What is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?
Introduction:
OCD is the abbreviation of obsessive-compulsive disorder that is an anxiety-related mental disorder. According to some findings, 2% of the world's population is affected by obsessive thoughts and / or compulsions, globally. Let's explore what these compulsive behaviours mean and go into further details. I felt that I had to write an article about this because I was one of the many people who had suffered from such anxiety. Therefore, I'm just about to share my personal experience and recall my memories when I was in primary school.
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Negative connotative meaning:
It has become an adjective in our everyday speech to refer to people as such. Mainly, those who are over-organized or those who double-check things. It is totally normal to organize or to check things and there is nothing out of the ordinary in it. Not to mention that OCD might be a pejorative adjective to use that the vast majority of people may find insulting to be referred as.
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| The OCD Cycle |
The OCD cycle:
The above-inserted picture aptly describes the process of what an affected person has to come through. OCD can easily be simplified as an endless cycle that will never come to an end. It always starts with obsessive ideas that are the main reason why patients feel anxious every time. Anxiety always results in compulsive behaviours.
- Obsessive thoughts: (Have I locked the door?)
This refers to those unwanted, uncontrollable obsessions that are reoccurring.
- Anxious thoughts:
The inevitable feeling that the individual feels. It could be traced back to obsessions. It's a truly devastating experience.
- Compulsions:
The aftermaths of anxious thoughts that urge the sufferer to repeat such activities so as to lessen the amount of anxiety the patient is feeling.
Symptoms:
- Checking
- Counting
- Cleaning and hand washing and the
avoidance of germs (first picture) - Arranging things in the desired order
- Temporary relief:
This were the end of the process if another obsessive idea wouldn't return again.
Symptoms
Some people may ask whether they are like such:
According to this Hungarian video: "Provided that you have rituals it doesn't automatically mean that you live with OCD. The emphasis is on severity and frequency."
This guy's example:
"You left your home and you have double-checked the outside door if it is locked."
- A non-OCD person would go, for instance, to work. He / she has no doubt whether he / she had locked the door and could eliminate the idea of checking it again.
- Whilst in a case of an OCD sufferer, he / she would return to his home even if he had already got in the car and been driving for 10 minutes. Hardly could such people resist not going back and checking it even for a third time.
The difference:
- Rituals occasionally done are absolutely normal.
- On the contrary, overwhelming rituals that interfere in your life might be a symptom of OCD based on this video.
Personal experience:
According to what I was told by a professional I had symptoms of OCD in 7th grade in primary school. I did the compulsions for the exact same reason that I have written in the OCD cycle paragraph.
My symptoms: (Both of them are very time-consuming)
- Triple or more times checking
(eg. homework, ticking, administrating)
- Excessive learning
(I finished at 23 o'clock)
- Checking my school bag after the last lesson if I have each book and exercise book with me. (I was exhausted by the end of that)
- Key checking (countless times)
- Arranging my books in the right order in my school bag after learning
in the evenings.
- Door checking - same situation as in the example (return to home)
Fortunately, my symptoms have been significantly eased by therapy!
Sources:
This refers to those unwanted, uncontrollable obsessions that are reoccurring.
The inevitable feeling that the individual feels. It could be traced back to obsessions. It's a truly devastating experience.
The aftermaths of anxious thoughts that urge the sufferer to repeat such activities so as to lessen the amount of anxiety the patient is feeling.
avoidance of germs (first picture)
- Temporary relief:
This were the end of the process if another obsessive idea wouldn't return again.
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| Symptoms |
Some people may ask whether they are like such:
According to this Hungarian video: "Provided that you have rituals it doesn't automatically mean that you live with OCD. The emphasis is on severity and frequency."
This guy's example:
"You left your home and you have double-checked the outside door if it is locked."
- A non-OCD person would go, for instance, to work. He / she has no doubt whether he / she had locked the door and could eliminate the idea of checking it again.
- Whilst in a case of an OCD sufferer, he / she would return to his home even if he had already got in the car and been driving for 10 minutes. Hardly could such people resist not going back and checking it even for a third time.
The difference:
- Rituals occasionally done are absolutely normal.
- On the contrary, overwhelming rituals that interfere in your life might be a symptom of OCD based on this video.
Personal experience:
According to what I was told by a professional I had symptoms of OCD in 7th grade in primary school. I did the compulsions for the exact same reason that I have written in the OCD cycle paragraph.
My symptoms: (Both of them are very time-consuming)
- Triple or more times checking
(eg. homework, ticking, administrating) - Excessive learning
(I finished at 23 o'clock) - Checking my school bag after the last lesson if I have each book and exercise book with me. (I was exhausted by the end of that)
- Key checking (countless times)
- Arranging my books in the right order in my school bag after learning
in the evenings. - Door checking - same situation as in the example (return to home)
Fortunately, my symptoms have been significantly eased by therapy!
Sources:
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