Obsession-Compulsive Disorder

Are you the type of person who has a phobia of germs, dirt, or contaminated bodily fluids? Is the only way to feel safe and pure is for you to cleanse yourself countless times a day? Or maybe you’re the type of person who has to check things twice, three times or more. Perhaps you’re the type of person who has to do everything twice, or by a fixed number. Maybe you are the type of person who must have everything neatly placed, and if misplaced at all you throw a tantrum. If you are a person who happens to do any of these things then maybe you have OCD, the acronym for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (formerly known as obsessive neurosis) is categorized as an anxiety disorder because the main focus seems to be anxiety and discomfort that is usually increased by the obsessions (thoughts) and decreased by the compulsions or rituals (actions). (Baer 3) According to Baer, Obsessions are defined as recurrent, persistent ideas, thoughts, images, or impulses that are experienced, at least initially, as intrusive and senseless. Compulsions are defined as repetitive, purposeful, and intentional behaviors that are performed in response to an obsession or according to certain rules or in a stereotypical fashion. (Baer 3) Obsession-compulsive disorder usually begins in late adolescence in one to two thirds of reported cases. The problem is associated with significant life changes. Obsessive-compulsive disorder results from biological and psychological influences. Abnormal levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin may play a role in OCD. Cat scans of people with OCD have discovered irregularities in the activity level of the orbital cortex, caudate nucleus, cingulate cortex, and a brain circuit that assists control movements of the limbs. (Pato 8) Many patients report having numerous neurotic problems during childhood. These patients become socially isolated, and consequently fall into a deep depression. This disorder affects males and females quite differently. People with OCD tend to have a high celibacy rate, particularly males. Both sexes tend to marry at an older age than other types of psychiatric patients, and they have a low fertility rate. (Rachman 6) Most studies concluded that OCD patients possess higher than average intelligence. The average OCD patient has many types of compulsive behavior. The anxiety of OCD is caused through its persistence. (Mavissakalian 15) And maybe this is why cleaning and checking rituals are the most common types of obsessive-compulsive disorder. These patients carry out activities as disinfecting of objects, excessive hand washing until the hands are so clean that they crack and bleed, excessive showering, and excessive rinsing of dishes. Securing locks, alarm clocks, gas jets, and looking under the bed are some of the checking rituals OCD patients have. If the obsessive-compulsive person qualms and ponders when the ritual is not performed systematically. The task of this patient must be carried out to perfection or it will not be preventative or restorative. The checking ritual is described as intending to prevent some state of balance and order to avoid infectivity from some distressing stimuli. (Rachman 14) Some obsessional people often feel a compulsive need to arrange things in their environment. To the observer, compulsive arranging seems identical with the activities of normal, neat-minded people. The major distinction is the accompanying experience of compulsivity. The frustration experienced by the obsessional person is a result of disobedience of a different order severely disturbed by any deviation from the set order and feels compelled to reposition the status quo. (Reed 38) For example, if someone puts a document on your desk then this person just moved an item from your possession, in turn when you arrive, you have to remove the item and put anything that was interfered with back to a precise order. Sigmund Freud was particularly fascinated in the obsessive-compulsive disorder. He referred to it as the obsessional neurosis, and in 1926 Freud wrote it was unquestionably the most interesting and re-paying subject of analytic research. But as a research it has not been mastered. (Cooper 9) Freud also found evidence of passive sexuality, and sexual experience yielding pleasure. The defenses used in obsessional neurosis are denial, repression, regression, reaction formulation, isolation, undoing, magical thinking, doubting, indecision, intellectualization, and rationalization. Washing is most frequently engaged to an undoing of a dirtying action. In analytic therapy, obsessive-compulsive neurosis is regarded as the second type of transference neurosis. In hysterics, the ego forms an alliance with the analyst to battle the neurosis. In compulsive neurotics, the ego is split, with one part working logically while the other thinks in fantasy. (Cooper 14) Obsessions and compulsions are also linked to toxic conditioned stimuli obtained by classical conditioning events. The response and stimulus are used identically because they have double properties. An example of this is fear. Fear is a response, but also it is an obsessive thought of hurting, which would make it a stimulus also. The interaction between the repeated ruminations and mood turbulence increases the provocation of the individual and increases the tendency to reflect even further. Temporary relief produced from the ritual, or motor act terminates an aversive condition. This makes the resolution prototype likely to be repeated the next time producing a disturbing thought. The classical conditioning will result an anxiety. This will now become a conditioned stimulus for a response. When this stimulus is then paired again to another neutral stimulus, the conclusion also acquires aversive connotations and its presence will bring out anxiety. While this is occurring, the original anxiety response is likely then to expand into a general feeling of discomfort, in which is now turned into the obsessive-compulsive disorder. (Cooper 21) Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is also linked to many diseases and disorders, such as Tourette`s syndrome. Tourette`s syndrome is a neuropsychiatric and behavioral disorder with childhood onset that is characterized by a motor disorder. It involves both motoric and vocal tics that can range from relatively mild to very sever over the course of a patient’s lifetime. OCD occurs in about one out of a hundred cases in the general population. 30-60% of Tourette`s Syndrome patients have reported obsessive thoughts and compulsive rituals that occur many years after the motor tics start. Usually during the preadolescent years. Research states that a single major gene or that the sex may determine if the disorder is related OCD or Tourette`s Syndrome. Females are more likely to have OCD without tics, when the diagnosis of the disorder was undetermined. (Sanberg 349) A device called the positron emission