Obsessive - Compulsive Disorder

The Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, more commonly known as OCD basically falls into the category of an anxiety disorder.

Obsessions can be defined as:

‘Recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses or images that are experienced, at some time during the disturbance, as intrusive and inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or distress in an individual’

Compulsions can be defined as:

‘Repetitive behaviors (e.g., hand washing, ordering, checking) or mental acts (e.g., praying, counting, repeating words silently) that the person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession, or according to rules that must be applied rigidly’

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – An Introduction

The individuals suffering from OCD tend to experience obsessive, unwanted thoughts, compulsions and/or compulsive behavioral traits that may include rituals which can markedly interfere with day to day living.

Fundamentally, OCD tends to affect an individual’s brain in such a way that s/he becomes exceptionally and uncharacteristically obsessed with a particular habitual trait. This problem can include various repetitive behavioral traits such as cleaning, checking, counting, repeating words silently and/or even hand washing. Also, it would be relevant to acknowledge here that the origin for the respective obsession typically tends to be a particular character trait.

A person with an ingrained sense of insecurity in concern to his or her capacity to formulate effectual sentences and works, for instance, may obsessively take to continuously reciting words silently so as to ensure that s/he has the right words at the tip of his or her tongue at the particular moment. Furthermore, a person who has a fear of contamination from germs may take to washing his/her hands repeatedly upon the pretext that this activity will help to avoid their phobia, germs in this case.

Types of OCD

It would be relevant to consider that there are different types of OCD. It is particularly due to the fact that obsessions and compulsions are categorized as two different spectrums. Obsessions relate specifically to the repetitiveness of the brain in regard to projecting exceedingly insecure and paranoid ideologies.

The repetitiveness of these phobias, which typically include fears of illness or injury or dying are of such intensity that they override all other thought processes. Consequently, this is something that makes it very difficult for individuals to deal with their everyday lives.

Compulsions, on the other hand, are related to obsessions in as much as the fact that they are the behavioral traits that individuals resort to in order to put an end to the obsessive thoughts.

For instance, while consistently fretting about contamination by germs falls into the category if an obsession; actually getting down to frequent hand-washing tends to be a compulsion, since it is the action that has been adopted in order to shut down the continuous projection of the fear of germs.

Causes and treatment of OCD

There has been no single cause that has conclusively been identified as the triggering agent for OCD. Research has proved that one of the more frequently diagnosed conditions in people with OCD has been a disruption of the chemical messengers in the brain that convey signals from one nerve cell to another.

Take into consideration, for instance, the fact that one of these messengers, which is called serotonin, is of crucial instrumentality to preventing individuals from repetitively performing certain tasks.

This is something that brings forth the theorization that it is possible that people suffering from OCD may not have the required concentration (s) of serotonin. And this is justified even further when considering it in light of the fact that individuals have showed signs of functioning far better when they have taken medicines that helped to increase the amount of serotonin in their brain.

Aside from medicines, the only treatment that has yielded marginal effectuality in concern to OCD has been Behavioral therapy or Cognitive Behavioral Technique, which focus on the mapping of the origin of the obsession/compulsion followed by uncovering and tackling it. Behavior therapy aims to help individuals to learn to deal with anxiety, to face fears, to resist compulsions and to slowly but surely conquer OCD.