Having another mental health disorder, having parents or other family members with OCD, and experiencing traumatic life events can increase your risk of developing OCD. OCD is a serious mental illness that can become debilitating if left untreated. It is characterized by high levels of fear, anxiety, and emotional distress. In severe cases of OCD, the disorder can prevent the individual from functioning in daily life, interfere with relationships and responsibilities, and significantly impact quality of life.
OCD can affect children, adolescents, and adults alike. Most people with OCD are diagnosed by the age of 19, but onset after age 35 can occur. OCD typically presents earlier in males than in females. The symptoms of OCD can worsen with age if left untreated. In most cases, OCD symptoms can be alleviated with time and treatment, but others will be classified as chronic. Rumination is the process of obsessively thinking about an idea, situation, or choice, which tends to be negative or troubling.
Rumination is a central symptom of OCD that causes the individual to spend a significant amount of time thinking about or analyzing their obsessions.
Cognitive behavioral therapy CBT is one means of treatment by which you can stop obsessive thoughts. Many people with OCD only struggle internally. This can make it very difficult to seek out help or treatment, because all of the symptoms are hidden.
We all occasionally have intrusive thoughts about something that causes fear, such as being in a plane crash. Most of us can talk ourselves out of that fear well enough to get on the plane and get to where we need to go. We may even laugh about it later. For people with OCD, trying not to think about the plane crash is next to impossible. This is how the cycle goes. OCD takes up a lot of time and energy. It is disruptive to daily life, and can be extremely isolating and frustrating.
Many of us experience occasional obsessive thoughts and compulsions, but it may be time to reach out for help if your symptoms of OCD:. Treatment for OCD varies person to person. Certain treatment modalities work well for people with compulsions, but not as well for people whose symptoms are strictly internal. Some people take medication in tandem with therapy, while others focus on therapy and behavioral approaches.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy CBT is about training your brain to react differently to thoughts, feelings, and situations that cause distress. CBT teaches you strategies to do this, such as deep-breathing, journaling, and self-talk. ERP consists of taking inventory of your obsessions and compulsions and purposely replacing them with different thoughts and behaviors. You begin with the least troubling ones, and work your way up to the more problematic ones.
Once that has been mastered, your goal would be to make it down the street. As time goes on, this exposure and delayed response will help you to react differently to your obsessions, and your anxiety and need to check your collar or whatever the compulsion may be will lessen.
ACT is about mindfulness; learning to accept your thoughts and feelings rather than hiding from them. Antidepressants are usually the first medication specialists try for treating OCD, specifically SSRIs selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Medication alongside therapy is often the most effective treatment for OCD.
If you are living with OCD, or think you may have undiagnosed OCD, contact your doctor or therapist as soon as possible.
With the proper tools and support, you can begin to live a brighter and freer life. Obsessive-compulsive disorder OCD : Symptoms, causes, and treatment.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. What Is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? Take the OCD test:. Obsessions Obsessions are repetitive, unwanted, intrusive thoughts, images, or impulses that are negative and produce distress and discomfort. A study by the World Health Organization identified that OCD is among, the ten leading diseases, which are associated with high levels of psychosocial impairment.
OCD has become the fourth most common psychiatric disorder and the 10th leading cause of disability around the world. Read more about the OCD definition.
The OCD cycle is circular in nature, shifting from an intrusive thought obsessions , triggering fear, doubt or anxiety, causing the need for a compulsive action to find relief from the fear and anxiety the obsession produces which re-triggers the original obsession. The cyclic problem is created because the reduction of discomfort and distress from performing the compulsion is only temporary until the obsession is experienced once again.
In addition, relieving the anxiety only serves to reinforce and strengthen the original obsession. Therefore, the original act or behavior that initially reduced distress is repeated once again to further relieve the discomfort, and becomes ritualized into a compulsion. In turn, each compulsion reinforces the obsession, which leads to further enactment of the compulsion. These are groups of obsessions and compulsions that pop up regularly in people with OCD. Suddenly, you see a list of symptoms that match yours exactly.
The important part, as a person trying to get better, is to never feel alone in it. Listing out subtypes is an imperfect way of doing that, because it often leads people to think of these subtypes as distinct conditions rather than common manifestations of the same condition.
Lastly, subtypes are here to stay in the global community of people dealing with OCD. People have heard about subtypes and want to know more about the ways this condition can manifest itself. It can happen to people of any sexuality, about any other sexuality. However, as with all types of OCD, these obsessions are not desires. People with this subtype are afraid of getting sick, or infecting someone they care about, after coming in contact with serious bacteria.
The obsessions can be about sex, sexuality, religion, harm, personal health, romance, and really anything else we discussed above. These common ones should provide a good idea of what lots of people with OCD struggle with on a daily basis.
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