Health

What Is It Like To Have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder or OCD may not be a new term to us. Moreover, if you are a fan of the series FRIENDS, then you exactly know what I am trying to tell. The first name that surfaces in my head when I hear the term OCD is Monica Geller. Only later I realized that Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is much more than just a mere uncomfortable disease. In the wake of that, this blog brings you many gaping details on this interesting yet chronic disease.

What is OCD?

It’s totally fine to be extra cautious and check if you plugged out the iron, switched off the gas, or worry that you might be contaminated by germs. But do you know when and how the problem begins? When these thoughts obsessively drown you inducing compulsive actions. Such thoughts and actions can get so consuming that it begins affecting your mental health and life.

What Is It Like To Have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?
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OCD is an anxiety disorder characterized by uncontrollable, unwanted thoughts and ritualized repetitive behaviors. Where you feel compelled to perform a task that may not even be important. Moreover, you will probably recognize that you have obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors. You won’t even love repeating the same action but the fear that resides in your brain doesn’t stop. Even so, you feel unable to resist them and break free. And that is how it gets piled up.

Similarly, obsession is involuntary thoughts, images, or impulses that occur over and over again in your mind. That you can’t help yourself to stop. While compulsion is behaviors or rituals that you feel driven to act out again and again. Usually, compulsion is an attempt to tear away your obsessive thoughts.

Signs & Symptoms

What Is It Like To Have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?
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One thing to remember is that just because you have sometimes had obsessive thoughts and compulsive behavior doesn’t always mean you are one of the victims of OCD. Looking at the bigger picture of OCD, it is much more than just that. It causes tremendous distress, takes up a lot of time (at least one hour per day), and interferes with your daily life and relationships.

Hence it is necessary to spot the symptoms of OCD,

  • Intrusive sexually explicit or violent thoughts and images.
  • Excessive focus on religious or moral ideas.
  • Fear of losing or not having things you might need.
  • Order and symmetry: the idea that everything must line up “just right”.
  • Superstitions; excessive attention to something considered lucky or unlucky.
  • Fear of being contaminated by germs or dirt or contaminating others.
  • Fear of losing control and harming yourself or others.

When to see a doctor?

So far, what we can conclude, there is a huge difference between being a perfectionist and someone who requires flawless results or performance to the extent that it harms themselves. If you ever find yourself dwelling on such emotions, it could be due to OCD. That is when you should see a doctor.

Also Read: Dissociative Fugue: A Mental Health Disorder

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