What is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?
Approximately, one out of every forty adults and one out of every two-hundred children will develop Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), sometime in their life. This is about two to three percent of the population of the United States (five-million people). OCD was once thought to be very rare. This was most likely because few actually sought treatment. This still holds true today as only twenty percent of people who develop OCD seek treatment.
People with OCD are good actors, as they do an excellent job of concealing their OCD in the workplace, in school or around friends. It is only when those suffering from OCD let up on their acting that others start to notice. The family gets the brunt of the problems mainly because the OCD sufferer feels safe in the home environment and knows that they will be less criticized for their actions.
Most OCD sufferers will have both obsessions and compulsions. Only about twenty percent will have either obsessions or compulsions. Obsessions are unwanted thoughts that reoccur. These thoughts are just not worries about real-life problems, yet they seem to be to the OCD sufferer. Many obsessions involve harming someone or something. For severe OCD sufferers, obsessions can cause great anxiety, but for those who have mild OCD, they could be just back round noise. An example of an obsession is a woman thinking "Did I leave the stove on"?
Compulsions are repeated behaviors that the OCD sufferer will do in attempt to neutralize the obsessions. The compulsions are most often the same each time. An example of this would be a woman actually checking the stove to make sure it’s turned off. This is where the OCD sufferer differs from normal people. She will not just check the stove once, but will check it repeatedly. She may even check it so much that it becomes time consuming and she must force herself out of that situation.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder typically begins in adolescence or in young adults, but children can also acquire OCD. Other symptoms include: depression, Trichotillomania (compulsive hair pulling), Body Dysmorphic Disorder (preoccupation with a bodily defect that is minor or imagined), and hypochondriasis (fear of having a major illness) (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, pamphlet).
Causes of OCD are still unknown, though one strong suggestion is that it has a neurobiological basis. It is said that there is a chemical in the brain in which there is a loss of a neurotransmitter called serotonin. In attempt to find biological factors that may trigger OCD, positron emission tomography (PET) scans have been done. It was found that people with OCD have different brain activity patterns than those who don’t have a mental disorder, or those who have a different mental disorder. In studying those PET scans, it has been suggested that specific areas of the brain are the basis of OCD.
Some symptoms of OCD, though not the full disorder, have been seen together with other neurological disorders. One of these is Tourette’s syndrome. Tourette’s syndrome is a heredity disorder. It’s symptoms are involuntary , repeated movements and vocalizations. In doing genetic studies, scientists may one day be able to find out exactly in the brain OCD and other mental disorders begin.
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