Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a potentially debilitating disorder that can trap people in repetitive thoughts and behaviors. It comes with obsessions (uncontrollable and pervasive anxieties and fixations that take root in the mind) and compulsions (repetitive rituals, rules and habits that are an expression or consequence of obsessions and are reflected in everyday life). You are not necessarily affected by it just because you are particularly prone to cleanliness and order, but it is better to investigate if the fixations come to condition your life: for example, you need to check countless times that the door is locked first. to be able to go to sleep or you have a belief that someone could be seriously injured if you do not complete certain rituals.
Steps
Part 1 of 2: Understanding the Symptoms
Step 1. Recognize the obsessions that often characterize OCD
People with the disorder tend to get trapped in anxious and obsessive circular reasoning that paralyzes and is self-referential. These can manifest themselves in the form of doubts, fears, fixations, or unsettling images that you have a hard time controlling. Also, if they form in unjustified moments, dominate the mind and paralyze leaving a profound feeling that something is not right, the person could suffer from OCD. Here are some common obsessions:
- An exaggerated psychological need for order, symmetry or precision. You might experience severe mental discomfort when cutlery isn't laid out perfectly on the table, when small details don't go according to plan, or one sleeve is a little longer than the other.
- Fear of dirt or contamination by bacteria or toxic substances. The strong repugnance could cause goosebumps in the presence or in contact of a garbage can, a dirty sidewalk in the city or simply someone's handshake. This can lead to manic obsessions about washing hands and cleaning. Hypochondria can also occur if there is constant concern that trivial symptoms are due to serious and dire causes.
- Excessive doubts and the need for continuous reassurance, fear of making mistakes, states of discomfort or socially unacceptable behavior. The person may feel paralyzed or continually indolent with worries and anxieties that circle the mind and prevent them from doing what is necessary for fear that something will go wrong.
- Fear at the thought of evil or sinful things, aggressive or horrible reasoning about hurting oneself or others. You may feel repugnant to the obsessive and terrible thoughts that arise from the depths of your mind as dark shadows - you may not be able to give up the idea of hurting yourself or hurting others even in unlikely circumstances. You might be obsessed with terrible events associated with everyday situations - like imagining your best friend hit by a bus while crossing the street together.
Step 2. Learn to recognize the compulsions that often accompany obsessions
These are rituals, rules, and habits that you feel compelled to enact over and over - usually as an antidote to making obsessions disappear. However, obsessive thoughts often reappear in more severe forms. Compulsive behaviors tend to cause anxiety in turn as they become more insistent, interfere with everyday life, and waste time. Here are some examples of common compulsions:
- Bathing, showering or washing hands repeatedly, refusing to shake hands or touch doorknobs, repeatedly checking things, such as locks or stoves. You could wash your hands five, ten, twenty times before feeling completely clean. It may also happen that you need to lock the door, open and close it endlessly before getting comfortable to fall asleep at night.
- Constantly counting, mentally or aloud, during routine activities, eating foods in a certain order, arranging things in a maniacal way. You may need to get your desk back in order before you can think. You may not be able to eat if two foods touch each other on your plate.
- Latch on to usually disturbing words, images, or thoughts that don't go away and can interfere with sleep. You may be haunted by the vision of dying in a violent, horrible way. Perhaps you may not be able to not imagine the worst-case scenarios and take your mind off of fixating on all the ways a situation could turn for the worst.
- Repeating certain words, phrases or prayers, need to carry out the activities several times. You may fixate on the words "I'm sorry" and compulsively apologize all the time when you feel guilty about something. It may happen that you need to forcefully close the car door more than ten times before you are able to drive away.
- Collect or collect objects of no apparent value. You may compulsively stock up on things you don't need or use, to the point where your car, garage, garden, bedroom can overflow with junk. You may feel a strong and irrational attachment to certain objects, even if your practical sense knows that you are only gathering dust.
Step 3. Learn to recognize the most common "categories" of DOC
Obsessions and compulsions often revolve around certain themes and situations. They can be classified into some of these categories simply as a way of describing the factors that trigger compulsive behavior. The common figures of those suffering from this disorder are people who wash themselves, who control, who doubt everything and sin, who count and put in order and who hoard.
- People who wash themselves are afraid of contamination. They feel the urge to wash their hands or have a neat fixation: they probably need to get busy with soap and water up to five times after taking the trash out; they may vacuum the same chamber repeatedly because they feel it is not clean enough.
- Controllers are constantly checking things that they associate with disaster or danger. They can check endlessly that the door lock is closed before deciding to go to sleep, they may feel the need to get up continuously during dinner to make sure they have turned off the oven even if they remember perfectly well, they repeatedly check that the book taken from the library is the one you want. The controllers feel obliged to check more than ten, twenty, thirty times just to feel safe.
- Doubts and sinners fear that something terrible will happen or that they will be punished if everything is not perfect or is not done absolutely right. These people may have an obsession with cleanliness, have a preoccupation with precision, or suffer from paralyzing doubts that prevent them from acting. They can continually spend time looking for imperfections in their thoughts and actions.
- The subjects who count and rearrange are obsessed with order and symmetry. They may have superstitions about certain numbers, certain colors, or the way things are arranged, and they may feel it is strongly reprehensible that things are not arranged according to a certain logic.
- Hoarders have a strong aversion to getting rid of things. They can compulsively accumulate things they don't need and don't need to use. They may feel a strong and irrational attachment to certain objects even though they are fully aware of their uselessness.
Step 4. Take into account the severity of the symptoms
Symptoms of OCD usually begin gradually and tend to increase in intensity over the years. The disorder tends to first appear in childhood, adolescence, or early adulthood. Symptoms typically worsen when anxiety increases, and in some cases, the disorder can become a real disability if it is very severe and interferes with normal daily activities. If you identify with several of the obsessions, compulsions and figures described above and find that you spend an important part of your life behind these fixations, it is best to go see a doctor and get a professional diagnosis.
Part 2 of 2: Diagnosing and Treating the Disorder
Step 1. Talk to a doctor or psychotherapist
Do not rely on a diagnosis made by you: you may be anxious or obsessive at times, you may be a hoarder or have an aversion to bacteria - but OCD is characterized by a certain spectrum of symptoms with a particular intensity and the presence of some don't necessarily mean you need treatments. You can't know if you suffer from it until it's diagnosed with certainty by a specialist.
- There are no laboratory tests to diagnose OCD. The specialist will base the diagnosis on an assessment of symptoms and the time you spend performing the ritual behaviors.
- Don't worry about a diagnosis of OCD - it is true that there are no "cures" for the disorder, but you can rely on medications and behavioral therapies that can help reduce and control symptoms. You will need to learn to live with obsessions, but you must not allow them to control your life.
Step 2. Ask your doctor about cognitive-behavioral therapy (TCC)
The goal of this therapy - also called "exposure therapy" or "exposure and response prevention therapy" - is to teach people with OCD to cope with their fears and reduce anxiety without performing ritual behaviors. Therapy also focuses on reducing the magnified or catastrophic thoughts that often accompany people with the disorder.
You may need to visit a clinical psychologist to start cognitive behavioral therapy. A family doctor or psychotherapist can put you in touch with the right people. It won't be easy, but if you really want to get your fixes checked, you should at least look for the availability of TCC programs in your area
Step 3. Ask your doctor about medication therapy
Antidepressants - especially selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft - may be useful in the treatment of OCD. Older medications - for example, tricyclic antidepressants like Anafranil - can also be effective. Additionally, some atypical antipsychotics, such as Risperdal or Abilify, have been used to relieve symptoms of OCD, either alone or in combination with an SSRI.
- Be very careful when taking multiple medications. Before taking a new drug, learn about side effects and ask your doctor if it is safe to take it with another.
- Antidepressants alone can help calm OCD symptoms, but they are not a cure and in no way guarantee a solution to the problem. Important research from the National Institute of Mental Health has shown that less than 50% of people get rid of symptoms with antidepressants even after trying two different drugs.
