Tahsin Rahman Oshin
Obsessive compulsive disorder, more commonly known as OCD in short, is very frequent among the general mass. OCD is a chronic or long-term illness and without treatment, it may significantly affect a person’s ability to work and his social life. The symptoms may come and go anytime. Obsessive compulsive disorder can consist of both obsession and compulsion, or only obsession or only compulsion.
For those of who you are not familiar with OCD, let me enlighten you with what it actually is. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder which is generally characterized by excessive unwanted and irrepressible thoughts that they don’t seem to get out of their heads (obsessions) and repetitive ritualistic routines and behaviours (compulsions). A lot of people, even if they feel irrational, feel powerless and are unable to break free and resist the obsession and compulsion. These interfere with a person’s daily social life routine including work, family and other social activities.
Now let’s get into the depth of the two elements of obesssion and compulsion, if you really want to help someone very close who suffers from this very ‘funny’ or ‘irritating’ disorder you may find. Obsessions are apparently uncontrollable images, thoughts, visions, etc that occur over and over again. These intrusive thoughts can be upsetting and distracting and you may not want them at all, but you still will not be able to stop them. Compulsions are rites and behaviours that you feel compelled to perform, again, even if you do not want to. Generally, if you are suffering from OCD, you would want to perform those rituals to make the obsessions go away. However, the relief that you feel after finishing those tasks is never permanent, and the urge to do those duties that you feel your utter reponsibilities come back as even stronger than before.
This can, in turn , cause a lot of apprehension and can be time-consuming, as the habits become more demanding and get engraved into you as permanent obligations.
The ways of recognizing OCD is mostly characterized by obsessions and compulsions. However, some may experience one or the other. Obsessive thoughts include: fear of contamination, excessive focus on religious or moral ideas, fear of losing or not having the things you feel you need, excessive belief in superstitions, the knack for order and symmetry, fear of causing harm to yourself or others, intrusive obscene and violent thoughts and images, and so on. The compulsive behaviours include: spending a lot of time washing and cleaning; ordering things and maintaining discipline; praying excessively or engaging in religious rituals; excessive double-checking of things such as appliances, locks; counting and repeating certain words to reduce anxiety, accumulating junks, old newspapers, etc. and countless other habits.
The treatments available for OCD are not of a lot of variety, and ongoing research are still goign on. Two types of therapy are commonly avaiable: cognitive behavioral therapy and group therapy.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Exposure and response prevention: This involves repititve exposure to the source of your obsession that you feel obliged to do to reduce your anxiety. For example, you are made to touch a public restroom door handle and not allowed to wash your hands. As you sit among other people, the urge to wash your hands will slowly go away.
• Cognitive therapy: This therapy focuses on disastrous thoughts and exaggerated sense of responsibility you feel and teaches you healthy and efficient ways to deal with the obsessoin without having to resort to compulsive behavior.
• Group therapy: This therapy uses interaction with fellow OCD sufferes and include: refocusing your attention to something else when you feel the obligations; anticipating your comulsive urges to ease them; create an OCD worry period at specific times of the day to rescedule them and feel them; instead of trying to suppress them completely; you can try writing down your obsessive thoughts and worries; practise relaxation techniques such as mediation, yoga, etc; exercise regularly; and so on.
Tahsin Rahman Oshin is a feature writer at the Daily Our time who has a passion for performing arts and fashion. She is a high school graduate, loves cats and plans to establish an animal shelter in future.