OCD -Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

 

Do You Truly Have OCD?

OCD is a mental health disorder that has been getting quite the buzz recently. With famous

celebrities such as David Beckham, Charlize Theron, and Megan Fox admittedly living with the

disease, their stories bring to light the severity and difficulty of living with it.

What is OCD?

OCD is short for
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and is characterised by the presence of

obsessions - unwanted thoughts that trigger distress and anxiety and cause a person to engage in activities they believe will ease the tension or get rid of the obsessions, known as compulsions.

OCD can affect anyone at any age, but symptoms usually start in puberty.

Cause of OCD

The cause of OCD is not precisely known. However, risk factors can increase the chances of a person having it. Some of these include:

● Family History of OCD.

● Past traumatic events such as abuse or neglect.

● Abnormalities in the brain, such as low levels of serotonin, a chemical in the brain responsible for regulating your mood. This condition is also associated with depressive mood disorders.

● Fastidious people may be more likely to develop OCD.

Symptoms of OCD

OCD is characterised by obsessive and compulsive symptoms. People without OCD can have a few of these symptoms to a far lesser degree, and they do not get in the way of their daily lives.

Some of these symptoms can be features of other diseases. This is why seeing a mental health professional is essential if you are concerned about the severity of these symptoms. It could be OCD, or it could be something else. Some of the other diseases that might have similar symptoms to OCD include:

● Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder. This disease is similar to OCD, but it is not the same. People living with OCPD see their obsessions and compulsions as normal behaviour.

● Schizophrenia. This is a mental health disorder characterised by hallucinations and delusions.

● Anxiety Disorders. This term refers to a group of diseases characterised by anxiety. Some of them are generalised anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder.

● Clinical Depression. This prevalent mental health disorder is characterised by a loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities and a low mood.

 

Obsessive features

Obsession in OCD defines unwanted, uncontrollable, often unreasonable impulses or thoughts. that cause a person great stress. They can also be known as intrusive thoughts. These obsessions also affect the quality of life of a person as they can spend a lot of time being fixated. on these obsessions. These thoughts cannot be quickly relieved. They occur frequently and can affect the rest of a person’s day.

There are a range of obsessive symptoms a person with OCD can feel. Some types of

obsessions and their examples include:

Obsessions of Violence

● Thoughts of harming others

● Thoughts of hurting loved ones

Obsessions of Contamination

● The exaggerated fear of dirt or germs from the environment or own house.

Sexual Obsessions

● Fear of sexually abusing others

● Fear of acting on sexual impulses

Obsessions of Responsibility

● Fear of inadvertently harming others due to a careless omission or commission. For example, leaving the doors unlocked and robbers coming in and hurting the family.

Obsessions of Perfectionism

● Exaggerated concern with performing even simple tasks exactly and perfectly.

Compulsive features

Compulsive features of OCD are what people do to try and reduce the intensity of the obsessions or the stress and anxiety that come along with them. They are like temporary coping mechanisms that people living with OCD use to diffuse the tension caused by the obsessions.

These behaviours can be rigorous to do in themselves and get in the way of a person going about their day. They are not pleasurable to do or enjoyable to talk about at all. Some of the types and examples of the compulsive features of OCD include:

Washing and Cleaning

● Bathing too frequently

● Cleaning the house and environment too frequently

● Aggressively and often washing hands

● Excessive brushing of the teeth

Checking

● Making sure you did not make a mistake

● Making sure you did not harm anybody

● Making sure you did not injure yourself

● Making sure no unforeseen disaster happened

Mental Compulsions

● Counting while performing a task to end on a good number

● Using “good” words to cancel out “bad words” when speaking

● Praying to dispel trouble or harm

Repeating

● Repeated body movements like blinking or tapping a finger.

● Rewriting or rereading books or other texts.

● Repeating a task multiple times, for instance, repeating a chore five times because five

is a “safe” number.

Others

● Avoiding situations that will trigger your obsessions.

What OCD is not

A part of the buzz OCD has been getting recently is that people have started attributing quirks and particular perfectionist or obsessive personality traits to OCD. For example, it is not uncommon to hear someone remark that they have “a bit of OCD” because they like to arrange things a certain way or collect rare coins.

Such behaviour belittles the experiences of people who actually live with the disease and makes a mockery of its severity.

People who live with OCD experience significant and sometimes debilitating distress over their symptoms, which is not something to romanticize.

OCD is not:

● Being very neat.

Preferring things to be arranged a certain way.

● Being a collector of seashells, coins, or books.

● Being obsessed with a movie, comic, or celebrity.

OCD is a mental health disorder that affects up to 100,000 people in Nigeria. It can be severe and needs to be diagnosed by a licensed mental health professional.

Please do not go around telling people you have OCD without a diagnosis, especially if you seemingly have symptoms that do not affect your life in any way. However, if you feel very strongly about it, you should see a mental health professional who can diagnose you correctly and start you on the next step to effective management.

OCD does not have a cure, but it can be effectively managed, allowing the person living with it to have a normal everyday life as much as possible.

Boonmy Therapy Room offers you a safe space to talk and work towards healing. To book an appointment with our in-house therapist and counsellor, Oluwabunmi, click here.