The
Facts About OCD/The "Dictionary Definition"
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a
mental disorder characterized by unusual behavior or thinking. It is
formally defined by "obsessions" and "compulsions"
where obsessions are the things a person with OCD thinks or worries
about more than a non-OCD person and "compulsions" are
actions taken by the person with OCD to relieve fears associated with
their obsessions. OCD affects about 2% of the world's population,
regardless of geographical location. While one can live with mild
OCD, moderate or severe OCD can cause difficulty functioning, and
lead to depression and anxiety.
OCD is a genetic disorder. The
possibility of OCD may or may not be passed down to a person from a
parent or grandparent who has OCD. People are not born with OCD, but
someone who has the right genes can get it at some point in their
lifetime. However, usually it happens when someone is young and
otherwise it's rare. (There is a type of OCD that happens
specifically in childhood called PANDAS and is caused by a strep
infection.) Scientists are not sure what causes someone to develop
OCD but the onset of OCD is usually related to a change in someone's
life (like moving or getting pregnant, or a stressful situation).
OCD is treated through Exposure and
Response Prevention, a method of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and/or
medication, usually in the form of SSRIs.*
* I got this information from things I researched on the internet. I didn't research scientific articles for this information. But I compiled it over time from my experience researching OCD online and the things I was told by my psychologist and my psychiatrist while I was getting help for OCD. If needed I will seek proper sources for the information posted.
How To Recognize OCD / "I feel like I might have OCD. Do I actually have it?"
A lot of people think that OCD has
everything to do with cleaning and organizing, and if you look online
you might find only the more stereotypical symptoms when common OCD
symptoms are listed. However, when trying to recognize OCD in
yourself or see if OCD is a possibility in someone you are concerned
about it's important to know that OCD is not defined by a short list
of stereotypical symptoms. You cannot look at a list of 5 different
symptoms and judge whether you have OCD based on this list. OCD can
take on a very large range of symptoms, and while unusual cleanliness
is definitely a possible symptom of OCD, a lot of possible symptoms
are ones you don't usually hear about. Some non-stereotypical
symptoms of OCD include thinking even numbers are lucky and odd
numbers are unlucky and avoiding odd floors of buildings, someone
flicking a light switch multiple times each time they turn off the
light in order to make sure someone they know won't die, or even
being a mother who has the intrusive thought of what if she wants to
hurt her own child (even if she doesn't actually).
What is OCD then? In the DSM-V, the book therapists use for diagnosing disorders, OCD is identified by the presence of obsessions or compulsions in general (there are no specific symptoms listed), that can't be attributed to another disorder (such as repetitive behavior in autism), that are either time consuming or cause distress or impairment in some aspect of functioning. If I, the writer of this blog and a person who has had OCD were to define OCD, I would even go so far as to say it's a certain feeling that separates you from other "normal" people. That feeling is present in some different actions you find yourself going back to doing every now and again that you feel like only you do. As long as you have some sort of intrusive thoughts or you do small actions like counting or ordering something or cleaning to prevent something bad, in ways that other people don't or would find illogical, and these actions or thoughts can be stressful to you, at least to the point where you'd rather not do those things, and it's difficult to control, you probably have some level of OCD.
I feel like if you're think you have OCD and are looking up symptoms online to see if you match the symptoms of OCD or are reading this webpage, in hopes to change your behavior through some sort of therapy, you probably already have OCD. If you're in an OCD support group making a post asking people whether or not your symptoms are OCD, because the strange things you're describing have been really frustrating you and you're trying to get some answers, you also probably have OCD. Undiagnosed OCD is something you kind of feel deep within your soul, even if you doubt it sometimes. You might at one point strongly believe you have a problem, especially while you're doing something again that's not normal that frustrates you and then at another time you might think it's all just silly and you have control over it... Until you inevitably do this frustrating thing again.
When to get help?
The most important thing, if you think you have OCD and it bothers you where you would like to get rid of the OCD-seeming things you do, is that you go and try to get help for it, even if you have doubts. Obviously I'm not encouraging people on this site to visit therapists for the heck of it, or for something that doesn't hurt them. This website is not for clean people who just want to be less clean and get a revamp of their life. OCD is a difficult anxiety disorder. It's about feeling anxiety and your brain forcing you to do frustrating things you don't want to do at times when you'd rather not do them. But often people who have real OCD that they need to treat because it is actually interfering with their life, are doubtful and don't get help, and it's for those people that I am making this website. If you think you might be that person it wouldn't hurt to get help, even if it turns out you don't have OCD. Even if you have very minor OCD a therapist will try to help you with it, because OCD is a treatable mental disorder and OCD tendencies are ones that can be treated, and it is the psychologist's job to treat it. You're the one paying them money.
If you see a therapist, when you step into a psychologist's office to find out if you have OCD, he or she will probably ask you to describe your symptoms and will try to judge whether or not your symptoms could take up more than an hour of your day or be stressful to you. It's unlikely your psychologist will truly doubt you have OCD. But if she does, and you STILL feel like you have this problem you desperately need to get rid of, but are afraid you won't ever find confirmation, you probably have OCD, and you should try another psychologist. I'm not saying this to undermine the judgment of smart people who have studied hard to be in the chair are sitting. But the truth about OCD treatment in this day and age is that not all psychologists know how to properly recognize and treat OCD. There are some psychologists who try talk therapy, which is not effective in treating OCD, and won't get anywhere while, there are others who will be able to treat severe OCD in a person in only a year or two. As will be described in my Treatment page of this blog, remember that to get help or a proper diagnosis for OCD you need to go to a psychologist who specializes in OCD.
Symptoms
I am still working on the Symptoms section of this page. At first, I didn't want to list specific symptoms of OCD, because it could give off the idea that OCD has a list of symptoms, instead of having infinite possible symptoms. But then I realized that the way I became sure that I had OCD was after reading for a long time about OCD symptoms online and eventually getting to see a lot of my symptoms typed out on a page. I was going to compile all symptoms listed on the first two pages of a google search for "OCD symptoms" to keep it objective but then I realized that would be too much information to read. So I want to either compile a list of as many different OCD symptoms as I can think of so that someone who is curious about whether they may have OCD can find their symptoms, or find a website that has a long list of possible OCD symptoms and have a link to that site on this page.