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mental illness essay topics
mental illness essay topics
mental illness essay topics
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A man lies down and begins to try and fall asleep but suddenly remembers that he cannot remember if he locked the doors to his house. He cannot fall asleep until he knows for sure all the doors are locked, so he proceeds to get up and check if every door is locked. He does this three times until he is finally comfortable enough to go to sleep. What could possibly be wrong with this man? This man most like has a disability called Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, or OCD. In the past, this man with OCD would have been considered extremely strange, but it is now known that OCD is somewhat common in today’s world. The conditions of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder can be very uncomfortable and unsettling, but there are some ways to treat OCD.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder that causes a sufferer to have very uncomfortable obsessions and compulsions. The main anxiety of a sufferer of OCD is obsessive thoughts, images, or impulses that can cause a lot of distress. These thoughts, images, and ideas are obsessive because they are undesirable and the person will experience them continuously. People with OCD usually recognize that their obsessions are abnormal, but it is still extremely difficult for them to just stop them. As a result of these obsessions, a person with OCD will usually experience compulsions to try and relieve themselves of their obsessions. Unfortunately for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, the compulsions only relieve stress caused by the obsessions briefly. The obsessions typically come back later on and the cycle of obsessions and compulsions can continue on throughout the day. Obsessions can continue on from anywhere between ten and twenty-five times per day, and for someone with severe ...
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...e down over the course of about a year. I still have very little OCD like symptoms, but they are almost completely gone. Anyone can tell that obsessive-compulsive disorder can be very annoying and unsettling, but, luckily, there are ways to treat OCD.
There are a few different ways to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder. First of all, medications are a good way to treat OCD. One medication that can be used to treat OCD is antidepressants.
Works Cited
Charles, Katie. "Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a leading cause of disability worldwide, with causes not yet fully understood." New York Daily News [New York] 21 July 2013: 2. Print.
Goodman, Wayne. "Obssessive-Compulsive Disorder Symptoms and Treatment."Psych Central. N.p., 20 Aug. 2013. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Belkin, Lisa. “Can You Catch Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?” New York Times [New York] 22 May 2005:7. Print.
Conceição do Rosario-Campos, M., Leckman, J. F., Mercadante, M. T., Shavitt, R. G., Prado, H. S., Sada, P., Zamignani, D. & Miguel, E. C. (2001). Adults with early-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 1899-1903.
OCD is broken down into two components the obsession and the compulsion. The first component; obsession is when an individual is consistently having these reoccurring thoughts or images about a certain problem or issue in their life. For example; an individual that has OCD can have a constant thought or image about getting sick or dying from the various germs or diseases that people contract every day. So this individual goes to the extreme to make sure that they do not contract any of these germs or diseases. That is when the compulsive component begins. This is when the individual takes these extreme actions to protect themselves from whatever they have these high anxiety feelings about. So continuing using the same example; this individual will consistently clean their homes every day for several hours at a time. They tend to clean their hands several times when out in public and are very tedious about where they go and what they touch while in public. They are also very caution about how they interact with other people. They just take extra steps to protect themsel...
Obsessive-Compulsive disorder (OCD) - is characterized by persistent, uncontrollable and unwanted feelings or thoughts (obsessions) and routines or rituals (compulsions) in which individuals engage to try to prevent or rid themselves of these thoughts. In example of common compulsions include washing hands or cleaning repeatedly for fear of germs.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a disease that afflicts up to six million Americans, however all its characteristics are yet to be fully understood. Its causes, triggers, attributes, and variations are still unknown although effective medicines exist to treat the symptoms. OCD is a very peculiar disease as Rapoport discusses it comes in many different forms and have different symptoms yet have many similarities. One sure aspect is that it appears, or at least its symptoms do, out of the blue and is triggered either by stressful experiences or, most of the time, just appears out of nowhere. One example is a boy who's father was hard on him for being affected by the worlds "modern ways", the boy at a high school party tries LSD ( a hallucinatory drug), after that thoughts of whether his mind was dangerously affected by the drug. What seemed like completely appropriate worrying and anxiety turned into attacks of anxiety, he couldn't shake the thoughts that something was wrong with his mind. Essentially he had "his mind on his mind" constantly and that haunted his days his thought were as follows: " did the lsd do anything to my mind? The thought never went away ; instead it got more and more complicated. There must be something wrong with my mind if i am spending so much time worrying about it. Is there something wrong with my mind? Was this from the lsd? Will it ever get better?" (The boy who, J. L. Rapoport 125,126) Dr. Rapoport promptly put him on Anafranil (an anti-depressant, used for OCD, not marketed in the U.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a disorder which causes people to develop an anxiety when certain obsessions or compulsions are not fulfilled. OCD can affect both children and adults with more than half of all adults with OCD stating that they experienced signs as a child. People living with OCD display many obvious signs such as opening and closing a door fifty times because they have to do it “just right”. Others exhibit extreme cleanliness and will wash their hands or take showers as often as they can because they constantly feel dirty. OCD devastates people’s social lives as they are fixated and obsessed with perfection that can take forever to achieve. However people living with OCD are often found to have an above average intelligence and typically excel at school due to their detail oriented mindset, cautious planning and patience. OCD can be caused by many different factors such as genetics or the ever changing world a...
Obsessive compulsive disorder is believed to be linked to other disorders and disabilities. The symptoms cause a lot of stress and anxiety and it could lead to depression. OCD can develop over time or be something one is born with. Many people suffer from this disorder but there are different ways to treat the symptoms such as cognitive behavioral therapy and medication. OCD is a very common yet serious disorder that does not seem significant to those who do not have it but it is not something that should ever be ignored.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) can be defined as having repetitive, unwanted, urges and thoughts that raise the need for excessive amounts of time or energy spent on the unwanted urges. OCD typically involved ritualistic like tendencies that result in two types of characteristics, obsessions and compulsions. Obsession can be characterized by the actions and thoughts that intrude one’s mind. As well as the uncontrollable and irrational impulses one must face with OCD. Compulsions can be defined as the act of doing excessive things related to behaviors. People feel the need to act on these compulsions for the sole purposes of releasing the anxiety they feel by the compulsive and reoccurring thoughts. In essence,...
For a person to be diagnosed with OCD, they need to have both an obsession and a compulsion. An obsession is best defined as recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges or images that are experienced during the disturbance as intrusive and unwanted. While compulsions are defined by: repetitive behaviours such as hand washing, ordering, checking in which the person feels they feel strongly compelled to perform in response to their obsession The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM–5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The most empirically sound method of treatment is called Exposure response prevention (Himle & Franklin, 2009). This will be the psychological method of treatment discussed.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) published by the American Psychiatric Association, used by psychologists to classify mental disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD is defined by obsessions and compulsions that are time-consuming, uncontrollable, and interfere with the individual’s cognition and social development (APA, 2000). For the purpose of this paper the focus will be on psychological assessments used to assist in the diagnosis of OCD. Psychological assessments explored include the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory -2 (MMPI-2), the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (RCFT), and the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS). Obsessions are characterized as unwanted recurrent thoughts and wishes. Compulsions are the rituals, such as excessive cleaning or counting, that follow the obsessions. The act of the compulsion eases the discomfort felt because of the obsession.
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, ...
One of the most widely spread disorders across the country these days is obsessive compulsive disorder, or otherwise known as OCD. All types and ages of people can develop OCD, and it can play a large role in how you go about your daily life, and the daily stresses that you run into. Obsessive compulsive disorder falls in with the category of anxiety disorders, and is characterized by persistent routines and obsessions which often results in compulsive rituals done on a daily basis. Some common factors of having OCD is the need to arrange things, compulsive acts of hand washing, and even counting. (Canadian Mental Health Association, 2014, p. 1) There are many symptoms that can fall into the category of being classified as OCD. Some people have both obsessions and compulsions, but also some may only experience one factor. (L.Robinson, 2014, p.2) Some symptoms that can be classified as signs of obsessive thoughts include: fear of germs, violent thoughts or images, fear of harm, superstitions, and symmetry. Although these are only just a few, there are plenty of symptoms most involving the action of being afraid of something. Some signs of compulsive behavior can result in excessive double checking of things, counting, repetition of words, organization of things, and even hoarding. I find it ironic that two people of a completely different mindset of what a home should look like, could both have the same disease. For instance, one person can be a hoarder living in a cluttered house, and one person could be living in the most pristinely cleaned home. Although OCD may seem harmless and in some cases even an advantage to one’s lifestyle of not becoming helpless and lazy, there are many risk factors that come with it as well. Obsessive ...
But it was the nature of the behaviors that differentiated the disorder that Mr. Landau had come to in it that he was not obsessed with order but obsessions and compulsions to remove intrusive thoughts leading to the diagnosis obsessive-compulsive disorder (Comer, 127). Of note comes that Mr. Landau had displayed modest symptoms of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder in it that study habits had taken precedence over hygiene, that the behavior was not caused by intrusive thoughts but that of perfection. Also of note comes that OCD often tends to come associated with another mental disorder and thus often makes the diagnosis comorbid, a point that could definitively show OCPD alongside OCD as a major possibility (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder,
Unger’s obsessive compulsive disorder which has led to depression and attempted suicide. People with obsessive compulsive disorder suffer from unwanted and often intrusive thoughts that they can’t get out of their heads. They are often compelled to repeatedly do tasks in a ritualistic way in an attempt to eliminate their anxiety. They are most often aware that their obsessions or compulsions are irrational; however, they are still powerless to stop them and may spend countless hours doing these tasks over and over. This can and often does interfere with a person’s normal live and may make them less productive and successful at work, school, socially and even with family. If left untreated OCD will eventually interfere with all aspects of a person’s life
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a disease that a lot of people suffer with in society especially young adults. While it is not a disease that is deadly, it does affect the victim in every day aspects of their life and can ultimately control their lives. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is defined by the National Institute of Mental Health as, “… 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”. The thoughts that individuals have when suffering through Obsessive Compulsive Disorder cannot be restrained and really can disturb the individual. Thoughts or actions that people may have can range from worrying about daily occurrences, such as washing their hands, to having thoughts of harming people that are close to them. People tend to have these reoccurring compulsions because they believe by doing them or thinking them, they will either prevent something bad from happening or because it eliminates stress that they have. This disease can last a lifetime and can be very detrimental and disabling to how one lives their lives. Individuals can start to see signs of OCD in either late adolescence or even early adulthood and everyone is susceptible. When it comes to classifying this incurable disease, there is much debate on whether or not it a type of anxiety (Abramowitz, Taylor, & McKay, 2009). It is important to be able to understand this mental disorder since so many people are diagnosed with it. While there are treatments for OCD, there are no cures yet. Treatments could range anywhere from taking prescribed medication to just going to therapy and counseling fo...
The person develops rituals or obsessions that they need to complete before they move on with their day. In most cases, the person does not enjoy their obsessions but relieves the anxiety that would come with not doing it. For example, a person may become obsessed with turning on and off a light switch five times before they leave the house. The person knows it is a waste of time, but they cannot stop themselves from doing it without feeling immense anxiety. By switching the lights five times, the person will be sure that they did it and it relieves the fear of leaving the light on. While symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will vary from person to person depending on their obsession, common signs are constant, unwanted thoughts and same doing the same rituals repeatedly to calm themselves down. Research believes that OCD can run in families, and is mostly detected in childhood or teenage years. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can be treated the same way as most mental illnesses: therapy or medication. A common therapy technique is called Exposure and Response Prevention. In this technique, a person is exposed to their fear or obsession, and then is not allowed to complete the action they normally would with it. This successfully shows the person that nothing bad will happen if they do not give into their obsessions. People with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder may also be prescribed anti-anxiety medications or antidepressants to relieve the stress and anxiety that comes with living with