OCD is a psychological condition associated with anxiety and stress, affecting at least 2-3% of the population. It involves obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions, which can be treated with behavioral and cognitive therapies and anti-anxiety medication. Treatment involves creating a safe environment to gradually reduce the patient’s anxiety.
OCD is short for OCD, a psychological condition primarily associated with anxiety and stress. Sufferers often find themselves involuntarily performing ritualistic acts in response to disturbing or invasive thoughts. The condition affects at least 2 to 3 percent of the population, although the number of undiagnosed cases could be significantly higher. Many people with OCD are reluctant to seek professional help for their behavior.
To understand OCD, it can be helpful to look at each aspect of the disorder separately. The O represents an obsessive thought process, characterized by recurring and often distressing mental images or ideas. Obsession is the mental component of the condition and the least visible sign to outsiders. These disturbing images keep looping until the sufferer feels an overwhelming need to act. In one form, called Pure O OCD, the sufferer realizes that acting on the obsessive thought would be wrong, and the condition remains in stage O indefinitely.
Once the stress of obsessive thinking becomes too great, a sufferer feels compelled to take action to ease the pain. This is element C, or compulsive. The compulsion often manifests itself in a ritual or repetitive act. If a patient forms obsessive thoughts about blood on their hands, for example, the associated compulsive act may be repetitive hand washing. Others may obsess over an unlocked car door, leading them to check their vehicles at regular intervals.
A compulsive act cannot be easily controlled by an actual OCD sufferer. The imagined blood must be washed off his hands before his life can return to normal. This can lead to hours upon hours of irrational behavior.
The D in OCD represents a known psychological disorder, and in the case of OCD, the cause remains elusive. Some believe that the obsessive thought cycle is caused by a disconnect between the nerve centers of thought and action. A normal person might think, “I have to lock the machine” and proceed to perform the complex locking procedure. A person with OCD might be thinking the same thing and not readily be able to accurately remember whether or not the action actually happened. Only when the blocking action has been performed enough times will the sufferer make the connection and feel no anxiety.
Treatment for OCD can include both behavioral and cognitive therapies. These treatments may also include anti-anxiety medications, but many clinical psychologists prefer to use behavior modification alone whenever possible. Therapists can begin by creating a safe environment in which the patient can experience the mildest form of “reality shock” possible.
If the sufferer is obsessed with hygiene, for example, the therapist may introduce an object with a small speck of dirt visible. This may trigger an obsessive-compulsive reaction at first but eventually the patient should learn to control his irrational thoughts because the dirty object does not match the level of anxiety initially created in the sufferer’s mind.
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