Many people think of OCD as just having the somewhat excessive need to be orderly, clean and organized. While there is some validity to this, and some people with OCD are concerned with these things, some are actually unorganized and unorderly – it doesn't look exactly the same for everyone.
OCD often fixates around one or more themes. Some of the most common themes are contamination, harm, checking and perfection. People with OCD can have more than one subtype, and their subtype can change over time.
In movies and on TV, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is usually portrayed as perfectionism or germophobia. People also tend to think of it as an odd or frustrating personality quirk. But OCD is actually a debilitating and usually chronic psychiatric disorder.
Jill Fenske, M.D. explains in Physician's Weekly, OCD is so often underdiagnosed and undertreated not only because people with OCD are often secretive about their symptoms, but also because “a lack of recognition of OCD symptoms by physicians often leads to a long delay in diagnosis and treatment.”
If you have OCD, you don't have to disclose your condition to anyone, even family members. It's your experience, your life. But if you have people in your life you trust and know to love and support you, letting them in, even just partially in, can have a positive ripple effect on everyone involved.
OCD is chronic
You can get it under control and become recovered but, at the present time, there is no cure. It is a potential that will always be there in the background, even if it is no longer affecting your life.
Many people with OCD know or suspect their obsessional thoughts are not realistic; others may think they could be true. Even if they know their intrusive thoughts are not realistic, people with OCD have difficulty disengaging from the obsessive thoughts or stopping the compulsive actions.
As a rule of thumb, if you haven't been diagnosed with a condition, don't use it to refer to yourself. “OCD is not an adjective or a quirk, so let's all stop using it as one.” Sufferers of OCD wish that OCD was quirky and cute, because the reality is a debilitating disorder.
OCD attacks the very things that we value and care the most about. It attacks the core of our identities. That's what makes it so compelling. People who do not live with OCD can have the very same thoughts, images, and urges, and yet they are mostly unphased by them.
Presentation. Primarily obsessional OCD has been called "one of the most distressing and challenging forms of OCD."
Harm OCD. This subtype of OCD involves intrusive thoughts of harming others or committing some sort of violent act. Someone who suffers from these types of thoughts experiences significant distress, because thoughts of harming others are inconsistent with their values and who they are.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common, chronic, and long-lasting disorder in which a person has uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts ("obsessions") and/or behaviors ("compulsions") that he or she feels the urge to repeat over and over.
While both mental health conditions involve repetitive worrying, people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often engage in unwanted and repetitive behavior in response to their worry. People with anxiety, however, tend to overthink their worry, but don't act in specific responsive manners.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has two main parts: obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are unwelcome thoughts, images, urges, worries or doubts that repeatedly appear in your mind. They can make you feel very anxious (although some people describe it as 'mental discomfort' rather than anxiety).
Another nickname for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is the “Bully.” OCD get's this nickname because it is just like a bully in middle, or high school. If we don't do what the bully says, we get threatened, harassed, and beat up, therefore, we give in. With time, the bully grows stronger and we grow weaker.
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) sound the same, and are often confused and mistakenly interchanged as being the same illness, but not withstanding similar names, they are in fact two separate conditions.
around 3 per cent of Australians experience OCD in their lifetime.
Withdrawing from family and friends because of obsessions with contamination. Avoiding physical intimacy with a partner out of fear of germs, religious impurity, or intrusive violent thoughts. Being late for social events because too much time is spent checking stoves, locks, or light switches.
Unfortunately, OCD doesn't just go away. There is no “cure” for the condition. Thoughts are intrusive by nature, and it's not possible to eliminate them entirely. However, people with OCD can learn to acknowledge their obsessions and find relief without acting on their compulsions.
The type of abnormal activity, though, is quite different: those with OCD exhibit significantly higher levels of activity in this system, while those with ADHD exhibit significantly lower levels of activity in it.
OCD was originally thought to be rare, but a number of studies have reported a lifetime prevalence that ranges between approximately 1% to 3% worldwide. Thus, it is one of the more common and serious mental conditions.