Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Definition:
OCD is characterized by unreasonable thoughts and fears that lead the client to do repetitive or compulsive behaviors. Clients may only have obsessions or compulsions and still be diagnosed with OCD. The client may not be aware that his/her obsessions are not reasonable or he/she may try to ignore them or stop them all together. In doing this it will increase his/her distress or anxiety. The client may feel driven to perform compulsive acts in an effort to decrease the stressful feelings. Client’s obsessions are often centered around specific themes, such as the fear of being contaminated by germs, he/she may feel the urge to wash their hands until they become sore and/or chapped.
Causes:
Biology:
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shaking hands or using public bathrooms; distress about sexual images repeating in your mind
Compulsion: washing; cleaning; counting; checking; demanding reassurance; following a strict routine; orderliness; handwashing until his/her skin becomes raw; checking doors repeatedly to make sure they are locked; checking the stove repeatedly to make sure it is turned off; counting in certain patterns (i.e. by twos or tens); silently repeating a prayer, word or phrase; arranging your canned goods to face the same way
Treatment:
Psychotherapy: exposure and response preventions, most effective treatment for OCD, exposes client to feared objects or obsessions gradually until client can be around object and not feel the
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Establish a relationship with the patient. Rationale: establishing a relationship helps to build trust and let the patient relax and decrease anxiety levels.
2. Keep the environment calm. Rationale: decreased outside stimuli helps the patient relax and reduce urge to perform rituals.
3. Assist patient in learning new stress management techniques. Rationale: stress management can be used instead of rituals and can help to break the habitual patterns.
4. Encourage the client to participate in constructive activities. Rationale: when the client is preoccupied with small tasks such as needlework or puzzles they may be less likely to perform rituals.
5. Give positive reinforcement with non-compulsive behavior. Rationale: helps the client feel more comfortable without performing rituals.
6. Administer prescribed Fluoxetine (Prozac). Rationale: helps to relieve the levels of anxiety and need to perform
What is OCD? OCD stands for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a psychological disorder that makes an individual have a great deal of anxiety due to unwanted thoughts. The individual will try to reduce it by engaging in repetitive behaviors or compulsions. OCD is a part of an individual’s everyday life, so it is natural to have some obsessive thoughts. However, when it interferes with your every day lifestyle, then the individual knows that it’s a disorder. An example of the most common OCD that someone may encounter are contamination, accidental harm to others, perfection when it comes to washing, cleaning, or arrangement of things. Obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms can change over time. It is most common
A well-known example of OCD is the constant feeling of being dirty and always believing that one’s self is contaminated. The compulsion to coact would be to wash one’s hands constantly to get rid of the obsession. After a compulsion is performed, relief will
Reduce distractions for patient. This may calm down the Sally and assist in helping client focus on admission procedures.
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.
Obsessive-Compulsive disorder is a type of severe anxiety disorder that impacts an individual’s entire life and way of functioning. Obsessions are considered intrusive and recurrent thoughts or impulses that cannot be removed through reasoning. Compulsions are the repetitive and ritualistic behaviors and actions that associate with the obsessions. These compulsions are to be performed according to specific rules or methods and are thought to prevent or reduce stress and feared situations. Both compulsions and obsessions cause disabling levels of anxiety. The individual affected is often able to recognize the behavior as excessive and irrational, but is unable to control or stop the behaviors without intervention.
There have been no genes identified specifically for OCD, although research shows that genes do play a part in the development of OCD. Development of OCD during childhood runs in families. If one or both parents have OCD, there is a bigger chance that the child will have OCD, but it is still a very low chance. Other than this, there is no proven cause of OCD. Research shows that OCD is the result of problems with communication between the front part of the brain and deeper structures. These two brain structures use the chemical serotonin and low levels of serotonin is thought to be involved in OCD. Therefore, drugs that increase serotonin levels often help with the symptoms of OCD. Another form of treatment for OCD is called cognitive behavior therapy and has shown to be effective in both children and adults. This type of therapy involves retraining your thoughts and routines so that the compulsions are no longer necessary. This therapy usually exposes you to your fear or obsession and teaches you healthy ways to deal with it. People with OCD
clearing demonstrating the compulsion that is too often difficult to control, even though it appears
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 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 (OCD) is a debilitating neuropsychiatric disorder with a lifetime prevalence of 2 to 3 percent and is estimated to be the 10th leading cause of disability in the world. Patients with OCD experience recurrent, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and/or repetitive, stereotyped behaviors (compulsions) that last for at least one hour per day and significantly interfere with the individual 's normal level of functioning. The intrusive obsessional thoughts
Darcy’s first recollection of having obsessions occurs when her grandmother died this was also shortly before her father relocated the family to a big city where the compulsions began. Her grandmother’s death is a very plausible cause to her OCD because it made her feel lonely and full of grief which carried over to her adjustment into a completely new and different environment. The emotions of grief and loneliness could’ve caused her obsessions to develop as a result of her new fears of experiencing more grief and loneliness. These new obsessions eventually led to compulsions to prevent her fears from ever coming true. This can be seen in the idea that her obsessions focus on not doing anything socially unacceptable. It is very common that a tragic event in one’s death can lead to the result of obsessions. In order to treat Darcy’s case of OCD, I would recommend addressing the issue of her grandmother’s death with Darcy in order to help her cope and come to acceptance. I would recommend this because it is clear that her grandmother’s death had a huge impact on her life and was something that she was never able to properly address which the relocation of her family can be partially blamed for. After Darcy had come to terms with grandmother’s death, I would then recommend exposure therapy paired with cognitive behavioral therapy. Many studies pertaining to OCD have shown that the pairing of exposure therapy with CBT is very effective with the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder. I believe that the same results would be produced in this case if it was use. In this case, exposure therapy would be used to expose Darcy to death and to show her that it is inevitable rather than the result of something that Darcy did wrong. After being exposed to this concept, it is then crucial to use CBT to change Darcy’s misconceptions
Encourage the client to develop a daily routine that involves activities and social interaction. Rationale: a schedule will help to decrease anxiety, and prevent procrastination.
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a disorder that causes someone to have unwanted and troubling thoughts and repetitive behaviors (Lack, 2012). People may self-diagnose themselves to be obsessive compulsive. But people with obsessive compulsive disorder need to spend at least 1 hour daily on obsessive thoughts and rituals (Ellyson, 2014). This disorder is broken into two parts. The first part is obsessions, thoughts or images, and the second part is compulsions, the repetitive behaviors caused by the obsessions (Brakoulias, 2015). An example of obsessive compulsive disorder would be someone checking the locked door multiple times to reduce anxiety about forgetting to lock the door. On average 5% of the population has subclinical symptoms which are considered to be symptoms that are not disruptive enough to meet criteria to be diagnosed obsessive compulsive (Lack, 2012). Dropping what you’re doing to go back and check if your curling iron is unplugged is an example of a subclinical symptom. This paper will discuss what obsessive compulsive disorder is and provide a brief history. It will also include current treatments, suggestions on how to treat the disorder, and a summary.
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.