Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry. The acts of those who have OCD may appear paranoid and potentially psychotic. However, OCD sufferers generally recognize their obsessions and compulsions as irrational and may become further distressed by this realization. Obsessive–compulsive disorder affects children and adolescents, as well as adults. Roughly one third to one half of adults with OCD reports a childhood onset of the disorder, suggesting the continuum of anxiety disorders across the life span. OCD may be a result of changes in your body's own natural chemistry or brain functions. OCD also may have a genetic component, but specific genes have yet to be identified. OCD may stem from behavior-related habits that you learned over time. Doctors do not know the exact cause of OCD, factors that may play a role include head injury, infections, and abnormal function in certain areas of the brain and family genes seems to play a strong role. Most people who develop OCD it shows the symptoms by age 30. Often the person carries out the behaviors to get rid of the obsessive thoughts, but this only provides temporary relief. Not doing the obsessive rituals can cause great anxiety.
Signs and symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Most people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have both obsessions and compulsions, but some people experience just one or the other.
OCD signs and symptoms: Obsessive thoughts
Common obsessive thoughts in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) include:
Fear of being contaminated by germs or dirt or contaminating others.
Fear of causing harm to yourself or others.
Intrusive sexually ...
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... or fearful without having obsessive thoughts or acting compulsively. One type of therapy called exposure and response prevention is especially helpful in reducing compulsive behaviors in OCD.
Medication- Doctors also may prescribe medication to help treat OCD. The most commonly prescribed medications for OCD are anti-anxiety medications and antidepressants. Anti-anxiety medications are powerful and there are different types. Many types begin working right away, but they generally should not be taken for long periods.
OCD can be a difficult thing to live with and a struggle for some. If you are someone who has OCD and don’t get treatment you should because it may save your life or just simply help you to be a happier person if this disease gets you down. With all that being said I encourage anyone who has it not to let this get you down and please get treatment.
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 (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...
Some symptoms of Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) are fear of germs, perfectionism, and rituals. When someone has OCD they are afraid of germs and might constantly be washing their hands or cleaning their room. Someone who suffers from OCD needs everything to be perfect and they might organize their closet by color size. Their rituals calm their anxiety. Certain rituals are things such as checking the stove a certain number of times to make sure it is off or tap their finger a number of times just because it makes them feel better. Obsessive compulsive disorder can be associated with other mental disorders that cause stress and anxiety, but it can be treated with cognitive behavioral therapy and medication.
OCD is both a common well-known disorder but still a mystery to all. OCD can be a challenging disorder to live with and isn’t easy to live a normal life. OCD can affect anyone, and while to most it’s just a simple recheck, to others it’s an obstacle that needs to be overcome.
Obsessive Compulsive disorder also known in simpler terms as OCD is a disorder that is classified under the anxiety disorders. OCD is the result of paranoia within ones brain. Although having the diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a start there are many sub groups and types of OCD that someone may possibly posses either one or a multitude of them. One of the highest diagnosed sub-types of OCD is Compulsive Checking. In this type of OCD the person diagnosed has a fear that they will be harmed or harm someone else by everyday tasks. Compulsive checking can wreak havoc on the inflicted person’s life typically in more ways than one. “Perceptions of danger and intolerance of uncertainty again emerged as cognitive variables that play important roles in mediating obsessive-compulsive checking behavior” (Overton & Menzies, 2005). OCD can be linked with an earlier life experience and can be helped by therapeutic means or medication.
The DMS-5 defines OCD characteristics as “ the presence of obsessions and/or compulsions. Obsessions are recurrent and present thoughts, urges, or images that are experienced as intrusive and unwanted, whereas compulsions are repetitive behaviours or mental acts that an individual feels driven to preform in response to an obsession or according to rules that must be applied.”
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is characterized by unreasonable thoughts, fears, and obsessions that lead you to do repetitive behaviors or compulsions. Living with OCD is like remembering every little thing you need to do for that week, every second of the day, every hour of the day, every minute of the day and all at once. One to two percent of the population in The United States suffers from OCD which is roughly 1 to 2 million people. ("How Many People Have OCD?)
...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.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder explained by Cockerham as having both biological and psychological causes playing a role (2011). The disorder is often accompanied by two main features, the AllPsych website states:
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a disorder that causes extreme anxiety categorized by intrusive thoughts and strong impulses. The obsessions in OCD are the reoccurring, intrusive thoughts. These thoughts cause the individual with OCD to become incredibly anxious. The compulsiveness in OCD is an action one is driven to perform to reduce the anxiety associated with the obsessions. OCD has many different causes, types, and treatments. Studies suggest about one percent of the population suffers from OCD. OCD has different perspectives that attempt to explain the causes of the disorder and why they affect the afflicted individuals. The different perspectives are the biological, behavioral, cognitive, and infection perspectives, each with their own ideas on treatment.
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...
OCD or obsessive-compulsive disorder is a type of anxiety disorder which affects 2.3% of the American population between the ages of 18 and 54. This condition is characterized by irrational or unwanted thoughts, obsessions, urge for repetitive rituals and compulsions. Symptoms usually start during early childhood or adolescence and the exact cause is still unknown. Some thought that OCD manifests due to personality defects and bad parenting, but this is not the case. OCD impacts the communication systems in the brain and according to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, it produces a chemical imbalance in the brain wherein low levels of serotonin have been recorded. Serotonin plays an essential role in mood regulation, learning, calmness, and sleep. Several medications can help in behavioral therapy for OCD since it is known to be incurable. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs helps in raising the serotonin levels in the brain leading to reduced OCD symptoms.
Obsessive-Compulsive disorder (OCD) is becoming more effective when the patient with the disorder is exposed and are involved in response prevention treatment techniques in an independent setting which is also known as behavior therapy. The OCD research group in the University of Los Angeles Medical Center have been researching about this disorder through various tests and treatments. This research group has applied cognitive techniques in order to let the patient be aware of the biological aspects of OCD so that the patient can better control themselves of the fear and anxiety that may come from the disorder and the treatment that they have to undergo.
OCD has symptoms such as compulsive hoarding, extreme anxiety, depression, and food aversions. It currently has no sure cause but it has said to be a product of genetics or abnormalities in the brain and serotonin levels as controlling serotonin tends to help in treatment of OCD. Obsessive Compulsive disorder is seen in 2.3% of Americans. It’s more prominent in adults than in children.