WHAT IS OCD?

OCD stands for obsessive-compulsive disorder; it is a mental health disease that can affect all of
us, no matter ages and genders. Occur when a person gets caught in a cycle of obsessions and
compulsions.

Most of us, at some point in our lives, went through distressing thoughts or repetitive
behaviours. However, these do not typically disrupt our daily life. For people with OCD,
thoughts are persistent, and behaviours are severe. Not performing the actions causes anxiety.
Many people with OCD know or suspect their obsessions are not realistic; others may think
they could be true. Even if they know what is going on, people with OCD have difficulty
disengaging from the obsessive thoughts or stopping the compulsive actions.

To break it down, imagine that you are about to leave your house, you check everything up,
close the door, but your brain starts to lie to you, it is telling that something awful would
happen, did you close the door? Someone could enter if not, did you disconnect the oven cord?
A fire explosion would commence if not. Then you make sure again, and again, and so on. You
know that your brain is cheating on you, but it is a compulsory command you can not manage.

WHAT CAUSES OCD?

The scientific answer is "we do not know" however, they have some important clues. They say
that it implicates regions of the brain variously involve in social behaviour and complex
cognitive planning, voluntary movement, emotional and motivational responses. its symptoms
link with communicating areas among parts of the brain.

According to the anxiety disorders clinic in new york, OCD has been associated whit a
hyperactive circuit in the brain; That is why obsessions and compulsions are generated. The
answer to what causes the brain to be abnormal is still under the microscope; however, they
say it involves genetic vulnerability, for example, if you, your parents have OCD, there is about
25 per cent chance that another immediate family member will have it.
Other researches evidence that OCD is associated with low levels of serotonin a
neurotransmitter that communicates between brain structures and helps regulate vital
processes such as mood, aggression, impulse control, appetite, body temperature, and pain.
Patients with OCD may not respond normally to serotonin. It is still studying if this deficiency
and activity are the causes of OCD.

What are the symptoms of OCD?

When we look at symptoms of OCD, we have to look at obsessions and compulsions, but

Exactly are obsessions and compulsions?

Obsessions
Obsessions are unwanted, intrusive thoughts, images, or urges that trigger intensely distressing
feelings.

Frequent obsessions in OCD are:

Harm
related to:

 Fear of harming others because of not being careful enough (example: dropping
something on the ground that might cause someone to slip and them)

Unwanted Sexual Thoughts

 Forbidden or perverse sexual thoughts or images
 Sexual impulses about others that involve children or incest
 Obsessions about sexual orientation.
 Obsessions about aggressive sexual behaviour.

Religious Obsessions
  The concern with offending God, or concern about blasphemy
 Excessive concern with right/wrong or morality.

Somatic
 The concern with getting a physical illness or disease (eg. cancer)

Symmetry
 The need for things to be perfect, exact or "just right,". Correctly aligned, ordering and
arranging, evening up or aligning things, and touching or tapping.

Contamination
It deals with the obsession over contracting an illness or spreading germs.

 Body fluids (examples: urine, faeces)

 Germs/disease (examples: herpes, HIV)

Hoarding
When a person struggles to discard useless or worn out possessions, acquires an excessive
number of items and stores them, usually in a chaotic manner.

Compulsions
On the other hand, compulsions are behaviours patients engage in to attempt to get rid of the
obsessions or decrease their distress.

Checking
 Checking that you did not/will not harm yourself and others.
 Checking that nothing terrible happened.
 Checking some parts of your physical condition.

Repeating
It stands for repeating routines such as
  Rereading or rewriting
 Repeating body movements (for example tapping, touching, blinking)
 (examples: doing a task three times because three is a "good," "right," "safe" number)

Washing and Cleaning

 Washing hands excessively or in a certain way
 Excessive showering, bathing, tooth-brushing, grooming, or toilet routines
 Cleaning household items or other objects excessively

Mental Compulsions
 praying and review of events to prevent harm
 Counting while performing a task to end on a good, right, or safe number.
 Cancelling or Undoing (example: replacing a bad word with a good word to cancel it out)

Scientific evidences:
According to the anxiety and depression association of America, approximately 2.3% of the
population has OCD, which is about 1 in 40 adults and 1 in 100 children in the U.S. A study in
Colombia between 376 patients showed that 4.8% of the patients suffers from OCD;
researchers also found OCD is more likely in men than women with a slight difference of 2.95%.

In the USA it is more likely to occur in older adults; however, in Colombia, the average is a
younger population over 19 years.

Famous people who suffer OCD

In the following clip, we will see the case of Lele pons a social media influencer who suffers
OCD; basically, she tells how OCD affects her daily behaviour, we will also listen to some
symptoms, which were discussed before.

TREATMENT
A typical treatment plan for OCD will usually include both psychotherapy and medications.
Combining both treatments is usually the most effective.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

during treatment sessions, patients are exposed to images that focus on their obsessions. They
are instructed to avoid performing their usual compulsive behaviours. By staying in a feared
situation without anything terrible happening, patients learn that their fearful thoughts are just
thoughts rather than reality.

Anxiety management techniques for OCD

They can include relaxation training, slow breathing techniques, mindfulness meditation and
hyperventilation control.

Medication for OCD

Some medications, especially antidepressants that affect the serotonin system, have been
found to reduce the symptoms of OCD.

Self-care
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can help in coping with OCD. Also, using basic relaxation
techniques, such as meditation, yoga, visualization, and massage, can help.

CONCLUSIONS
To sum up, in my own words OCD is a mental disease that happens when your brain lies to you,
it makes up scenarios in which you are always under danger, people, things around you are not
under control, so you get confused, anxious and stressful, it is called obsession, and your brain
generates responses which command you to perform certain activities to get out of the stress
scenario, I mean your brain drives you to do something to get everything under control again,
but you end up doing it a lot of times until you reach things most perfectly. that is called
compulsions.

Another important thing is to debunk myths or misconceptions that people may have about
OCD but they are not actually symptoms.
 1. repetitive or ritualistic behaviours are synonymous of OCD, keep in mind that hands
washing, organizing things and excessive cleaning might be examples of OCD, but the
actual disorder is far rarer, people affected have little or no control over their obsessive
thoughts, and tend to be quite consuming, moreover, it tends to interrupt or affect daily
activities.

To conclude, it is vital to get into the details of OCD, so that we can help, people around us who
suffer not only from OCD symptoms but also from anxiety and stress episodes. remember that
it is not necessary to be diagnosticated with OCD to go through similar episodes It has to be
taken into account that all of us can suffer from OCD.

If any of us know someone who suffers by OCD we can find help in the International OCD
Foundation, there we can get more information about treatments and ask for professional help,
the link to the website is in the description below with other resources where the Information
was found.