Anxiety for Dumbies Part 2 OCD

I don't like posting blogs in the same day and I know I'm not suppose to within the same hour but this is a favor I wanted to do for a friend. Maybe this may also help people understand Obessessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

OCD is in the same family as other anxiety disorders; such as Generalized anxiety,Panic disorder, Phobic disorder, agoraphobia, Social anxiety disorder, and Post traumatic stress disorder.

OCD consists of complusions and obssessions. Normally the obsessions are in the mind and can not be turned off. To surpress the obessive thought pattern, a person with OCD normally, but not always will perform compulsions such as doing things mutiple times.

The obsessions a person with OCD experience are sometimes unwanted thoughts, that keep reoccurring no matter how much they try to limit them. They may get thoughts of picturing people they loved die, and this bothers them alot. They may accidently think they will harm someone if they are not to careful. For example if they are holding a knife they may be afraid it will slip out of their hand even or they will stab a loved one. This is part of the disorder and people with OCD will not harm anyone.

Not all people with OCD have the obessessions like these, and some people with OCD may just have the compulsions.

I have awful visions of things happening to people and all that fun stuff. I re write list over and over again until they are right. I have to double check lights, the stove, and other appliances, things have to be organized in a way where it is equal. I do not excessively clean my hands but I have chewed the side of my fingers often. I will clean something over and over again because I feel like it is not clean. These are just some examples.

Like every disorder there are different levels of the disorder. Someone can have mild OCD like I do where it affects there life but not enough to totally ruin it. There is Moderate OCD where it affects the life of the person alot but they may be able to cope with it, and Severe OCD.

Most of this information is from what I learned in Psychology. In psychology there is an arguement between nature and nuture. I believe that a disorder is developed because of genetics and environmental factors. This would mean it is both nature and nuture. Some studies have shown that most anxiety disorders come from low seratoin levels in the brain. Depression usually accompanies anxiety disorders. But I have not found any anti-depressant effective in treating depression or anxiety.

But back to OCD. Here are some symptoms of people with OCD:

Fears of contracting a awful illness

Excessive concern about dirt,germs, house hold cleaners that could contaminant things

Feeling of horror about bodily waste and secrections (guilty)

Obesessions about the body (guilty)

Overly concerned about sticky substances or residue

An overwhelming need to align items "just so" (guilty)

Abnormal concern about the tidiness of one's appearance or envirnoment (guilty)

Stashing away useless trash

Not able to throw away things because you feel you may need them at some point.

Unwanted sexual thoughts that the person views as inappropiate and unacceptable

Fear of molesting a child despite no desire to do so ( I haven't heard of that one)

Fears that one may be gay

Repeating activities for no logical reason (guilty)

Repeating questions over and over again/rewording or rewriting words or phrases (guilty)

Fear that one has failed to do a task

fear of having caused a fatal tragedy

repeated images of violence/fear of acting out a violent thought

Irrational fear of hurting someone

Belief that certain numbers are lucky or unlucky (guilty)

Need for symmetry and total order

Need to do something until someone gets it "perfect"

Need to touch, tap, or rub objects

Excessive list making (guilty)

Counting compulsions.

And anything you feel the need to repeat for no reason

These are just some of the symptoms of OCD. Not everyone has all of these symptoms and some people may have different symptoms than these. I have found the best treatment is to get help in correcting this disorder. Therapy is probably the best choice, Anti-depressants don't work for me but they may work for others, I don't believe these medications can solve the problem and there has been so many recalls on them. The best thing to do is to talk to people about it. I found this is the best therapy out there.

People must realize that someone who has a disorder should not be viewed as strange but should be viewed as an indiviual, the only difference is they have a chemical imbalance in their brain.

http://understanding_ocd.tripod.com/ocd_symptoms.html

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