capacity to provoke fear, helplessness, or death. People who are exposed to such events are at increased risk for PTSD as well as for major depression, panic disorder, including generalized anxiety disorder.”

Comorbidity PTSD alludes to the presence of two or more ailments or conditions in the same individual in the meantime (Parsons, & Ressler, 2013). For instance, somebody who has been determined to have both post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and marginal identity issue (BPD) is said to have "comorbid PTSD and

Obsessive compulsive disorder is a disease that many people know of, but few people know about. Many people associate repeated washing of hands, or flicking of switches, and even cleanliness with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), however there are many more symptoms, and there are also explanations for those symptoms. In this paper, I will describe what obsessive compulsive disorder is, explain some of the effects of it, and explain why it happens. I will also attempt to prove that while medication doesn’t cure OCD, it vastly improves one’s quality of life. Furthermore I intend to show that behavior therapy (cognitive based therapy) is another useful tool in helping a person to overcome their OCD.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a mental disorder which it symptoms are having routines, or thoughts repeatedly with no ability to avoid the fear and stop them. Some people are aware of those habits, and they realize that those rituals do not make sense, but there is no an easy way to get out of them. Counting all the clothes, shoes, magazines and lie in in a straight line are illustrations when obsessive-compulsive symptoms arrive.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness defines a mental illness as “a condition that impacts a person’s thinking, feeling or mood and may affect his or her ability to relate to others and function on a daily basis”. A mental illness is not necessarily the result of one event. Research has shown that there are usually multiple, interlinking causes including, but not limited to, genetics, environment, and lifestyle. According to mentalhealth.gov, one in four American adults experience a mental health condition each year, which is approximately 61.5 million Americans. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is one of numerous types of mental disorders.

The repetition of these traumatic events and the stress caused by these events can manifest itself in physiological and psychological disorders which, over the course of the 20th century have changed names and

As such, healthcare practitioners should be careful during the process of assessing a patient to ascertain whether the symptoms are characteristic of complex PTSD or PTSD and a personality disorder co-occurring. The sufferer may have thinking and talking difficulties concerning trauma-related topics since trauma-associated feelings are often overwhelming. Moreover, the sufferers may engage in self-mutilation as well as other forms of self-harm in addition to indulging in alcohol and substance abuse as a way of numbing the feelings resulting from the trauma. The survivors may mistakenly be seen as having a weak character due to trauma from repeated

He later changed he theory to suggest that intra-psychic conflict and the external trauma causes lots of illnesses. Many aspects of this theory have been applied to the understanding of PTSD. Most people when faced with trauma get over it in a few weeks or months. However, some, especially children, have difficulty coping with traumatic events and integrating these events into their psyche. These experiences will only be repressed and will reemerge to the consciousness when later reminded of the trauma. In Freud’s view not only does the repressed trauma come back later in life, but it will also bring back other unsolved conflicts from

This cause included actual threatened or serious injury, threat to one’s physical integrity, witnessing an event that involves death, injury, or threat to the physical integrity of another person, also learning about unexpected or violent death, serious harm, or threat of death or injury experienced by a family member or other close associate. For example, I have friends that lives in Chicago. They always tell me how violent some parts of the area arevery dangerous. A couple of years ago I was told that one of my friends witnessed our friend getting shot to death. Now my friend can’t sleep at night, he has vivid memories of the moment it happened even if it was years ago. When we go through things in our life it puts us in different spaces which can be hard for an individual to move on from. Examples of traumatic events experienced directly include military combat, violent personal assault (sexual assault, physical attack, robbery, mugging, being kidnapped, being taken hostage, terrorists attack, torture, incarceration as a prisoner of war or in a concentrationcamp, natural or manmade disasters, severe automobile accidents. Examples of events experienced by others that are learned about. Learning of a violent personal assault, serious accident, or serious injury experienced by a family member or a close friend, learning about a sudden, unexpected death of a family member or close friend, learning that one’s child has a life-threatening disease. One learned event that has personally affected me has to be the death of my mom. My mom’s death was unexpected. When we go through things it makes us feel anavoid in our lives, at least that’s how I feel. I feel like a piece of my heart is gone from that experience. It was also traumatizing learning that one of my close friends from childhood was been molested by her father for years. When I found out about my friend going through that it made me very scared

In everyday life, it is inevitable that an individual will experience some form of stress. This stress may come in the form of daily hassles, inconveniences and major life events such as divorce or the loss of a loved one. When stress becomes traumatic, the individual is at a great risk of developing a stress disorder. According to the DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000), traumatic stress occurs when the individual is presented with a traumatic situation in which the person experiences or witnesses an event that incorporated threats of death or significant harm and the person’s reaction to the event consisted of profound terror, helplessness or revulsion. A traumatic event can be a large-scale event with multiple victims such as natural/human caused disasters, war, mass violence or explicit experience in the death of others. Examples of these large-scale events include 9/11, the Holocaust, Hurricane Katrina etc. Other classification of traumatic events involve unintended acts involving fewer people such as motor vehicle collisions or life threatening illnesses and acts of intended personal violence such as sexual/physical assault, torture or child abuse. These traumatic stressors cause a significant more amount of distress than the everyday stressors mentioned earlier as they cause the individual to challenge

The study found out that the history of abuse was related to an early age of onset, Axis 1 and Axis 2 disorders, suicide attempts and lifetime history of substance abuse. There was a strong relationship between physical abuse and mania. Comorbidities were found. Those who experienced physical and sexual abuse had eating disorders, anxiety disorders and PTSD. Lastly, the researchers concluded that genetic predispositions and traumatic experiences can increase the vulnerability of developing bipolar illness. In conclusion, the results of the study supported the hypothesis.

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.

In a 2010 study by Landau, Iervolino, Pertusa, Santo, Singh, and Mataix-Cols, looked to investigate the relationship with hoarding, traumatic events, and material deprivation. This study also attempted to distinguish if OCD was a determining factor in the prevalence of hoarding. This study hypothesized that hoarders (with or without comorbid OCD) would report higher lifetime frequency of traumatic events than individuals with OCD who do not have hoarding tendencies, but no greater levels of material deprivation. Furthermore, this study also attempts identify if stress and traumatic life events would be temporarily linked with the onset of hoarding concerns in a large group of hoarding cases. In this study a total of 81 individuals were studied, these individuals were separated into four distinct groups: Twenty-four were in the group consisting of individuals with hoarding disorder without comorbid OCD, of these 24 the mean age was 56.1, 83.3 percent female, and 52 percent had a family history of hoarding. Twenty individuals with hoarding disorder with comorbid OCD, the mean age was 47.7, 80 percent female, and 50 percent had a family history of hoarding. Seventeen individuals with OCD without hoarding symptoms of which the mean age was 46, 58.8 percent were female, and 52.9 percent had a family history of hoarding. Lastly, 20 individuals were in the non-clinical control group, this group had a mean age of 40.2, was 70 percent female and in this group the family history of

Herman (1992) categorizes the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder into three major categories: hyperarousal, intrusion, and constriction. She describes hyperarousal as the “persistent expectation of danger,” intrusion as the “indelible imprint of the traumatic moment,” and constriction as the “numbing response of surrender” (Herman, 1992, p. 35).