“She sleeps early in the evening and gets up around midnight . She is compulsively obsessed with the thought of cleaning her entire house every night . She will wake up her kids and husband , disturb them from their sound sleep and carry out with her task of washing and sleeping irrespective of the fact that her act causes distract and distraught to her family members”.
“This man is always anxious that he has not been able to achieve any thing in his life and hence the very thought disturbs him leading him to weeping anxiety about himself. He often gets up in the middle of the night thinking some thing will happen to his family and hence double checks that every thing is in order” .
” She knows that she is in love with him but she is obsessed with the thought that he does not match up to her good looks and family standards , hence she loses her peace of mind and gets up in the middle of-the night worrying about the opinion of family and friends”.
Every individual has a sense of anxiety and mistrust inbuilt within the personality. It is many a times noticed that people occasionally have to go back and double-check that the gas stove has been put off, car doors have been locked , a tap has been closed or a fan has been switched off . There is nothing to worry if it is done as a gesture of ensuring safety. But for some of those people who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the degree of their obsessive feelings and repetitive compulsive behavior become very dominating and extreme. Their thoughts and the desire to perform same tasks repeatedly and obsessively interfere with their daily routine making it difficult to lead a normal family life.
The person, who suffers from the obsessive-compulsive disorder, may feel isolated, helpless, anxious and irritated and feel compelled to perform the same rituals, tasks and actions over and over again. His or her anxiety may lead to many kinds of personality disorders, depression and a sense of inadequacy. Such obsessive disorder may need psychological, psychiatric and clinical help depending upon the intensity of OCD. The first help is always obtained by understanding as to what is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)?
Understanding Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: (OCD) is a form of an anxiety disorder. It gets expressed in individual sufferers by way of uncontrollable, unwanted thoughts appearing in their minds repetitively and accompanied by their ritualized behaviors; the individual may feel compelled to perform. The person having OCD, may recognize the fact his or her obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors are absurd. But even so, the sufferer is unable to resist them and break free.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) becomes the cause of the brain getting engaged time and again on a particular thought or urge. For example, the person may wash hands repeatedly until the hands get hurt , or may go back to car garage time and again to check that the car doors have been locked , may bite the nails so much that the fingers turn red and bloodied , may rub hands in despair and even may sweep floors , wash the dirt of the furniture repeatedly.
How to spot OCD
People with OCD normally have unreasonable fears (called obsessions) which they try to reduce by performing certain behaviours (called compulsions).
OCD is thought to affect around 2.3% of people at some point in their lives.
Most people develop symptoms before they are twenty-years-old.
Perhaps the most familiar example is people repeatedly washing their hands (a compulsion) to avoid getting a disease (an obsession).
That said, though, some people are considered to have OCD despite ‘only’ having obsessions or ‘only’ having compulsions.
Around 70% have both obsessions and compulsions, 20% just obsessions and 10% compulsions alone.
As with most psychological problems, OCD involves normal fears which are taken to extreme.
It’s perfectly normal to be worried about disease, but extremely inconvenient to wash your hands 300 times a day.
Both obsessions and compulsions are a matter of degree.
Once it’s causing problems in everyday life, it needs addressing.
Here are some common obsession:
- Need for orderliness and symmetry.
- Fear of dirt or contamination by germs.
- Excessive doubt.
- Fear of sinful or evil thoughts.
- Fear of making a mistake.
- Fear of harming another person.
- Thinking about acting inappropriately or shouting obscenities.
Here are some typical compulsions:
- Getting mentally ‘stuck’ on certain images or thoughts that won’t go away.
- Repeated hand-washing, showering or bathing.
- Repeating particular words or phrases.
- Always arranging things in a certain way.
- Constant counting during routine tasks, whether mentally or out loud.
- Performing tasks a certain number of times.
- Always checking things like locks or ovens.
- Collecting or hoarding things with no value.
Most people are fully aware that their thoughts and/or behaviours are unreasonable, some are not.
Stress normally makes the symptoms of OCD worse.
Around one-third of people with OCD also make repeated sudden movements or sounds.
These are called ‘tics’.
It’s not known exactly what causes OCD, but it’s likely a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
In other words: it runs in the family and it’s likely brought on by stress.
Typically, people are treated with medication and cognitive-behavioural therapy.
There’s some question over whether medication really helps much.
Psychological therapies, though, are usually helpful.
Therapy often involves learning to tolerate anxiety without performing the ritualised behaviour.
While most people are not cured, the majority can learn to manage the symptoms and live a normal life.
After treatment, most people see a substantial reduction in their symptoms.
Alka Mansik Pramarsh Foundation Clinical Psychologists-Family therapists Indore 0731-4263087,9179383554 