GENERAL OVERVIEW OF OCD (CHAPTER 1)

EXAMPLE OF CASE STUDY 1: "Tom worried about being responsible for bad things that could happen. He worried about leaving the stove on which could cause a fire, or hitting someone with his car. He spent all day repeatedly checking every action he did just to ensure that he hadn‘t done something wrong or harmful. Besides, he would circle back in his car to check if he had hit someone and rechecked his locks over and over again at home to make him feel a sense of reassurance that the doors were locked. Eventually, he decided to avoid using his oven fearing that he might forget to turn it off".

EXAMPLE OF CASE STUDY 2: "Gigi had an obsession of causing harm to others through some unintentional act. She worried that she might end up hurting someone with her sloppy or offensive words and would cause the person (him or her) to feel solemnly upset. Or, she was anxious that she might have forgotten to put off a cigarette that would burn her entire house which could wipe out the whole of her neighbourhood. As a result, this had caused her to check things more than once before she left her house and most likely would return to her house again to make sure everything was fine".

Okay, you have seen those two different case studies illustrated. So, what do you think it is? I mean what exactly the kind of mental health issue that those two people had in common? In case if you have never heard of this mental disease so-called "OCD", this is something that those two individuals possessed in common. Yes, it is the type of intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviours which relentlessly loomed over their mind; causing them to feel an extreme degree of anxiety to redo the actions over and over.

To kick start with the above subject, "OCD – Obsessive Compulsive Disorder" is an anxiety disorder characterised by repeated unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviours (compulsions) which are difficult to control. As you probably notice, there are two key words contained in the sickness name – Obsessive and Compulsive. So, the key features lies within OCD are obsessions (being obsessive) and compulsions (being compulsive). Perhaps, most people can have both, yet, for some others, it may not be the case as in they probably have only one or the other.

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common anxiety disorder where up to 750 000 people (12 out of every 1000) in the UK are impacted regardless of age, gender, or cultural background. What’s more, it is believed that up to 25% of cases remain undiagnosed by the age of 30. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a severe and debilitating mental illness which affects roughly around two per cent of population. As this mental illness does exist across the world and it even affects women at a slightly higher rate than men in adulthood, its symptoms normally begin in a gradual state and about a quarter of people with OCD start to develop the disorder in their early adolescence.

Furthermore, OCD is not a personality quirk or character trait. The fact that everyone has their own intrusive thoughts, some studies have shown that there is no difference between OCD suffers and other people in the types of random thoughts they possess, nor is there any difference in the frequency for which these random intrusions tend to occur in the first place. However, there is a fundamental difference in the way that OCD sufferers respond to their thinking and misinterpret their intrusions, and it is exactly this pattern of misunderstanding that inevitably leads to the thoughts of becoming stuck and very disturbing.

Obsessions are thoughts, images, or urges. They can feel intrusive, repetitive, and distressing while Compulsions on the other hand are "repetitive behaviours" which a person does to relieve the distress they feel because of the obsessions. When a person is preoccupied with these thoughts and is unable to control the thoughts, get rid of them or even ignore them, they may be regarded as obsessions. For the record, obsessions are usually unrealistic and do not make any sense. As they often do not fit with one’s personality, they can be unacceptable or can be felt disgusted to the person who has them.

Last but not least, obsessions in general cause distress, and they are usually in the form of anxiety. People with obsessive thoughts, in some cases, will often try to reduce the amount of their distress by acting out certain behaviours, known as "rituals" or the so-called compulsions. While most people have preferred ways of doing certain things (e.g. a morning coffee routine, arranging items on a desk), people with OCD feel the sense of urgency that they "must" perform their compulsions (behaviours) and find it nearly impossible to cease. Sometimes, people with OCD are fully aware of the fact that their compulsion is senseless. However, he or she feels helpless to stop doing it and may need to repeat the compulsion over and over again which is why it is described as a ritual.

Some common examples of the so-called rituals (compulsions) include excessive washing and checking things, or counting, repeating certain words, praying, etc. While compulsions often help relieve distress in the short-term, however, they do not seem to be handful in the long- term. As a person with OCD gets used to doing the same thing over and over, the rituals become less helpful at reducing his or her anxiety. And, in order to make them more effective, the person may perform the rituals more frequently or even for a longer period of time. Hence, this is the reason why people with OCD can appear to be "stuck" doing the same thing excessively. In any case, those who struggle with OCD may find themselves feeling isolated and misunderstood as if they are trapped somewhere in a sand dune.