You’ve Probably Gotten OCD Wrong
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition in which one experiences powerful intrusive thoughts that induces feelings of discomfort, anxiety, and urges to do something to get rid of the thoughts and sensations.
These urges then become actions that are done repetitively until the person gets rid of the uncomfortable feeling that they have. These actions are called compulsions.
“Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or mental acts that a person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession. The behaviors are aimed at preventing or reducing distress or a feared situation.” — American Psychiatric Association
They can come in the form of performing a behavioral action repetitively or in the form of mental acts. These compulsions are what fuels the obsession of the thoughts that one experiences.
The obsessive thoughts then create the need to perform the compulsion that one must do to alleviate the anxiety and discomfort that comes with the thoughts; this, in turn, creates a vicious cycle.
Some OCD suffers tend to feel a lot of guilt and embarrassment due to their inability to function as normal people would.
Most people think that OCD is used to describe someone who is a clean freak or someone who is super tidy or even a perfectionist but that is not true about people with OCD.
My goal for this article is to spread awareness about OCD, clear up some misconception about this chronic debilitating disorder and to also share some of my experiences with it, as well as ways in which you can overcome it.
Disclaimer: I’m not a psychiatrist and in no way an expert in the field of OCD and mental health problems; I’m merely sharing my experiences and opinions about OCD.
My experience with OCD
I struggled with OCD ever since I was 14 years old. At that time I didn’t know what it was and I just kept thinking to myself that there must be something wrong with me.
The feelings I get from intrusive thoughts were usually overwhelming and my compulsion for the intrusive thoughts often felt endless as the thoughts kept recurring; keeping me stuck in the OCD cycle.
It would get to a point where I would sometimes take up to an hour to just perform compulsions.
I remembered one time I experienced an intrusive thought while showering and it made me wash my hair, rinse it off only to put on shampoo again; doing the whole entire thing again multiple times until I felt it was okay.
That was actually the longest I’ve ever showered and I remembered feeling super ashamed, sad, and lost as to why I did that.
There was another time I caught myself with the compulsion of erasing what I’ve written on my school worksheet many times until my paper tore apart. My best friend who witnessed that at that time actually asked me why I did what I did and I would feel so embarrassed that I wouldn’t even know how to respond to him. I ended up giving some excuses as to why I did that…
It was only in recent years after entering Polytechnic where I eventually found out what it really was.
It was then and there where I started my research on what I was experiencing throughout these years. And I found out that the thoughts I had were called intrusive thoughts.
According to a blog post “Intrusive thoughts are thoughts that enter your consciousness, often without warning or prompting, with content that is alarming, disturbing, or just flat-out weird.” — Courtney Ackerman in Positive Psychology.com
It was through the understanding of what intrusive thoughts were that led to my discovery of what my actual condition is. Although I am not clinically diagnosed with OCD but I did have the signs and symptoms of it based on the search results I found on the internet. And I had further confirmation of it when I took an online quiz.
NOTE: An online quiz is not a diagnosis for one’s mental health condition and shouldn’t be treated as one; however it can be a form of indication to determine whether one has the signs and symptoms of a mental health condition. A proper diagnosis should still be given by a psychiatrist.
Over the years, my OCD definitely got better, I even had one period in time where I actually experienced so little intrusive thoughts that I felt I was on the verge of recovering from it fully but sadly my OCD did come back and in the recent months it did become quite bad at one point; however, I’ve managed to get it under control.
The common misconceptions of OCD
3 MOST common misconceptions about OCD are:
- People who experience OCD are germophobes
- People who experience OCD are super neat and tidy
- People who experience OCD are perfectionist
NO, that is not true at all.
Well some people with OCD do experience germophobia; there’s still a majority of people with OCD who are not germophobic and experience a whole different level of stresses and anxieties that comes from their form of intrusive thoughts.
Yes to a certain extent, some people who are OCD do obsess over being neat and tidy but those acts and behaviors are usually in the form of compulsions. And I strongly believe that they do not find pleasure in doing so.
People who are perfectionists are not OCD. Perfectionists are people who are high-achievers and can never see themselves falling short of their own expectations. They do not stress over intrusive thoughts and it doesn’t bother them either.
However, one who experiences perfectionism may also have OCD. Therefore it is always important to go to a psychiatrist if you do suspect you may have OCD and clarify any doubts in relation to that.
How OCD can be treated?
There are several ways in which OCD can be treated. However, the most popular and effective form of treatment is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy. It is a kind of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) specifically designed to treat people with OCD.
As said by an OCD expert, Elizabeth McIngvale in an interview, “Exposure with response prevention is the most effective and the gold standard for first-line treatment for OCD. It has a 75 to 85 percent efficacy rate, which makes it one of the most effective mental health treatments available.” —Elizabeth McIngvale, Ph.D. in Texas Medical Centre
Medications are also sometimes used in conjunction with ERP to aid them in the treatment of OCD. They are usually in the form of antidepressants known as Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) and they include: Citalopram, Fluvoxamine, Fluoxetine, Sertraline and Escitalopram, etc.
These medications help patients cope with the OCD by making the effects of the anxieties felt during OCD less intense, as described by a blog post from OCD-UK. However just like any other form of medication; it is important to find out its side effects and seek recommendations from a doctor before taking it.
Patients who have severe OCD would tend to undergo medication alongside ERP therapy whereas patients with mild OCD tend to just undergo ERP therapy without the medication, according to a blog post in MyHealth.Alberta.ca.
Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is also another type of treatment for OCD and it is used only when all other treatment types fail to provide success in getting better from OCD.
As stated by Professor Barbara Sahakian from the University of Cambriage, “While DBS is only used when medication and specific psychological treatments have been tried and failed, for some patients it may provide them with the opportunity to regain well-being and quality of life,” — According to a study conducted by the University of Cambridge, University of London and several UK Centers.
Tips on how to deal with OCD
- Delay the need to do a compulsion
When you delay the need to do a compulsion, sometimes what happens is your brain either forgets about the compulsion you needed to do or it reduces the urge for you to do it and you may even find yourself not wanting to do the compulsion at all.
- Limit the compulsions you do
Limiting the compulsions you do allows your mind to slowly get used to the existence of the intrusive thoughts in your mind while learning to embrace those uncomfortable feelings that come with those thoughts.
This is usually a way to transition slowly into doing ERP therapy and it’s also a way to help you be more focused in other areas of your life throughout your day; not letting OCD get in the way of your normal life.
- Try to keep calm when your intrusive thoughts pop into your head
Keeping calm is the best way to keep anxiety at its bay and prevent it from escalating. Although you may still feel the discomfort from the intrusive thoughts but keeping calm allows you to reduce the fight or flight response by sending signals to your brain telling you that you are safe.
One of the ways I keep calm is by taking deep breaths and focusing on my own breathing. That helps to shift my focus to my breaths which serves as a distraction to my OCD thoughts.
When we are calm, we see things with more clarity and we allow ourselves to rationalize better. Thus, sometimes decreasing the need to do compulsions.
Those are the tips that I have been using for myself to deal with my OCD; it may not be the best way or effective as a long term strategy to recover from OCD but it can progressively help you build up the courage to take the first step of treatment in ERP.
ERP is the most ideal form of treatment for anyone who has OCD. It allows you to face your fears directly, while not doing any compulsions at all, which may seem daunting but it will ultimately make the intrusive thoughts you experience less and less scary till they don’t matter at all.
“Exposure Response Prevention, commonly referred to as ERP, is a therapy that encourages you to face your fears and let obsessive thoughts occur without ‘putting them right’ or ‘neutralising’ them with compulsions.” — OCD-UK
Conclusion
What I’ve realized over the years is that OCD will always be a part of you, it will not go away. There will be periods whereby you don’t experience OCD at all and there may be times where it will come back again.
Whatever it is don’t let that define the kind of person you are.
We shouldn’t fight to get rid of OCD but instead, welcome it and allow it to be part of your life.
I remembered coming across an analogy describing how intrusive thoughts are like ugly buildings. When you see one in a city and dislike it, you don’t just go destroying that building, tearing it down to pieces. Likewise with intrusive thoughts, when you happen to come across one, you don’t go destroying it and forcefully push that thought out of your mind. We can just simply acknowledge that they exist but we can choose not to interact with them and give them the attention by seeking reassurance.
Last but not least, I hope this article clears up some of the confusion and misconception that you may have about OCD. And I do wish that this article resonates with some of you who have OCD or even any other mental health problems. Your mental well-being is just as important as your physical well-being.
Know that you are not alone and you are stronger than you can ever imagine.
Seek help from a professional if you suspect you may have the signs and symptoms of OCD and remember getting better starts by taking the very first step.
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Here are some useful resources to help you with your recovery from OCD:
