Experts aren't sure of the exact cause of OCD. Genetics, brain abnormalities, and the environment are thought to play a role. It often starts in the teens or early adulthood. But, it can also start in childhood.
OCD typically begins in adolescence, but may start in early adulthood or childhood. The onset of OCD is typically gradual, but in some cases it may start suddenly. Symptoms fluctuate in severity from time to time, and this fluctuation may be related to the occurrence of stressful events.
Ongoing anxiety or stress, or being part of a stressful event like a car accident or starting a new job, could trigger OCD or make it worse. Pregnancy or giving birth can sometimes trigger perinatal OCD.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a serious psychiatric disorder that affects approximately 2% of the populations of children and adults. Family aggregation studies have demonstrated that OCD is familial, and results from twin studies demonstrate that the familiality is due in part to genetic factors.
OCD can start at any time from preschool to adulthood. Although OCD does occur at earlier ages, there are generally two age ranges when OCD first appears: Between ages 10 and 12 and between the late teens and early adulthood. It typically starts between 18 and 25 but can begin anytime.
Obsessive-compulsive symptoms generally wax and wane over time. Because of this, many individuals diagnosed with OCD may suspect that their OCD comes and goes or even goes away—only to return. However, as mentioned above, obsessive-compulsive traits never truly go away. Instead, they require ongoing management.
In OCD the first step is to recognize the feeling that leads to worsening obsessions or compulsions, explained Dr. Allende. “Anxiety can easily lead to an OCD, episode therefore a person can learn to recognize when they are anxious and use coping skills for the anxiety.
The onset of OCD is not limited to the original meaning of trauma; rather, traumatic experiences such as unexpected exposure to contaminants or various stressful life events often cause the onset of OCD.
Individuals with OCD often have certain chemical imbalances present in the brain. Changes in the neurochemicals serotonin, dopamine, and glutamate are normally present in OCD cases.
Age at Onset
OCD usually begins before age 25 years and often in childhood or adolescence. In individuals seeking treatment, the mean age of onset appears to be somewhat earlier in men than women.
OCD is a common disorder that affects adults, adolescents, and children all over the world. Most people are diagnosed by about age 19, typically with an earlier age of onset in boys than in girls, but onset after age 35 does happen.
OCD has peaks of onset at two different life phases: pre-adolescence and early adulthood. Around the ages of 10 to 12 years, the first peak of OCD cases occur. This time frequently coincides with increasing school and performance pressures, in addition to biologic changes of brain and body that accompany puberty.
OCD may be more common among males in childhood, but is more common among females in adolescence and adulthood. Males tend to report an earlier age of onset and present with symptoms related to blasphemous thoughts.
PARENTING. As previously indicated, there is no evidence that the way parents guide or discipline their children causes OCD. Parents should not be blamed when a child exhibits symptoms of this disorder. FAMILY ACCOMMODATIONS.
Results: Emotional abuse, sexual abuse and neglect were highly prevalent in our sample. Additionally, the severity of experienced childhood maltreatment was associated with higher OCD symptom severity, with the strongest association found for emotional abuse.
Imaging, surgical, and lesion studies suggest that the prefrontal cortex (orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortexes), basal ganglia, and thalamus are involved in the pathogenesis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
If you have OCD, you'll usually experience frequent obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours. An obsession is an unwanted and unpleasant thought, image or urge that repeatedly enters your mind, causing feelings of anxiety, disgust or unease.
Signs and symptoms of OCD
Obsessive thoughts: These obsession symptoms typically intrude other thoughts when you're trying to do or think about other things and may include: Fear of being contaminated by germs or dirt. Intrusive sexually explicit or violent thoughts. Fear of having a serious illness.
If you have a habit of washing your hands or rubbing sanitizer multiple times in a day, then it is worrisome. The urge to keep yourself clean due to fear of germs and bacteria can be a sign of OCD.
A person with an anxiety disorder will experience excessive worry, but not engage in compulsive behavior to reduce their anxiety. A person with OCD, however, will use repetitive, typically unhelpful behaviors to try and thwart the obsessive thought they have.
This also holds true for OCD as it is known that stressful events may precede the onset of OCD (Toro et al., 1992) and that, in addition, OCD symptoms increase at times of stress (Findley et al., 2003).