Organization craze, excessive hand hygiene, hoarding items or even pushy thoughts, whether bad or good. These are some of the characteristics that people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) face in their daily lives. As if that weren’t enough, individuals with this disorder are at serious risk of developing other health problems.
According to psychiatrist Leonardo Fontenelle, professor of medicine at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and senior researcher at Instituto D’Ór, the main symptom of OCD is the presence of obsessions and/or compulsions. In this case, obsessions are characterized by the presence of unpleasant intrusive thoughts or images, even if the person does not want to have them.
“These experiences generate anxiety, fear, disgust, guilt, a series of unpleasant emotions in the individual. And to alleviate this guilt, the individual generates compulsions, manifested by mental acts or repetitive behaviors”, explains Fontenelle.
Four symptoms of OCD:
According to the doctor, there are four major symptoms of OCD:
- Fear of something terrible happening;
- Concern about contamination and compulsion to clean;
- Need to have things visually in order;
- Religious and sexual symptoms (fear of committing a sin or sexual violence, for example).
Fontenelle explains that the disorder is something terrible for patients, because there is clearly a disagreement between the essence of the person and their thoughts. That is, as much as she won’t do anything bad against the other, for example, negative thoughts are inevitable.
What other problems can OCD cause?
According to Fontenelle, 90% of individuals with OCD have another associated psychiatric disorder, in addition to having depression and social phobia. “They are often overly shy and inhibited people, afraid of speaking in public and being judged”, says the doctor.
However, the problems go far beyond that. People with OCD are more likely to develop Body Dysmorphic Disorder, that is, they believe they suffer a constant physical deformity and are always worried about their appearance, such as their nose, hair, skin, etc.
“Body Dysmorphic Disorder can affect the individual so much to the point that he spends all the time looking in the mirror or performing unnecessary plastic surgery”, says Fontenelle.
Another related disorder is hoarding. Sometimes, accumulators gather so many things that they are no longer able to use rooms in their own home.
How to treat OCD?
One of the treatments for OCD is psychotherapy, usually done with psychologists or psychiatrists. The most common technique applied in these cases is exposure and response prevention, when the patient is gradually exposed to his fear.
If the patient is afraid of fecal infection, for example, the person is instructed to use a public restroom. Afterwards, she is instructed to enter the cabin. At another time, she is instructed to use the toilet and flush with her hands, and so on.
Therapy can also be done with antidepressant medication, even if the patient does not have depression, due to serotonin reuptake inhibitors, capable of regulating and even eliminating obsessive thoughts. Patients with OCD generally take higher doses and for longer than patients with depression.
In 80% of cases, OCD appears in childhood or adolescence with subclinical symptoms, observed in everyday manias, and it may take a few years for the disorder to be actually diagnosed.
“We usually recommend that people who have mania but do not interfere with their daily lives, do not take medication or undergo psychoclinical therapies. But when manias start to get in the way, it’s time to seek help from a psychologist or psychiatrist”, concludes Fontenelle.
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