Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

OCD and OCPD

Introduction

Mental illnesses are conditions that affect and alter the person’s thoughts, feelings, or mood. They are very common and the symptoms may range from mild to severe. In some extreme cases, they might interfere with the person’s normal everyday functioning. There are many categories of mental disorders such as anxiety disorders, mood disorders, eating disorders, personality disorders, and many others. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an example of an anxiety disorder, whereas obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is an example of a personality disorder – however, these two are commonly confused.

OCD

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder defined by the presence of two characteristics:

They are not ordinary; they represent unwanted ideas or images that cause extreme stress which leads the person to perform actions that they believe will dismiss those thoughts, such as compulsive behaviors.

Examples of such obsessive thoughts are concerns about symmetry, contamination, religious thoughts, or sexual thoughts, among many others.

A compulsion is known as an irrational behavior that is continuously performed by the person with the intention of reducing stress or anxiety in a certain situation. These behaviors are abnormally done over and over again.

Some examples include: constantly cleaning or washing hands in order to reduce the presence of something that is contaminating them or the environment, repeating a phrase or a behavior, always double-checking things such as locking the door or turning off the stove, constantly arranging objects in a certain manner that is usually symmetrical, and many

these people suffer from an intense need to impose what they believe in on their surrounding environment.

Symptoms

It is represented through a general pattern of excessive perfectionism, orderliness, obsessive attention to minor details, need to control one’s environment, preoccupation with rules, lists, and details, excessive devotion to work, rigidity and inflexibility, hoarding to items (inability to throw them away) … As a result, these individuals often lose their flexibility, efficiency, and openness to experience, and therefore find it hard to relax. Moreover, they also commonly have difficulties expressing their own feelings as well as maintaining intimate relationships with other people, resulting in their social isolation.

Interestingly, these patients believe that there is nothing wrong with their thoughts and behaviors; in contrast, they see everyone else as “wrong”.

The main symptoms