Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – Have You Experienced It?

Obsessive compulsive disorder has been classified by the World Health Organization as being among the Top 10 Most Disabling Illnesses (considering income loss/lowered quality of life). One in every 50 adult Americans experiences obsessive compulsive disorder.

A kind of anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder is associated with distressing, intrusive thoughts and impulses. The disorder is usually accompanied by certain rituals, the goal of the ritualistic behavior being to neutralize the person's obsessions.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – Examples

The thoughts and fears that characterize this disorder aren't simply exaggerated worries about real life issues. What's more, the rituals that the person uses to make these thoughts and fears go away get to the point that they begin to take over the person's life.

Following are 10 examples from case studies of patients diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder.

1. Wiping off doorknobs in the home each time another person touches them.
2. Going to great lengths to avoid stepping on sidewalk cracks.
3. Compulsive washing of hands, sometimes to the point that they chap or turn raw.
4. Switching the lights on and off a certain number of times.
5. Washing hair X number of times because X was a lucky number.
6. Locking and unlocking a house or car door a certain number of times.
7. Hoarding packets of sweetener or salt (or straws, etc.) when eating out.
8. Setting the alarm only to a "good" number.
9. Counting the lines in a paragraph before reading them (hence taking longer to read a book).
10. Touching a certain surface (wall, floor) before leaving the room.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – Causes

Science hasn't yet pinpointed the exact causes of obsessive compulsive disorder. But several theories have been proposed based on the fact that obsessive compulsive disorder is a kind of anxiety disorder.

Such disorders have been known to occur together with other mental or even physical illness. Alcohol/substance addiction or abuse has been known to be associated with the disorder.

Substance abuse can make the disorder difficult to detect and treat. A physician will sometimes have to treat the addiction first before even beginning to deal with the accompanying disorder.

Some doctors believe that obsessive compulsive disorder (as well as all/most other anxiety disorders) has to do with the perception that the person lacks control, which is rooted in early childhood or infancy.

They propose that this event or experience that occurred early in life caused changes in the person's brain. They say this can explain how obsessive compulsive disorder and other kinds of anxiety disorders are sometimes observed in several generations of a single family.