# Can anyone tell me about OCD?



## Rogue Bullies (Jun 1, 2010)

I don't really understand this and why exactly its a medical condition. How would one know if they have it and what really are the symptoms? I mean doesn't everyone like things a certain way or to do things in a certain order? I tried looking it up and couldn't find anything good on it that really explained it to me. I wonder if I possibly have this and just don't know it or understand it enough?

Example someone online said they OCD about having a clean house. What is so bad about that I? So what you want your house clean I don't get how that's a medical condition so I apparently am not understanding.


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## BlueTank (Jun 2, 2010)

I have an OCD friend. HE's gotten better, but back in the day I saw a lot of it and its hard to explain.

First and foremost I'd say its OCD and a problem when YOU say its a problem. So before DP/DR I exhibited some OCD things that really werent a problem. One thing I would do is check my email multiple times in a row. I wouldn't even concider it OCD. I didn't think much of it. I would find myself with tons of empty tabs in my browser for no reason. Sort of like a tick.

When you observe yourself doing this and its a problem, then your OCD. I think Disorder is pretty odd and subjective. I dunno. But my friend anyways, it was just about things that didn't have to happen. So its sort of a control thing. So things you can't really control are not too much of a problem, but like theres no good reason why your friend would may be miss the garbage can, but then not pick it up. Or leave the toilet lid up.

I think all of us try to control some level of chaos, but with OCD it can get to a point where it hinders living to a pretty big degree.

I hope this helps. I'm not even really sure myself.

Some people will repeat something to a certain number for no real reason which is heavy OCD.


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## septimus (Jun 1, 2010)

People with OCD need to follow an obsessive routine of compulsive behaviors to relieve anxiety. Some can't relax unless they wash every floor in their house twice a day. Many have germ phobias, they need to wash their hands repeatedly. It can get to be very distressing.


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## lindsayloo (Jun 23, 2010)

I was not diagnosed with it , but was told that I have ocd "traits". since I was little I have counted things like stairs, steps I take, etc, I do it all day without even noticing, I also trace words that I read with my finger, I will just be sitting and see a word on tv, and will trace the letters in my mind over and over again until It feels right, It doesn't bother me, I have always done it. I tend to obsess over things too.


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## pancake (Nov 26, 2009)

Obligatory wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive%E2%80%93compulsive_disorder

This is something I came across regarding treatment of violent obsessive thoughts. You wouldn't believe the shit this guy is getting his patients to do!
http://westsuffolkpsych.homestead.com/Violent_Obsessions.html


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## Rogue Bullies (Jun 1, 2010)

I would say that maybe I am just a perfectionist. Little things to tend to bother me like if I just cleaned and there is a spot on the floor it will bug me until I wipe it up. I also do the thing where I check my email over and over on the phone when I am bored or read back through my text messages. For me everything has to be just right or it will bug me. I have to spell things right when I am writing and use proper punctuation or it will bug me. Even if I see someone else doing something wrong or not *my way* it will bug me.

Does this mean I have it LOL? I don't see how its a big issue really I just like things done a certain way. I wouldn't say it gives me anxiety it just bugs me sometimes. Sometimes I think about things over and over like yesterday I got into a small disagreement with a friend and I thought about it all last night and today and its been bugging me.


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## Guest (Jun 25, 2010)

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/obsessive-compulsive-disorder/ds00189

_*Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is very serious. It is an illness. There are huge misconceptions that "well aren't all of us a little OCD." NO. This would be like saying to some with schizoprhenia, "Well aren't you just a tad confused today?"*_

OCD is an anxiety disorder. Individuals with OCD seem to have a "standard" pattern ... very simplistic here .... 
1. Irrational thoughts about a need to arrange pencils in a drawer in a certain way or "something bad will happen."
2. Arranges pencils to alleviate anxiety, but anxiety isn't relieved.
3. Rearranges pencils 25 times.

A fear, a compulsion to do something about it, perform a ritual to relieve the anxiety.

I will find in the NYTimes the "Voices of OCD" section where individuals speak of their illnesses.

_*OCD is NOT just about "fears of contamination" -- which may be the endless handwashing.
OCD can have many "themes."*_ Some people may drive on the street, hit a bump and think they've killed someone. They become terrified, EVERYTIME they drive, EVERYWHERE they go that they have "run someone over with their car" and go back REPEATEDLY, 20 times, to see if someone is dead in the road.

I have a friend w/OCD. Before she was treated she had what used to be called "Scrupulosity" -- one of the earliest descritpions of OCD having to do with intrusive religious thoughts. She would have extremely illogical thoughts come into her head that she had done something blasphemous. She would get terrfied, she would then feel compelled to pray, to atone for her sins. She KNEW it was illogical, but if she didn't pray, and cross herself 100 TIMES, her anxiety would get worse and worse. She also had panic and DP/DR with the panic.

Some feel their food is contaminated. First they are careful when handling food, then they might avoid certain foods, then they might start thinking all food is "poisoned" ... in some cases OCD can morph (NOT IN THE MAJORITY) into a psychosis that say, "someone is literally POISONING the food."

Hoarder clutters (my father was one, though he was a surgeon) have very complex reasons for fears of throwing things out. He literally lived in such filth and squalor it was incomprehensible.

I can only repeat ... OCD is very serious. For some it is less limiting, for others it can keep one home bound. There is also some association with the development of OCD in children after a bout with a certain type of strep throat. PANDAS.

Let me see if I can find "the voices of OCD."

Anything that seriously disrupts social or occupational functioning is a DISORDER. This is not something minor. It is an illness. Everything is on a spectrum.
A sneeze on one end .... pneumonia on the other. (Poor example, but at any rate.)


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## Guest (Jun 25, 2010)

This is a MUST WATCH if you want to hear of the pain of having OCD. This is not something small. If something is literally destroying your life, it is an illness.
These are brief 2 minute videos on individuals with OCD, different kinds. Please take the time to watch this. Very brief. Voices of the individuals, photos, etc.

From The New York Times -- 2009
The health section there by Tara Parker Pope is excellent re: finding these ... "the voices of M.S., or of bipolar, or of cancer, etc." REAL PEOPLE, REAL STORIES.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/the-voices-of-ocd/

_*"A person with obsessive-compulsive disorder, or O.C.D., is plagued by recurrent, unwanted thoughts and repetitive behaviors like hand-washing or counting. The first symptoms usually occur in childhood, and O.C.D. is said to afflict more than two million adults in the United States, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.*_

This week, the Patient Voices series by New York Times producer Karen Barrow focuses on six men and women with O.C.D.

Jared Kant, 26, of Boston, said the anxiety of O.C.D. often doesn't make sense to those who witness it.

"That's the torture of the disorder," Mr. Kant says. "You're totally cognizant that the things that you're afraid of are not rational. But the fact that they're not rational, that you know they're not rational, doesn't make them any less terrifying."

Listen to more Voices of O.C.D., including a man who didn't realize he had the condition until he was 50 and a high school student who battles his own "O.C.D. bully." "

Also for more information on all Mental Illnesses go to http://www.nami.org National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI

------------------
And when I was a child I had some "minor OCD" which came and went, and I still have it to a minor degree, though I do NOT have a diagnosis of OCD.
In school as a young girl, say 3-6th grade" ... I had a degree of a need for perfection. But it was very self destructive. I would have to write a paper for school, say 5 pages long. No big deal. I am intelligent. I can write. So I'd start on a fresh clean piece of writing paper with a set of neatly sharpened pencils. I would start writing the paper from very neatly organized note cards. If I got all the way to the bottom of a DRAFT of the paper and misspelled a word, I COULD NOT ERASE THE WORD OR CROSS IT OUT, I HAD TO START ALL OVER FROM THE BEGINNING AND COPY THE DRAFT UP TO THAT POINT. Sometimes I would start over and over and over, and not even get the paper written. My grades throughout school were all over the place because of this. I have GAD, clinical depression, chronic DP/DR. I had some brief OC perfectionistic traits like this .... these days, I get them sometimes, and have to tell myself to STOP, it is useless to do these things. I'm now 51 and this is the least of my concerns.

My anxiety, DP/DR remain serious, but with meds, time, therapy ... things are better in many ways. This also happened with studying, taking tests for years. Having to be certain I got EVERYTHING correct or the entire test was not worth taking. So I'd get an F when I could have gotten a B. More OC Personality than OCDISORDER.

This has to do with QUALITY OF LIFE.


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## Kayla (Jun 24, 2010)

OCD is almost a way for someone to try and conquer their lives and their bodies. By following guidelines that they've set themselves, we think we can get a grasp on everything else. It can be debilitating, but I think almost everyone has it in one form or another, because we're all trying to strive towards our ideal life.


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## ZachT (Sep 8, 2008)

I used to have really bad OCD. I used to wash my hands all the time because i was afraid of germs. I still count letters until they add up to a certain number.

Some people have cases that require a lot of meds to treat it. 
My OCD i believe is caused by anxiety.

-Zach


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## Guest (Jun 25, 2010)

Kayla said:


> OCD is almost a way for someone to try and conquer their lives and their bodies. By following guidelines that they've set themselves, we think we can get a grasp on everything else. It can be debilitating, but I think almost everyone has it in one form or another, because we're all trying to strive towards our ideal life.


*Kayla, I beg you to read about OCD and to listen to what individuals have to go through. It is a MEDICAL/NEUROLOGICAL disorder. Brain scans and other tests have proven this, as we know schizophrenia, bipolar, clinical depressioin ... all are MEDICAL.

You MUST read about it, listen to the individuals who suffer from it. Have you even listened to the personal descriptions? For my friend, she suffered greatly until she was treated. She is not "cured", but is 1,000 times more functional and HAPPY than she was 20 years ago when she refused to see a psychiatrist.*

It can destroy peoples' lives.

This is not striving towards an "ideal life" -- this stands in the way of a productive life. Individuals have committed suicide over having OCD

There is a degree of a need to control our lives, yes. But there is PATHOLOGY. If you think about it, all mental illness is to a degree an exaggeration of normal behaviors..


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## Kayla (Jun 24, 2010)

Dreamer* said:


> *Kayla, I beg you to read about OCD and to listen to what individuals have to go through. It is a MEDICAL/NEUROLOGICAL disorder. Brain scans and other tests have proven this, as we know schizophrenia, bipolar, clinical depressioin ... all are MEDICAL.
> 
> You MUST read about it, listen to the individuals who suffer from it. Have you even listened to the personal descriptions? For my friend, she suffered greatly until she was treated. She is not "cured", but is 1,000 times more functional and HAPPY than she was 20 years ago when she refused to see a psychiatrist.*
> 
> ...


I guess I was talking about my own experience with OCD.


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## DiscoStick (Dec 13, 2009)

When people say "Oh I'm a bit OCD about cleaning my house", they're lying.

It's a term which is misused a lot.

OCD carries obsessions and compulsions.
Someone might believe that they have to do everything three times or else something really really bad might happen. The latter part of that sentence is the obsession. OCD isn't just rituals for shits.


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## Kayla (Jun 24, 2010)

DiscoStick said:


> When people say "Oh I'm a bit OCD about cleaning my house", they're lying.
> 
> It's a term which is misused a lot.
> 
> ...


Yeah my OCD has a lot to do with what I'm thinking. I think that if I think one thing it will cause something to happen, so I will have to do something to stop it from happening. Also everything has to feel right. If I touch a doorknob and it didn't feel right, I have to keep doing it till it feels right. I also have major problems when something is not QUITE right. Like a piece of hair in someones face. Or the distance between something isn't... um... right. I purposely put things out of order to get over it. Counting things. Doing things with a certain pattern, in a certain way. I mean, it's just part of who I am now. So I guess I talk about it so offhandedly because it really doesn't bother me anymore. When I was younger, things were different. I basically let OCD control me. Haha, I would even go so far that when I cut myself, the lines would have to be perfect and there would have to be a certain number (3 or 6). I mean, it used to be part of every aspect of my life. I used to burn my hands because I'd wash them too long under steaming hot water. I had to be in control of everything, or else everything (I thought) would go out of control.

OCD for me has always been a way to cope with the chaos of life. If I keep everything in a certain way then everything in my life will be a certain way.

Now it's a lot more mild. I purposely go out of my way to do things that mess with my head, just so I won't fall into that hole again. I mean, I'm not completely normal, I still struggle with my thoughts, I still do things in a pattern, I still have to roll over a certain amount of time in bed in order to fall asleep. One of my most ongoing OCD problems is my hoarding. I obsessively collect stuff. But, you know, when push comes to shove, you just have to have the upper hand.

I didn't mean to undermine OCD.


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## hanniballexster (Jun 13, 2010)

Rogue Bullies said:


> I don't really understand this and why exactly its a medical condition. How would one know if they have it and what really are the symptoms? I mean doesn't everyone like things a certain way or to do things in a certain order? I tried looking it up and couldn't find anything good on it that really explained it to me. I wonder if I possibly have this and just don't know it or understand it enough?
> 
> Example someone online said they OCD about having a clean house. What is so bad about that I? So what you want your house clean I don't get how that's a medical condition so I apparently am not understanding.


Hi,

There is OCD and OCPD- they differ- one is an anxiety disorder which causes people great distress. Another, OCPD, is a personality disorder that mimics some aspects of OCD (the anxiety disorder), but unlike OCD, people with OCPD _prefer_ to do things a certain way and might think their way of doing things is "superior" to others (such as the way they clean/organize is superior to others and they may be perfectionists but not see anything wrong or abnormal in their behavior- people with OCPD tend to be highly critical of others and might refer to people who are normal as "slobs", "slovenly", "lazy", etc simply because those people aren't as neurotic on them- on the other had *people with OCD KNOW THEIR BEHAVIOR IS INAPROPRIATE BUT FEEL GREAT DISTRESS IF THEY DO NOT COMPLETE THEIR COMPULSION*).

People with OCD have an obsession (or obsessions) that haunt and torment them. They can't get the obsession/s to leave them alone so they develop a compulsion or compulsions to deal with it, which brings them momentary relief- because it is momentary, the compulsion is repeated over and over. Between the stress and worry of both the obsessions and the compulsions, a lot of anxiety is generated, a lot of time is wasted, etc...

Have you see the movie "Phoebe in Wonderland" with Elle Fanning? According to the movie, the little girl (Phobe, played by Elle Fanning) has Tourette's syndrome but she also has OCD traits (at the very least, if not full blown OCD)... her OCD might be a response to her Tourette's 9she blurts things out, and then, in a magical thinking sort of way, she does things like stepping and clapping a certain number of times or washing her hands a certain number of times to "prevent" herself from acting on her tourette outbursts- which she can't control. I recommend Phoebe in Wonderland- she DOES have tourette's but also MANY OCD symptoms.

Another example of a movie with an OCD character is "AS Good as it Gets" with jack Nicholson- his character, Melvin, uses a new bar of soap each time he washes his hands (he's a germophobe), has the compulsion to step over cracks to deal with his obsessions (he can't step on city cracks), etc...

Some common OCD Obsessions (they become obsessions when they interact with daily functioning and exceed rational, normal fears- for instance, if you are pricked by a needle if you're a nurse working in a hospital, its reasonable to be worried about possibly contracting something- if you are afraid to leave the house because you fear you might get some new killer virus, or you can only leave your house with a gasmask, etc... that's not very "reasonable")...

I have OCD (and some other psych disorder- I also have DR but it is a symptom, not a diagnosis in my case, possibly related to my OCD- the obsessions and compulsions I've put in bold are ones I, personally, suffer from). Thanks for reading.

*Some Common OCD obsessions*

Fears of Contamination by...

Bodily Fluids (ie: urine, feces, vomit, etc)
Germs/Disease/Viruses (ie: Hepatitis, HIV, flesh eating disease, etc)
Environmental Toxins (ie: radiation, asbestos, lead, etc..)
Household chemicals (ie: solvents, cleaners, etc...)
Dirt
*Other contaminants not listed above*.

Unwanted Sexual Thoughts

Forbidden or perverse sexual thoughts or images
Forbidden or perverse sexual impulses about others
Obsessions about Homosexuality
UNWANTED Sexual Obsessions involving pedophilia or incest that cause the sufferer great distress
Obsessions against aggressive sexual acts towards others (rape, etc...)

Losing Control

*Fear of acting on an impulse to harm one's self*
*fear of acting on an impulse to harm others, including animals/pets*
*Fear of violent or horrific images in one's mind (and what those images signify about oneself)*
*fear of blurting out obsceneties, threats or insults...*
*fear of stealing things or commiting other crimes.*

Religious Obsessions (Scrupulosity)

*Concern with offending God or concern with blasphemy*
*Exccessive concern with right/wrong or morality*

Harm

*Fear of being responsible for something terrible happening *(ie: a fire by not being careful enough, a burglarly, etc...)
fear of harming others by not being careful enough (ie: dropping something on the ground that might cause someone to fall and slip, etc...

Obsessions Relating to Perfectionism (most people with OCPD have obsessive traits linked to Perfectionism, but so do OCD sufferers- the difference is that people with OCPD feel that they are right and they aren't distressed, and people with OCD know that they are behaving irrationally...)

*Concern about evenness or exactness*
*Concern with a need to know or remember*
fear of losing or forgetting important information when throwing something out
Inability to decide whether to keep or discard things
fear of losing things
*Fear of not being smart enough, perfect enough, not doing well on a test, failure in general*....

Other Obsessions

*Concern with getting a physical illness or disease (usally a specific illness or disease, unrealted to germs or contamination (ie: cancer, heart disease, etc)*
*Pervasive fear of death or having an accident and dying, etc...*
Superstitious ideas about lucky/unlucky colors, superstitions, magical thinking, etc...
other obsessions not listed here (there are many, many more, these are just some of the more common ones)

Some Common Compulsions (the obsession is the fear, the compulsion is what the person does to try and get rid of the fear- but because the fear is irrational, the compulsions never end, and it becomes a never ending cycle of obsession followed by compulsive act...)

Washing and Cleaning

Washing hands excessively (sometimes for hours a day) or in a certain way/certain number of times, etc...
Excessive showering, bathing, tooth-brushing, grooming...
Cleaning household objects or other items excessively
*Doing other things to prevent or remove contact with contaminants*
Note: Some of the effects of washing and cleaning rituals can cause physical damage to the sufferer- they can wash or scrub parts of their bodies till they are cracked raw and bleeding, for instance, *take baths that are way too hot*, clean themselves with things like bleach to kill contaminats, etc... This is not always the cause, but it does happen (inadvertant injury to self through excessive cleaning)

Checking

*Checking that you did not/will not harm others (this can include isolating oneself so they CAN'T harm others, etc)*
*Checking that you did not/will not harm yourself* (some people will get rid of almost anything they could potentially harm themselves with, others *refuse to go anywhere high for fear of jumping off*, etc)
Checking that nothing terrible happened
*Checking that you did not make a mistake *(on a test, or in some other way- checking often means checking more than once- often people have a set number of times they will check, or they will check until they "feel" they've checked enough
Checking some parts of your physical body for wounds, disease, etc...
*Excessive trips to the doctor to check for diseases, contamination, etc*..

Mental Compulsions

*mental review of events to prevent harm (to oneself, others, to prevent terrible consequences)*
Praying excessively to prevent harm (to onself, others, etc)
Counting while performing a task to end on a "good", "safe", or "right" number...
*Cancelling or Undoing (ie: replacing a "bad" word with a" good" word to cancel it out)*

Note: Many mental compulsions are the least obvious of all the compulsions in OCD and for this reason people who have obsessions that are not visually obvious and have mental compulsions may go years- or their entire lives- without being diagnosed... especially if their obsessions are ones they are shamed about (unanted sexual thoughts, fear of harming self or others) etc...

Repeating

*Rereading or Rewriting (to make sure something is "perfect", that you fully understand, that you won't forget, etc...)*
Repeating routine activites (going in and out of doors a certain number of times, getting up and down from chairs, etc...)
repeating body movements (for instance, tapping, touching, blinking, etc...)
repeating activities (for instance, doing a task 3 times because 3 is a "safe" number)

Other Compulsions

Obsessively collecting items which result in significant clutter (also called hoarding)- usually stemming from the fear that one might some day need said item/s
*Putting things in order or arranging things until it "feels right"*
*Telling, asking or confessing thoughts, fears, etc to get reassurance from an external source...*
*Avoiding situations that might trigger your obsessions *(ie: avoiding busses if you are phobic of germs, flea markets if you hoarde, etc...)
*Correcting other people if you feel they have made a mistake, not being able to let a mistake "go"...*
*Compulsive list-making, chart-making, etc...*

Note: This is _DEFINATELY_ not a complete list of obsessions and compulsions seen in OCD, just some of the more common ones.

If you have any more questions, please ask.


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