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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Those suffering with obsessive-compulsive disorder engage in ritualistic, and often bizarre, behaviors in order to avert some imagined catastrophe or atone for some imagined sin. People with OCD derive no pleasure from performing their rituals, but instead find them painful, time consuming, and debilitating.
OCD is believed to affect more than 5 million people in the United States alone. Symptoms typically appear during adolescence, but any person of any age can be a victim of this disorder. Even children.
OCD is defined by two general groups of symptoms: obsessions and compulsions.
Obsessions - Obsessions are intrusive, unwelcome and distressing thoughts or images. These unwanted thoughts create anxiety and distress as they repetitively force their way into the mind.
Some of the most common obsessions include:
Compulsions - Compulsions are the behaviors, or rituals, that a person with OCD performs in an attempt to correct, atone for, or exorcise the obsessions and the anxiety produced by them. A person with OCD is usually able to recognize that the urge to perform the compulsion is senseless, but the anxiety is so overwhelming that the person gives in anyway.
Some of the most common compulsions include:
A. Either obsessions or compulsions:
Obsessions as defined by (1), (2), (3), and (4):
(1) recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses, or images that are experienced, at some time during the disturbance, as intrusive and inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or distress
Compulsions as defined by (1) and (2):
(1) repetitive behaviors (e.g., hand washing, ordering, checking) or mental acts (e.g., praying, counting, repeating words silently) that the person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession, or according to rules that must be applied rigidly
B. At some point during the course of the disorder, the person has recognized that the obsessions or compulsions are excessive or unreasonable. Note: This does not apply to children.
C. The obsessions or compulsions cause marked distress, are time consuming (take more than 1 hour a day), or significantly interfere with the person's normal routine, occupational (or academic) functioning, or usual social activities or relationships.
D. If another Axis I disorder is present, the content of the obsessions or compulsions is not restricted to it (e.g., preoccupation with food in the presence of an Eating Disorders; hair pulling in the presence of Trichotillomania; concern with appearance in the presence of Body Dysmorphic Disorder; preoccupation with drugs in the presence of a Substance Use Disorder; preoccupation with having a serious illness in the presence of Hypochondriasis; preoccupation with sexual urges or fantasies in the presence of a Paraphilia; or guilty ruminations in the presence of Major Depressive Disorder).
E. The disturbance is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition.
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This Site Updated 04/09/11
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