Obsessive Compulsive Disorder : Symptoms, Cause and Treatment

 

Chain of thoughts play with your head like constant striking, repetitive behaviour these are the elements that comes under this disorder.

What is it?

OCD is common disorder in which someone has the same thoughts about something (obsession) and the constant urge or behaviour taken in order to maintain or satisfy those thoughts (compulsion). This order can be chronic and last for a long time.

This origin of this condition is still unclear but there is much research that is being done to determine if it there is a biological or genetic cause.

In the context of OCD, are where a person generally suffers with obsessional thoughts that are repetitive, disturbing and often horrific and repugnant in nature, are called Intrusive Thoughts, and sometimes mistakenly referred to as ‘Pure O’.

However, the term is a little misleading like rumination above because everybody alive will have intrusive thoughts, of course it could be argued that everybody with OCD will have ‘Intrusive Thoughts’ i.e., their ‘obsession’. But in reality, even people without OCD will and do have intrusive thoughts, which can be both negative and positive. The thought of winning lottery is technically an intrusive thought, just a pleasant one.

Possible Obsessions:

·       Fear of Germs

·       Having perfect order or organization

·       Repeated aggressive urge

·       Taboos towards a variety of things

Possible Compulsion:

·       Excessive Hand-washing

·       Obsessive counting

·       Specifically arranging

·       Repeated behaviours such as touching, checking, counting, etc.

Risk Factors:

One of the major risk factors with OCD is possibility of also suffering from bipolar disorder (BD). One study finds that 17-18% of those suffering from one of the disorders also suffers from the order.

There are four stages of OCD:

1.    Relabel

2.    Reattribute

3.    Refocus

4.    Revalue

OCD in kids:

Perfectionism can be another feature of OCD. You may find your OCD telling you that if you don’t do your homework perfectly, you won’t recover. If you do find yourself obsessing about having to do your homework perfectly, you risk turning it into another compulsion. Watch out for having to do your homework according to the same rigid rules each time you do it. Also, don’t do your homework so excessively that it takes up your whole day. Remember that you still have a life to live.

Little stories regarding OCD:

Ramesh loved cleanliness from the beginning, but nowadays his craze for cleanliness had increased a lot.  He started washing his hands and feet 15 to 20 times a day.  Bathing began to take hours.  Irritated if someone tried to stop.  He realizes that it was wrong, but he was not satisfied without washing his hands frequently. He constantly feels that his hands are dirty.

 Archana used to check the locks constantly.  She always suspected that she had forgotten something.  Does she often go back home from the street and turn off the gas again and again?  Did I lock the door? Let’s check it out....  She used to question herself again and again....  Everyone in the house was fed up with her habits. but she was not able to control it.

It is a condition where someone fixates on dark, disruptive thoughts that seem to pop into the brain uninvited and refuse to leave. That’s the obsessive part. To deal with these intrusive thoughts, the person may perform certain rituals to alleviate the stress. That’s the compulsive part.

Rama aunty was constantly thinking about God and goddesses, she was getting bad, dirty blasphemous thoughts about God. Rama aunty was very religious person.  But these days, she has stopped worshiping the God.  She knew that all the dirty thoughts coming in her mind were wrong, but she could not stop those thoughts.  She began to think of suicide.

 The only illness they all had was obsessive compulsive disorder.  In this Disorder, thoughts often come to mind again and again repeatedly.  Even if they think that such thinking is wrong, the thoughts keep coming against their will.  These unwanted intrusive thoughts (i.e., Obsessions) create fear, guilt and anxiety, to reduce that anxiety, you have to do something again and again (i.e., compulsions).  E.g.  Frequent hand washing, saluting, checking the lock, going in and out of the house door. 

Often such people do not know what to do and whom to express their pain, so they live their lives blaming fate or thinking of suicide.  They waste their time and money by going to magicians for superstitions.  These ailments are completely cured if treated by a psychiatrist which are best for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder treatment.  With the advent of new drugs, these diseases can be completely cured and drug addiction can be avoided.  In addition to medications other treatment methods like Brief Pulse Therapy, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Counselling is very effective.