An Overview of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder aka OCD is a very common, long-lasting chronic disorder in which a person has uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts aka obsessions & or behaviours aka compulsions that he or she feels the urge to repeat over and over.

Signs and Symptoms

These symptoms of OCD can interfere with all aspects of life, such as work-life, school life, as well as personal relationships.

Obsessions are repeated thoughts, urges, or mental images that cause anxiety. Common symptoms include:

Fear Viruses, germs, contamination, being buried alive, suffocation

Forbidden or obscure or taboo type thoughts involving religion, or harm

Aggressive anti-social thoughts towards self as well as others

Organizing things in a symmetrical order to bring the more perfect looking environment

Compulsions are nothing but repetitive behaviours or activities that an OCD patient feels the urge to complete in response to an obsessive imagination or thought. The most common compulsions are as follows:

Excessive cleaning activities like hand washing for a long time and in repeat order.

Unnecessarily ordering or arranging things in a particular way to bring more imaginary balance

Checking on things like “keys are inside the bag or not” in Repeated order, or checking whether the doors are locked or not, etc. Compulsive counting activity like counting coins over and over again, or how many spoons are there in the holder like that.

One thing to remember that, not all habits or rituals are actually compulsions. Sometimes everyone keep double checking things. But in case of OCD:

One person cannot control behaviours or thoughts, even after knowing those behaviours or thoughts are excessive.

One person spends a minimum 1 hour every day on these thoughts or behaviours

Even after doing things the person doesn’t get pleasure or completion or desired satisfaction while performing the rituals or behaviours but may feel brief relief from the anxiety. One person experiences a remarkable amount of problems in daily life due to these thoughts or behaviours.

Treatments and Therapies

Psychiatrists use medication, psychotherapy or combined therapy of medication & psychotherapy to treat OCD. Most of the patient’s respond to these treatment options but few of them do not.

In a few cases, people suffering from OCD can suffer from other mental disorders like depression, anxiety, or body dysmorphic disorder (in which a person thinks a part of the body is abnormal). A psychiatrist needs to consider these symptoms before choosing treatment options.

Book Your Appointment with a Psychiatrist in Kolkata and live an OCD free life also help others to live a good life.