Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a common mental illness in which people feel burdened by unwanted thoughts or forced to repeat troublesome actions. This disorder can become evident during adulthood, but is most common to appear during adolescence. When this disorder appears during those stages of life it is known as Pediatric OCD and it usually manifests itself between the ages of 7-12, through the obsession, compulsion, and it slowly disables a person's life until they get treatment. I will take you through and define the obsession, compulsion, and consequence of the disorder and how it can be treated. [reword? Use a noun phrase also] [good thesis statement with major points]

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Obsessions are defined as a recurring thought that a person considers senseless or terrible but cannot ignore. These recurrent and persistent ideas, thoughts, impulses, or images are usually intrusive and can cause anxiety or distress and are not usually simple worries about real-life problems.

Dr. Jim Chandler, MD, FRCPC took a good example of an obsession case:

An 11 year-old child by the name of Jonathan began doing badly in school and to his parents it was pretty surprising because he had always been a good student. Jonathan knew why, but he was afraid to tell anyone; afraid he would lose his temper and hurt someone he kept his secret to himself. He had a fear that if he did anything with the number "9" he would lose his temper and attack someone. The more he saw the number the more he worried about losing his temper. It took a lot of his time and energy to avoid saying or reading the number nine. This affects him greatly when he does his homework (especially math). He also won't do anything that involves the number, like going to bed at 9 o'clock. Jonathan refuses to ride the bus, is slow to get ready, and never seems to listen. He is in a world of his own surrounded by fear and an obsession that is consuming his life.[use plain text for inentation]

Obsessions are usually followed or combined with compulsions. A compulsion is a need to repeat an action. These are things that people do or acts they perform in their head over and over again. Patients with OCD aim their repetitive actions at preventing or reducing distress or preventing a dreaded event or situation; however these behaviors or mental acts are not connected in a realistic way with what they are designed to neutralize, prevent or are clearly excessive. Another example from Dr. Jim Chandler, MD, FRCPC was a boy named Randy.

Randy woke up every morning at 6 am. His bus did not arrive till 8:30 and he missed it about half the time. Randy had to get ready perfectly everyday and had a set routine. He would get out of bed and both feet had to touch the ground at exactly the same time. Then he would brush his teeth 30 times on the top and 30 times on the bottom. It meant that after using the soap he would have to align it parallel to the soap dispenser and could not go on until it was perfect. The order of taking a shower and combing his hair was about as complicated as flying a plane. It started out simple and every month there would be one more thing that had to be done just right. There was no way that he was going to change for gym and shower and then put his clothes back on at school. Randy got help because he was on the verge of being expelled. (Dr. Jim Chandler, MD, FRDPC)[plain text for the quotation]

OCD is a very private type of suffering. Most compulsions and obsessions are not noticed by anyone other than the person with the disorder. It usually a depression or crisis that brings pediatric OCD "out of the closet."

It is easy to see how some disorders are disabling. However, in OCD many times the type of disability is less obvious. For example severe hyperactivity in ADHD is obvious to everyone. Likewise, a person who is too depressed to go to school or leave home has an obvious disability; yet, OCD can disable a person by making life impossible through time, destroy relationships and careers and also begin to physically affect them. It can take up a lot of a person's day to obsess or do compulsions. By the definitions of OCD state the patient must spend at least 1 hour of their day obsessing or doing the compulsions for it to be disabling. In reality, by the time they get help their waking hours are usually "used up" by OCD. Time that is usually stolen by OCD is time that you would spend falling asleep, time by yourself, and car ride. Having all