Obsessive thoughts, irrational fears, strange rituals – to a certain extent, this is characteristic of many of us. How to understand if this is beyond the scope of healthy behavior and is it time to seek help from a specialist?
Living with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is not easy. With this disease, intrusive thoughts arise, causing severe anxiety. To get rid of anxiety, a person suffering from OCD is often forced to perform certain rituals.
In the classification of mental illness, OCD is classified as an anxiety disorder, and anxiety is familiar to almost everyone. But this does not mean that any healthy person understands what an OCD sufferer has to experience. Headaches are also familiar to everyone, but this does not mean that we all know what migraine sufferers feel.
Symptoms of OCD can interfere with a person’s ability to work, live, and relate to others.
“The brain is designed in such a way that it always warns us of the dangers that threaten survival. But in OCD patients, this brain system does not work properly. As a result, they are often overwhelmed by a real “tsunami” of unpleasant experiences and are unable to focus on anything else,” explains psychologist Stephen Philipson, clinical director of the Center for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in New York.
OCD is not associated with any one specific fear. Some obsessions are well-known – for example, patients may constantly wash their hands or check to see if the stove is turned on. But OCD can also manifest as hoarding, hypochondria, or the fear of harming someone. A fairly common type of OCD, in which patients are tormented by a paralyzing fear about their sexual orientation.
As with any other mental illness, only a professional doctor can make a diagnosis. But there are still a few symptoms that experts say can indicate the presence of OCD.
1. They bargain with themselves.
OCD sufferers often believe that if they check the stove again or search the Internet for symptoms of the illness they claim to be suffering from, they will finally be able to calm down. But OCD is often deceptive.
“Biochemical associations arise in the brain with the object of fear. The repetition of obsessive rituals further convinces the brain that the danger is indeed real, and thus a vicious circle is completed, ”explains Stephen Philipson.
2. They feel an obsessive need to perform certain rituals.
Would you agree to stop performing the usual rituals (for example, not checking 20 times a day if the front door is locked) if you were paid ten thousand rubles or another amount that is significant enough for you? If your anxiety is so easily bribed, then most likely you are just more afraid of robbers than usual, but you do not have OCD.
For a person suffering from this disorder, the performance of rituals seems to be a matter of life and death, and survival can hardly be valued in money.
3. It is very difficult to convince them that their fears are unfounded.
OCD sufferers are familiar with the verbal construction “Yes, but…” (“Yes, the last three tests showed that I do not have this or that disease, but how do I know that the samples were not mixed up in the laboratory?”) Because it is rarely possible to be in something then absolutely sure, no beliefs help the patient overcome these thoughts, and he continues to be tormented by anxiety.
4. They usually remember when the symptoms started.
“Not everyone with OCD can tell exactly when the disorder first appeared, but most do remember,” Philipson says. At first, there is just an unreasonable anxiety, which then takes shape in a more specific fear – for example, that you, while preparing dinner, will suddenly stab someone with a knife. For most people, these experiences pass without consequences. But OCD sufferers seem to be falling into an abyss.
If the patient is afraid of pollution, the first exercise for him will be to touch the doorknob and not wash his hands afterwards.
“At such moments, panic makes an alliance with a certain idea. And it’s not easy to end it, like any unhappy marriage, ”Philipson says.
5. They are consumed by anxiety.
Almost all the fears that plague OCD sufferers have some basis in fact. Fires do happen, and hands are really full of bacteria. It’s all about the intensity of the fear.
If you are able to live a normal life despite the constant uncertainty associated with these risk factors, you most likely do not have OCD (or a very mild case). Problems begin when anxiety completely consumes you, preventing you from functioning normally.
Fortunately, OCD can be adjusted. Medications play an important role in therapy, including some types of antidepressants, but psychotherapy, especially cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), is equally effective.
Within CBT, there is an effective treatment for OCD called reaction-avoidance exposure. In the course of treatment, the patient, under the supervision of a therapist, is specifically placed in situations that cause increasing fear, while he must not succumb to the desire to perform the usual ritual.
For example, if the patient is afraid of pollution and constantly washes his hands, the first exercise for him will be to touch the doorknob and not wash his hands after that. In the following exercises, the apparent danger is amplified – for example, you will need to touch the handrail on the bus, then the faucet in the public toilet, and so on. As a result, fear gradually begins to subside.