Expert Tips for Understanding OCD, and How to Treat It
Unravel the complexities of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) with expert insights. Discover the nuances of this mental health condition and explore effective treatment strategies to regain control and improve quality of life.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Obsessions are intrusive, unwanted, relentless thoughts or urges that can cause fear, guilt, distress, or disgust.
- The disorder can come on at any time, though it frequently occurs after a traumatic or stressful event and tends to hit in the ******* years or in early adulthood.
- A number of genes have been linked to the disorder, so you can inherit a predisposition for OCD.
Overcoming Fears
The first step to overcoming OCD is finding a specialist who knows how to treat it. The most effective treatment for the disorder is exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP).
- In ERP, a therapist helps you expose yourself to the situations, thoughts, or images that make you anxious-without performing your usual compulsions afterward.
- Most sufferers experience a significant reduction in their symptoms after 12 to 16 sessions.
On Repeat
OCD isn’t about cleanliness, it’s about unwanted thoughts
- Obsessions include everything from worry that you left the stove on to fears that you might kill someone you love
- Common obsessions include perverse sexual thoughts, fear of blurting out an obscenity, concern with offending God, and superstitions about colors or numbers
- Compulsions are intended to counteract the obsessions and calm the distress
- Because compulsions offer temporary relief, they reinforce and strengthen OCD
The Role of Uncertainty
Just as your genes can make you vulnerable to OCD, so can your brain structure.
- While the fear-scanning circuit of the brain is hypervigilant, the regions that provide a sense of satisfaction after a task is finished are tamped down.
- As a result, people with OCD don’t experience a feeling of completion when they wash their hands or check to make sure the stove is off.
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