Mental Health Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

What is mental health obsessive compulsive disorder or OCD behavior?

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a long-term disorder in which a person faces recurring and uncontrollable thoughts (obsessions), involves in repetitive behaviors (compulsions), or both. People with obsessive-compulsive disorder have prolonged symptoms that can cause particular distress or interfere with daily routine. However, treatment is available to assist people manage their symptoms and improve the quality of their life.

 

It has two major parts that are interlinked, obsessions and compulsions.

 

Obsessions are unwelcome doubts, worries, thoughts, urges, images or feelings, that keep coming into your mind. They can feel stuck in your mind, no matter what you try to get rid of them. You may be nervous about what they mean or why they would not go away, and feel very upset by them.

 

Compulsions are the repeated things that you perform to reduce the doubt or worry caused by obsessions. Compulsions are things you do physically, like constantly checking a door is locked. Or they can be things you do in your mind, like repeating a particular word to yourself. Or they can involve other people, like asking people for reassurance.

 

Everyone can face obsessive thoughts or compulsive behaviors at times. But if you have mental health obsessive compulsive disorder, your fears and doubts about your thoughts, and the things you perform to feel better, can make you very worried. And they can leave a big impact on your life.

 

What is obsessive-compulsive personality disorder?

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder is commonly characterized by a prevalent preoccupation with perfectionism, orderliness, and control (with no room for flexibility) that ultimately interferes or slows with completing a task.

 

What are the 4 types of OCD?

The 4 types of OCD are following:

1. Contamination and washing

2. Doubt and double checking

3. Ordering and arranging

4. Unacceptable or taboo thoughts

 

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Symptoms

Mental health obsessive compulsive disorder symptoms commonly include both obsessions and compulsions. But it is also possible to have only symptoms of obsession or only compulsion symptoms. You may or may not realize that your obsessions and compulsions are beyond reason. But they assume a great deal of time, reduce the quality of your life, and get in the way of your responsibilities and daily routines.

 

Obsession symptoms

OCD obsessions are unwanted and lasting thoughts that keeping coming back or images or urges that are annoying and cause anxiety or distress . You might try to get rid of or ignore these obsessions by acting based. These obsessions commonly intrude when you’re trying to do or think of other things.

 

Obsessions commonly have themes, such as:

 

• Fear of dirt or contamination or obsessive cleaning disorder

• Having a hard time or doubting dealing with uncertainty

• Needing things to be balanced or orderly

• Horrificor aggressive thoughts about losing control and hurting yourself or others

• Unwanted thoughts, such as aggression, or religious or sexual subjects.

 

Examples of obsession symptoms may include:

• Fear of being dirty by touching objects others have touched

• Doubts that you’ve turned off the stove or locked the door

• Extreme stress when objects aren’t orderly or facing a specific way

• Images of riding your car into a crowd of people

• Thoughts about not acting the right way or shouting obscenities in public

• Unpleasant sexual images

• Staying away from the situations that may cause obsessions, like shaking hands

 

Compulsion symptoms

Mental health obsessive compulsive disorder compulsions are repetitive or constant behaviors that you feel driven to do. These repetitive mental acts or behaviors are meant to reduce stress related to your obsessions or prevent something bad from occurring.

 

But participation in the compulsions brings no pleasure and can offer only limited relief from anxiety.

 

You may make up rituals or rules to follow that help control your anxiety when you’re experiencing obsessive thoughts. These compulsions are for no reason and often don’t relate to the issue they are intended to fix.

 

As with obsessions, compulsions commonly have themes, such as:

• Washing and cleaning

• Following a strict routine

• Demanding reassurance

• Checking

• Ordering

• Counting

 

Examples of compulsion symptoms may include:

• Washing hands until your skin becomes raw

• Checking doors over and over again to ensure they’re locked

• Checking the stove frequently to ensure it’s off

• Counting in specific patterns

• Silently repeating a word, phrase or prayer

• Trying to replace your bad thoughts with the good one

• Organizing your canned goods to face the same way

What causes mental health obsessive compulsive disorder in the brain?

However the exact causes of OCD are unknown, numerous risk factors increase the chances of causing OCD in the brain.

 

Genetics: Researches have shown that having a parent or sibling (first-degree relative) with OCD is linked with an increased chance of developing the disorder. Scientists have not found out any one or set of genes that surely causes OCD, but studies inspecting the link between genetics and OCD are ongoing.

 

Biology: Brain imaging researches have shown that individuals with OCD often have differences in the subcortical and frontal cortex structures of the brain, areas of the brain that affect the ability to control behavior and emotional responses.

 

Researchers also have found that various brain areas, biological processes, and brain networks play a major role in obsessive thoughts, compulsive behavior, and associated anxiety and fear. Research is in progress to better understand the link between OCD symptoms and parts of the brain. This information can help researchers develop and adapt treatments targeted to particular brain locations.

 

Temperament: Some study has found that people who experience negative thoughts, exhibit more reserved behaviors and show symptoms of depression and anxiety as children are more likely to develop OCD.

 

Childhood trauma: Some research have reported a connection between childhood trauma and mental health obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms. More research is required to acknowledge this relationship.

 

OCD-related conditions

Some other conditions are similar to OCD. They commonly involve obsessions with things like:

• Body dysmorphic disorder (our looks)

• Hoarding disorder (collecting, ordering, or arranging things)

• Trichotillomania (pulling out or eating your hair)

• Excoriation (picking at your skin excoriation)

• Hypochondriasis (worrying about your physical health)

• Olfactory reference syndrome (body order or how you smell)

 

How is mental health obsessive compulsive disorder diagnosed?

There’s no test for obsessive compulsive disorder. A mental health professional makes the diagnosis after asking you regarding your symptoms and medical and mental health history. Doctors use criteria explained in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-V) for the diagnosis of OCD.

 

The criteria include:

• Experiencing obsessions, compulsions or both.

• The obsessions or compulsions consume a lot of time (more than one hour per day).

• The obsessions or compulsions can generate distress or affect your work responsibilities, involvement in social activities, or other events.

• The symptoms are not caused by medications, substances, alcohol, or another medical condition.

• The symptoms are not interrupted by various psychological conditions, such as body image disorder, eating disorder, or generalized anxiety disorder.

 

Mental health obsessive compulsive disorder treatment

There’s no cure for obsessive compulsive disorder. But you can be able to manage how your symptoms affect your life by therapy, medicine, or a combination of treatments.

 

Treatments usually include:

 

Psychotherapy: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) may help change your thinking patterns. In a form known as exposure and response prevention, your physician will put you in a situation intended to create anxiety or set off compulsions. You will learn to lessen and then stop your OCD thoughts and actions.

 

Relaxation: Simple things such as meditation, yoga, and massage  helps with stressful OCD symptoms.

 

Medication: Psychiatric drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors help a lot of people control obsessions and compulsions. They usually take 2 to 4 months to start working. Common ones include, sertraline (Zoloft), paroxetine (Paxil),fluvoxamine, fluoxetine (Prozac), escitalopram (Lexapro), clomipramine (Anafranil), and citalopram (Celexa). If you still have symptoms, your doctor will give you antipsychotic drugs such as  risperidone (Risperdal) or aripiprazole (Abilify).

 

Neuromodulation: In few cases, when medication and therapy are not making visible difference, your doctor might talk to you regarding devices that change the electrical activity in a some areas of your brain. One type, transcranial magnetic stimulation, is FDA-approved for treatment of OCD. Magnetic fields are used to activate the nerve cells. A more complicated procedure, known as deep brain stimulation, uses electrodes that are embedded in your head.

 

Summary

Mental Health Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is often a lifelong condition that commonly waxes and wanes.

 

Individuals with OCD who receive proper treatment often have improved quality of life and increased work, school or social functioning.