OCD is more than being obsessed with something

 Visit us at Connected Minds

By Saanchi Khanna

 

People use the phrase “My OCD won’t let me,” but many don’t understand that it’s not as casual as one might think it to be. It’s widely used in everyday conversations without a proper understanding of the disorder. It’s more than just repetitive thinking and obsession. It’s more than you want to clean your space often. It’s a mental health disorder that falls under the realm of anxiety disorder. This condition involves distressing, intrusive, obsessive thoughts and repetitive, compulsive physical or mental acts. Having any mental health disorder is not easy. Fighting your mind is never easy. It has profound effects on your daily life and health. It is challenging for people to do mundane tasks, household chores, or even get up from their beds in severe cases.

 

Someone suffering from OCD typically has thoughts that they feel unable to control, experiences discomfort, possibly involving fear, disgust, doubt, or a conviction that things must be done in a certain way, spend a lot of time focusing on these obsessions and engaging in compulsions, which interferes with personal, social, and professional activities, other emotions like feeling anxious all the time, the urge to keep repeating behaviors or their actions. Etc. Different ways people experience OCD include an abnormal focus on checking and repetition of activities. For example, a person with OCD may need to check repeatedly for problems. This might consist of: checking taps, alarms, door locks, house lights, repeatedly checking communication, such as e-mails, etc.

General Symptoms of OCD include: The two significant symptoms that manifest differently are Obsessions and Compulsions.

 

Compulsions can be classified as the innate urge or need to feel obliged to do an activity or behavior. This is generally done to avoid anxiety or stress because of the obsession. It can involve behaviors like repeating some words, phrases, or ideas in your head. These include both physical and mental actions. These actions become the person’s routine, which becomes part of their strict and rigid routine. These actions are generally irrational, but they feel bound to do that. A person feels like it’s their responsibility to carry out this behavior. One of the most common examples of bathing could be after every 10 minutes, even without going outside, getting mud on them, or being dirty. People with OCD will only feel the need to bathe when they are dirty and need a cleanse, while a person with OCD feels like they have to clean as they are dirty or fear getting dirty. They feel responsible for carrying this behavior out to protect themselves and their loved ones.

 

Other common compulsions include remembering an incident, feeling they did not perform well there, and repetitive cleaning of their house room. Also, car, personal belongings, cognitive behaviors like counting numbers, repeating numbers, repeating thoughts in their mind, religiously washing a part of their body, re-arranging items till the time they feel rightly arranged to them, avoidance of a place, situation, or person, avoiding sharp objects, hoarding of different stuff like empty containers, contacting friends and family to confirm about their health, tapping, etc.

 

Another significant element of compulsion is the need to feel reassured in the sense that “I hope I locked the door,” “Did I turn the tap off,” and “Do you still love me.” These people need to feel reassured and carry out these behaviors to fulfill this.

 

Obsessions are contrary to the general use of the word obsessed. OCD obsessions can be defined as unwanted and recurring thoughts, images, ideas, and beliefs that cause disturbance and distress to the person experiencing them. One tries to get rid of these or neutralize them by being compelled to perform a behavior or an action. These generally involve a fear of being responsible for self-harm or harming loved ones or others. For example- someone with OCD might fear they left the gas open and can cause fire, and to escape that fear or avoid it, they keep checking the gas every minute. These are internally subjective experiences, mostly look like they are out of the person’s control, cause discomfort and anxiety, and feel overwhelming. These interfere with the person’s daily chores and usually live.

 

Significant themes that come under obsession are contamination of themselves or places around them, harming themselves or others, losing control, perfectionism, physical illness, superstitious beliefs, unwanted thoughts about aggression or sexual behaviors, fear of forgetting, etc.

 

These compulsions and Obsessions hamper a person’s life so that they cannot live life normally, do basic chores, and maintain relationships with others. They sometimes also recognize that their obsessions and compulsions are irrational but cannot control themselves and take up most of their time every day. These thoughts occupy their mind most of the time, and hence to deal with these thoughts, the person gets involved in these compulsive behaviors.

 

What can you do if you or someone you know is suffering from OCD?

 

Medication: one can use antidepressants prescribed by their psychiatrists depending on the severity of the case. These can decrease the rate of symptoms as they balance out our chemical levels.

 

Psychotherapy/ Talk to a therapist: One of the most sought-after ways to deal with OCD is to take psychotherapy, mainly focusing on CBT to deal with the issue. In addition to these, one can get in touch with support groups and be kind to themselves. Remember, Mental health disorders are serious concerns, and one needs to get a proper intervention to deal with them effectively.

In addition to these, one can get in touch with support groups and be kind to themselves.

Remember, Mental health disorders are serious concerns, and one needs to get a proper intervention to deal with them effectively.