Written/Edited by: Fidha, Mana, and Remi
April 28, 2023
OCD, also known as obsessive-compulsive disorder, is a mental health disorder in which a person gets cycles of obsessive thoughts and compulsions. These thoughts are usually intrusive and unwanted, and compulsions consist of behaviors the person uses to attempt to get rid of the obsessions. OCD can get severe when the thoughts and compulsions consume a lot of time (usually more than an hour a day) or cause extreme stress. Let’s take a deeper look into all of this.
Obsessions:
Thoughts, images, or impulses that are disturbing.
Makes you feel like all this is out of your control.
Intense and uncomfortable feelings of fear, sadness, and anger.
Gets in the way of important activities.
Makes you feel like something has to be done just right (in your view).
The obsessions usually cause extreme anxiety. Some types of common obsessions seen in OCD include: contamination obsessions (fear of coming into contact with a virus or contaminated surface), violent obsessions (fear of acting on a violent impulse), responsibility obsessions (fear of being responsible for an event that may potentially happen if you do certain actions), identity obsessions (concern with gender or sexual identity), sexual obsessions (unwanted sex-related thoughts), religious obsessions (concern with offending a certain religion and whether something is right or wrong), and more.
Compulsions:
Behaviors that someone may use to counteract their obsessions.
Repetitive.
Avoids situations that may trigger thoughts or anxiety.
Rearranging items to make them look “neater” does not necessarily mean you have OCD.
Associated with the feeling you have during your behavior.
You feel “driven” to doing these actions even if you don’t want to in order to drive away the obsessive thoughts.
Compulsions are often ways for people with OCD to escape the anxiety of the obsessions, as if they were performing rituals. Some frequent compulsions seen in OCD are washing/cleaning (washing hands in a certain way or many times), checking (checking whether something negative has or will happen), repeating (repeating certain actions like reading or writing), and mental compulsions.
So,
how does one effectively manage this disorder? As with many other mental disorders, therapy is always a top option; in specific, therapies such as support groups could be considerably helpful, as connecting with others who experience the same struggles will aid you in feeling less alone or isolated. Exposure and response prevention may be a priority as well, due to the nature of OCD. Other specific therapies recommended by professionals include cognitive behavioral therapy, psychoeducation, rational emotive behavior therapy, aversion therapy, psychotherapy, systematic desensitization, and group psychotherapy. Self care may work for you as well, if therapy isn’t available at the time! As for medications: antidepressants, anxiolytic, and SSRIs are the top recommendations. A few pieces of advice from psychologist and expert Dr. Fred Penzel include recognizing that your OCD is paradoxical, refraining from ignoring/pushing your thoughts down (this will only make them resurface!,) treating any thoughts that you suspect to be irrational as symptoms, and always agreeing with your compulsions (they are not real questions, again only compulsions, that essentially mean nothing at all.) He also encourages, “When faced with two possible choices of what to confront, choose the more difficult of the two whenever possible.”
Statistics
Worldwide approximately 1% to 2% of the population may have OCD.
In the United States, around 2.2% of the population will experience OCD.
OCD tends to be more prevalent in women than men, with the percentages ranging from 1.8% to 0.5% respectively.
1 in 200 children will have OCD.
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