OCD: An Extreme Urge to Repeat Actions or More
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is broadly a mental health condition that involves intrusive, distressing, and obsessive thoughts resulting in compulsive, repetitive physical or mental acts.In the United States, one out of forty adults suffers from this medical condition, and approximately 2% of the world population has OCD.Usually, OCD symptoms start appearing during childhood or adolescence, and it rarely occurs after the age of .Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is an anxiety condition that involves obsessive thoughts and compulsive behavior. This blog will help you understand this medical condition more.
What is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?
OCD is a mental health condition involves an excessive urge, obsession, or compulsion resulting in distressing actions and repetitive thoughts. It may always be challenging for a person with OCD to perform routine tasks.An individual with OCD typically has images, thoughts, or urges that they find uncontrollable. An OCD patient does not want to have such intrusive thoughts and feelings, but they fail to control them.People with this mental health condition experience a significant amount of discomfort, possibly involving disgust, fear, doubt, or a set pattern of doing things.Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder makes you spend a lot of time on these obsessions and engage you in compulsions, which interferes with social, personal, and professional activities.
Does OCD have different types?
Yes! There are five broad categories of OCD, and it can affect different people in different ways.
Concern with checking:
It consists of an excessive need to check for problems repeatedly, and it includes checking taps, door locks, alarms, lights, and appliances to prevent damage, leaks, or fire.OCD can force you to continuously confirm your memories’ authenticity and check your body for signs of illness.It also includes checking communication, such as WhatsApp and e-mails, for fear of offending the recipient or making a mistake.
Fear of Contamination:
It is one of the most common forms of OCD where an individual feels a continual and overwhelming need to wash. They may always fear that the objects they touch are contaminated.This fear can lead to excessive handwashing or toothbrushing, avoiding public gatherings due to the fear of contracting germs, and repeatedly cleaning the kitchen, bathroom, and other rooms.It is rare but possible that some people feel or experience a sense of contamination if they think that someone is mistreating or criticizing them. They may try to remove the feeling by continuous washing.
Hoarding:
It deals with the inability of an individual to throw away any possession. It includes both practical and useless control, mostly attached to emotions.
Intrusive thoughts:
Here, an individual feels that he cannot prevent repetitive, unwanted thoughts, which may involve violence, including suicide or harming others.The recurring thoughts can lead to intense distress, but it is unlikely that a person reacts in a way that promotes violence.People with this form of OCD may feel like pedophiles, even without any evidence to support this.
Symmetry and Orderliness:
This type of OCD makes a person feel the urge to arrange objects in a specific order to avoid harm or discomfort.
They may repeatedly rearrange the objects on a table or books on a shelf.
How do I know that I have OCD?
You can look for the changes in your behavior and thinking patterns involving compulsions, obsessions, or both. It can cause distress together with interfering with your ability to perform routine activities.
Obsessions:
The level of worries and anxiety in people with OCD can make it hard to carry out regular activities.Typical topics of obsession may include losing control, contamination, harm, perfectionism, religious or superstitious beliefs, or unwanted sexual thoughts.
Compulsions:
The urge to perform repetitious behavior is exceptionally intense in a person with OCD. It occurs frequently and makes you waste a lot of your valuable time, and may also make your behavior a ritualistic aspect.
Some standard compulsive behavior may include:
- Monitoring the body for symptoms
- Washing and cleaning, also handwashing
- Mental compulsions, including repeatedly reviewing an event
- Repeating routine activities, such as sitting and getting up from a chair
Why do I have OCD?
If you have OCD and you are searching for a reason behind it, we can help you by telling you some of the most persisting causes of this medical condition.
Genetic causes:
It is found out that OCD runs in families, suggesting possible genetic links, but this cause is still under investigation.
Behavioral causes:
It is said that a person with OCD trains their mind to avoid fear linked with specific objects or situations by performing rituals reducing perceived risk.Initially, your fear may be around a time of intense stress associated with a traumatic event or significant loss.Once an individual associates an object or circumstance with this fear, they begin avoiding the object or situation in a powerful way that characterizes OCD.
Autoimmune-related causes:
OCD in children can sometimes appear after an infection, such as Lyme disease, group A streptococcal infections (strep throat), or the H1N1 flu virus.These OCD symptoms are sometimes called PANS (pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome. In a child with PANS, there is a sudden onset of symptoms that reach full intensity within one to three days.
Environmental causes:
Stressful life events or health-related tragedies may trigger OCD in people with a genetic predisposition or otherwise.Many people have reported the appearance of OCD symptoms within six months of childbirth, severe conflict, illness, complications during pregnancy or childbirth, or traumatic brain injury.
In conversation with an OCD patient:
While talking to an OCD patient, we get to know a brief detail regarding their urge to repeat actions.According to the individual, the OCD initiated when he misinterpreted his thoughts. Initially, he thought that various people have intrusive or unwelcome thoughts, and it is expected. But later, the importance of these thoughts turns out to be more intense.Being a father to a newborn, he cared for his baby under intense pressure and felt like having intrusive thoughts of accidentally harming his baby.Firstly, he tried disregarding the thoughts, but they persisted and made an unwarranted significance in his mind.
He became convinced that the actions he was thinking were most likely to happen and tried taking extreme, continual action to prevent the danger.Luckily, his wife noticed and had a conversation with him, resulting in a medical appointment. Taking into notice the recurring thoughts and actions, he was diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.Currently, behavioral changes and psychotherapy are helping him deal with the situation. Although, people also buy Lexapro online for this medical condition.
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