Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

This in term of humor may be called as a funny illness but overall it is very distressing illness to the patient. Patient in this illness is caught in the cycle of repetition of thoughts and acts , which is the core characteristic of the illness. Along with these patients had marked anxiety symptoms, distress and slowness in terms of finishing daily routine tasks.

It is not an uncommon illness and effects about 1-2 percent of whole population. Usually it starts in the teen age group ( 14-22 yrs ) and is equal in males and females .

Symptoms

Obsessions : repetitive thoughts

• Fearing contamination – e.g. from dirt and germs in a toilet
• Imagining doing harm – e.g. thinking that you are going to push someone in front of a train
• Intrusive sexual impulses – e.g. worrying that you will expose yourself at work
• Excessive doubts – e.g. thinking that you have cancer despite having no symptoms
• 'Forbidden' thoughts – e.g. thinking about abusing a child
• A Fear of failing to prevent harm – e.g. feeling that you are responsible for security at work.

Compulsions: repetitive acts

• Repeating actions – e.g. touching every light switch in the house five times
• Ordering or arranging – e.g. keeping food organised by colour in the fridge
• Washing – e.g. always washing hands six times with soap and six times without soap after using the toilet
• Checking – e.g. reading through an email ten times before sending it to make sure it doesn't have any mistakes in it
• Touching – e.g. only buying things in the supermarket that you have touched with both hands
• Praying – e.g. repeating a mantra again and again whenever you hear about an accident
• Focusing on a number – e.g. having to do everything three times, or buy three of every item when you are shopping.

Treatment

• Medicines are the mainstay of the treatment and usually are needed for a longer duration. Some cases become resistant and therefore require higher doses of medications and also addition of other medications.
• Non medication : Exposure and response prevention therapy