Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

What is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and who actually has it? You would actually be surprised at how many people have this disorder. It is very common among young adults and teenagers. The essential features of OCD are recurrent obsessions or compulsions that are severe enough to be time consuming (they take more than one hour a day) or cause marked distress or significant impairment (First & Tasman, 2004). Also known to be an Anxiety Disorder. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder has a lot of effects on the patient and everyone around. You become outnumbered when you realize that you have a disorder and you are recognized as "different".

Obsessions and compulsions are both different features and combining them together make every move time consuming. Obsessions are persistent ideas, thought, impulses, or images that are experienced as intrusive and inappropriate and that cause marked distress or anxiety (First & Tasman, 2004). Everyone has his or her own obsessions. For example, some people hate having a dirty house so they are constantly cleaning and making sure everything is in its own place. Others have an obsession with laundry. They cannot stand to see dirty laundry anywhere. Then there are the others that have obsessions with counting things and repeating certain motions. That is where the line gets drawn between normal and abnormal. People with the disorder express their obsessions by having repeated thoughts about contamination, doubts, and organizing objects (First & Tasman, 2004). The thoughts and impulses that a patient has are not about major real life problems even though they make them out to be that way.

On the other hand, compulsions are repetitive behaviors. For instance, a person without the disorder will wash their hands when necessary, ones with the disorder will wash their hands repeatedly a number of times possibly more than enough times until they are raw and bleeding. Also, another well-known behavior is checking. That is when a patient will constantly go back and keep checking to make sure they locked the door or turned off an appliance. It takes up a good amount of time until they are sure enough that everything is secure and they feel confident enough to leave (First & Tasman, 2004). To others it gets frustrating, because you are trying to spend time with this person that has OCD and you both can never get anything done. It takes up too much time. The obsessions and compulsions significantly interfere with the individuals' normal routine, occupational functioning, or social activities with others (First & Tasman, 2004).

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder causes stress on everyone around and the patient. The one with the disorder may become stressed when they are trying to stop their rituals or control their behavior and no one is there to guide them. For instance if one is trying so hard not to keep checking the door to see if it is locked and they need the other person to check it for them and they are not around, the patient may start to become depressed because they are trying to control their behavior but they can not do so alone. The only way for the compulsions and obsessions to stop is for the person with the disorder to seek for help from a psychologist or for that matter any M.D.

A very common question is: How do you get OCD? The concordance rate for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is higher for monozygotic twins than it is for dizygotic twins. The rate of OCD in first-degree biological relatives of individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder and in first-degree biological relatives of individuals with Tourette's Disorder is higher than that in the general population (First & Tasman 2004). Some individuals with the disorder may not notice at first that they have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. It usually begins in adolescence or in early adulthood, and it is most likely that it occurs earlier in males than in females (First and Tasman, 2004). If OCD is left untreated when in adolescence years it tends to persist into adulthood and is associated with long-term negative outcomes, such as socially avoidant behaviors and reduced social functioning (Thomsen, 1994).

Children who have Obsessive-Compulsive disorder are similar to the adults that have it. Washing, checking and ordering rituals are particularly common in children. Generally, they do not request help and the systems may not be ego-diatonic. Children never notice that they have OCD. It is most likely that the parent will identify the disorder. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in children may be associated with beta hemolytic streptococcal infection. Unlike children with OCD, adults tend to show obsessions concerning morality and washing rituals compared with other types of symptoms (First & Tasman, 2004)

According to Rapoport, his theory along with others is that OCD symptoms reflect the dysfunction of a special security-motivation system. Referring to behaviors (cleaning and checking) as characteristics of OCD. They also point out that one phenomenon can be present without the other. Suggesting that there may be separate neural circuitries for obsessions and compulsions (Taylor, 2005). The main focus is on Compulsions and whether or not they are the cause or result of obsessions. After research was done, the outcome was that there are cases of compulsions without obsessions. So therefore it indicates that compulsions are not always in response to obsessions (Taylor, 2005).

The case of Lady Macbeth displays an adolescent girl with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. She has both obsessions and compulsions and both are a significant source of distress to her and interfere with her functioning. Her obsessions were that she had the idea that maybe she did something that could cause her grandmother to become sick. Also, she always thought that she had germs on her clothes. So she would stand there and shake them for half an hour. Washing was also a big deal. Macbeth would wash her hands before she did anything. Then when washing was not good enough she moved to rubbing alcohol and her hands would start to bleed. When you add it all up, it took her six hours to get ready each day (Spitzer, 2002).

Lady Macbeth sought

help and she is now much better. Her family was very fortunate that she spoke about her problem because so often children suffer with OCD in silence. They hold back from talking about obsessions and compulsions with their therapists (Berg et al.1989). In Macbeth's case her family was very neat and clean so that was very intriguing. Psychiatrists also look at family history. That would include Tourette's disorder, motor tics, and Bipolar Disorder and rheumatic fever-related Sydenham's chorea (Rapoport, 2002). Lady Macbeth had several choices of treatment, which consisted of drug, or non-drug treatments for