Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder or a medical brain disorder that forces a person into a series of repetitive thoughts and actions (Gard 18). This disorder is broken into two parts: obsessions and compulsions. An obsession is persistent thoughts and/or feelings. The anxiety produced by these thoughts leads to an urgent need to perform certain rituals or routines. These routines are also known as compulsions. The compulsive rituals are performed in an attempt to prevent the obsessive thoughts or make them go away. Although the ritual may take the anxiety away temporarily, a person must perform the ritual again when the obsessive thoughts return (Cleveland Clinic). This OCD cycle may continue to the point where it significantly alters one’s life and stops them from interfering with normal everyday activities. People with OCD may be aware that their obsessions and compulsions are senseless or unrealistic, but they cannot stop themselves.

Some common obsessions include contamination in fear of germs, imagining harming self or others, losing control of aggressive urges, intrusive sexual thoughts, excessive religious doubts, forbidden thoughts, and a need to tell, ask, or confess. Obsessions usually increase anxiety while compulsions reduce anxiety. Various common compulsions include repeatedly bathing and showering, the need to perform tasks a certain number of times, constant counting, mentally or aloud, while performing routine tasks, and repeating specific words, phrases or prayers. In an excerpt from the story The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Washing, A man describes one of his OCD attacks:

My seat belt is buckled and I am vigilantly following all the rules of the road. No one is on the highway - not a living soul. Out of nowhere an Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) attack strikes. It’s almost magical how it distorts my sense of reality. While in reality no one is on the road, I’m intruded with the heinous thought that I might have hit someone – a human being...I think about this for a second and then say to myself “That’s ridiculous. I didn’t hit anybody.” Nonetheless, a gnawing anxiety is born. An anxiety I will not be able to put away until an enormous emotional price is paid…I’ve driven five miles down the road since the attack’s onset. I turn the car around and head back to the scene of the mythical mishap. Naturally nothing is there. No police car, no bloodied body. I turn around again to get to my exam on time. Seconds later, I feel the lingering thoughts and pain start gnawing away again. This time they’re more intense. I think, “Maybe I should have pulled off the road and checked the side brush where the injured body now lies?” I turn around again and turn an extra mile further down the road to look for the corpse. I imagine that a cop car is parked near the alleged scene. I start to panic thinking that the cop knows that I have hit someone. He approaches me and asks me what is wrong. I reply “I am feeling sick about my school exam and had to pull over.” He gives a smile and wishes me luck. Then it runs through my mind, what if he stopped because he thinks I could be a suspect, and what if they already collected the body for fingerprints, etc…This anxiety went on and on, I had to get back in my car. Assured this time that nothing is there, I head back to school to take my exam. (Rapoport 24)

These attacks that occur are not only time consuming, but painful as well. The same man

from the excerpt above stated “it’s simply a fact of life that it’s the pain-the deep, searing,

never-ending pain that makes this illness so unbearable.” These OCD attacks cause more hurt to the person psychologically than most people realize.

Although no single hard evidence has proved the cause of this anxiety disorder, studies show that a combination of biological and environmental factors may be involved. Research has found a link between low levels of one neurotransmitter in the brain called serotonin and the development of OCD. Furthermore, there is evidence that a serotonin imbalance may be passed on from parents to children. This means the tendency to develop OCD may be inherited. Also a related idea to serotonin is another brain neurotransmitter, called dopamine, which has insufficient levels as well (NAFoundation). There are environmental stressors that can possibly trigger OCD in people with a tendency toward developing the condition. Those factors include: abuse, illness, relationship concerns, and death of a loved one. (Cleveland Clinic).

Many questions run through people’s minds about Obsessive-Compulsive