OCD: The Battle Against Obsessions

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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a Psychological Anxiety Disorder, there is the obsession and then the compulsion to try and fix the obsession. An obsession is an unstoppable thought much like an error signal, “obsessions involve persistent and recurrent intrusive thoughts, images, or impulses that are experienced as disturbing, inappropriate, and uncontrollable.” (Butcher 202). While a compulsion is a thought or action designed to get rid of the obsession that is plaguing the person with the disorder, “Compulsions can involve either overt repetitive behaviors that are performed as lengthy rituals or more covert mental rituals.” (Butcher 202). The prevalence of this disorder is placed “at between one and three percent, although the prevalence of clinically recognized OCD is much lower.” (Ramasamy 2). OCD is an anxiety disorder that is taken very seriously, with the symptoms being so life changing the people affected deal with functional impairment in their life. When diagnosing a person with OCD, it is very easy to tell due to the symptoms. The symptoms of OCD are the obsession and the compulsion themselves, each contributing to the whole of the disorder. “Within and among individuals, the initial obsessions, or intrusive thoughts, vary in their clarity and vividness. A relatively vague obsession could involve a general sense of disarray or tension accompanied by a belief that life cannot proceed as normal while the imbalance remains.” (Ramasamy 3). The compulsion is the brains natural way of trying to fix the obsession, by performing a certain ritual and/or repetitive behavior to compensate the error code running through the mind the compulsion works as a malfunctioning reset. The etiology of OCD is biological in nature and en... ... middle of paper ... ... treatment elsewhere, although still in a experimental phase there is a significant success rate. When dealing with this diagnosis in the future treatment and dealing with OCD will change and become easier to overcome with as much research that is being done. The class information, my sources and other research are all parallel to each other offering much of the same information. Works Cited Butcher, James Neal, Susan Mineka, and Jill M. Hooley. Abnormal Psychology. Boston: Pearson, 2013. Print. Decloedt, Eric H., and Dan J. Stein. "Current Trends in Drug Treatment of Obsessive–compulsive Disorder." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 25 May 2010. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. Ramasamy, Revathee, Wayan Westa, and Nyoman Ratep. "E-Jurnal Udayana Medica."OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER. Udayana University, 2013. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.

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