Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

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People check things twice, but what if you feel the urge to repeat things ten times. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by obsessions and compulsions. People use obsessions and compulsions to relieve their anxiety. Without treatment obsessions and compulsions can eventually take over a person’s life. These obsessions and compulsions can be treated with medication or therapy making a person’s life more bearable. Dr. Dorothy Grice had said in an interview with Katie Charles, “There’s a wide range of severity, but in the most extreme cases, OCD can be extremely disabling especially when the compulsions become time-consuming and elaborate…” There are several things that are included in OCD, including its symptoms, treatments and its involvement with the brain. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder recognize their symptoms to be ego-dystonic which are thoughts one would not usually have and not within one’s control but is still a product of one’s mind. The two common symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder are obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions take the form of persistent and uncontrollable thoughts, images, impulses, worries, fears or doubts. An anonymous writer wrote about his/her images, “These images included hitting, stabbing, poisoning and shooting people, even the people I loved the most…” However, compulsions are either repetitive physical behaviors or mental thought rituals that are performed over and over again to help relieve a person’s anxiety. Over time compulsions can become more elaborate and time- consuming. Shirley Brinkerhoff mentions in her book Amanda, a high school girl facing OCD, said, “Then I started having to count my steps. Like, 387 steps to the bus stop, and if missed... ... middle of paper ... ...auses not fully understood.” New York Daily News. 21 July 2013. Tortora Pato, Michele and Zohar, Joseph. Current Treatments of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Second Edition. ed.2 Washington DC: American Psychiatric, 2008 “The Monster Within- My Living Life Story with OCD” 7 Aug. 2013. National Alliance on Mental Illness. 5 Apr. 2014 http://notalone.nami.org/post/57628850545/the-monster-within-my-living-story-with-ocd University of Cambridge. “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Linked To Brain Activity.” 18 July 2008 Science Daily. 5 Apr. 2014 www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080717140456.htm “Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder, OCD” 18 Mar. 2014 National Institute of Mental Health. 18 Mar. 2014 http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd Brinkerhoff, Shirley. Drug Therapy and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Philadelphia: Mason Crest, 2003

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