Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a type of anxiety disorder that can be best characterized by the recurrent or disturbing thoughts that are labeled as obsessions. Sometime these obsessions can take on the form of intrusive images or the unwanted impulses. The compulsions can come from the repetitive or ritualized behaviors that a person feels driven to perform on a daily basis. The majority of people with the diagnosis of OCD can have both obsessions and compulsions, but most of the times about 20% have obsessions alone while 10% may have the compulsions alone (Goodman M.D., 2013) . Common types that have been illustrated in individual’s diagnoses with OCD can be characterized with concerns of contamination, safety or harm to themselves, unwanted acts of aggression, the unacceptable sexual or religious thoughts, and the need for symmetry or exactness. While some of the most common compulsion can be characterized as excessive cleaning, checking, ordering, and arranging rituals or the counting and repeating routines activities that are done sometimes on a daily basis multiple times in a day.

People from all walks of life can get a diagnosis of OCD. It can be found in multiple groups of people in all social and ethnic groups and found in both male and female. Most symptoms are formed in early childhood, the teenage or young adult years. If the appearance of OCD suddenly appears later in life could merit a thorough medical evaluation to ensure that another illness is not the underlining causes of these symptoms. This paper will discuss what OCD is, who actually gets it is, what the actual causes of OCD are, and what the effective treatments for OCD are available out there (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, OCD, ...

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...hope that diagnosis is found when the individual is still young and the symptoms will not worsen over time. Response of treatments varies in each individual and some studies suggest that medication and behavioral therapy are the most effective in relieving the symptoms of OCD (What is OCD?, 2014). While there is still a small percentage of individuals with OCD that neither medication nor behavioral treatment produces no significant change at all their symptoms. The combination of both methods has been found in several cases to be superior to either treatment on its own. Most individuals who have received effective treatments find that the symptoms are reduced drastically by 40% to 50%. That makes it enough to change their lives where upon they are to go back to school, work and their families. In other words they can become a functioning part of society again.