Obsessive compulsive disorder
Description
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder /OCD/is a personality clinical condition that is characterized by intrusive and unreasonable thoughts /obsessions/, which lead to repetitive behavioral manifestations /compulsions/.
It is possible for a person to have only obsessions or only compulsions and again be correctly diagnosed with OCD.
The affected person may realize that their thoughts are not reasonable and may try to ignore or control them.
But this only increases his stress and anxiety. Eventually, the sufferer may feel compelled to perform certain compulsive acts in an attempt to relieve the stress that the obsessions cause them.
OCD is often associated with a fear of contamination by germs or parasites.
To relieve the obsessive thoughts that they may be infected with bacteria, the sufferer may start washing their hands so often that their skin becomes sore and cracked.
Despite attempts to ignore or deal with annoying thoughts and the behavioral impulses they trigger, they keep coming up again and again.
This leads to behavior where the sufferer begins to adhere to certain rituals and a vicious cycle that is characteristic of OCD.
What are the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder?
About 1/3 of those affected also have another mental disorder, expressed in making sudden, short, periodic movements or making sounds /tics/.
Symptoms of obsession
They are characterized by the appearance of repeated, persistent and unwanted urges or images in the mind of the affected person, which cause him stress or anxiety.
He can try to get rid of them by doing what appears in his mind as an impulse or by performing a certain ritual.
Intrusive thoughts enter the sufferer’s head when they are trying to think about or do other things.
Obsessions are most often related and manifest in the following :
• Fear of contamination or contamination;
• Manic desire for orderliness and symmetry;
• Aggressive or terrifying thoughts of self-harm or of harming loved ones
• Unwanted intrusive thoughts of aggression or on religious, sexual, including homosexual topics;
Examples of signs and symptoms of obsessions:
• Fear of infection when someone else touches the affected person with their hands or when they touch another person unintentionally;
• Doubts that the affected person has locked the door or turned off the stove;
• Unreasonably strong stress from this , that certain objects are not arranged or placed in a certain way;
• Images in the mind of the affected person being hurt or someone very close to them;
• Intrusive thoughts about talking dirty or impulses to perform inappropriate actions;
• Avoiding situations where shaking hands with another person can trigger the obsession.
• Negative stress from obsessively repeating imagined sexual scenes in the mind of the affected person.
Examples of signs and symptoms of compulsions:
• Washing the hands several times until their skin cracks;
• Checking the doors several times to make sure the affected person is indeed locked;
• Checking the stove several times, so whether it is turned off;
• Counting steps when walking, which sometimes happens in an irrational sequence, for example counting not every step, but in 1’s or 2’s;
• Silently repeating prayers, words or phrases ;
• When preparing the food, it is arranged in an amazingly uniform way every time;
Symptoms of mental disorder usually appear gradually and vary in intensity throughout life and are more pronounced with greater stress.
