O.C.D. Understanding Obsessive Compulsive Disorder example essay topic

The mental abnormality Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder has been thought as through the years another chic he chapter in the book of mental malfunctions. However by experts it is considered to be a great risk to the lives of many more adults than people realize. It makes chaos out of everyday routines and puts extreme complication onto the simplest situations (NIMH 2). Understanding this mental illness requires one to know what the ailment is, why people have it, the different ways in which it affects people, how these various episodes are triggered, and the means by which this sickness is treated. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, commonly known as O.C.D., is classified as an anxiety disorder, in which a person has continuous thoughts that will not find their way out of the person's mind no matter how hard he or she tries to force them (OCF 1). These thoughts are called obsessions.

When patients experience these, much anxiety is produced and they are forced to go through with physical actions which ease the level of anxiety (NIMH 2). These actions, called compulsions, are repetitive in nature and take up a lot of time in one's day, normally about an hour. Compulsions are mostly talked about as rituals, and usually are senseless and very stressful to the person with O.C.D. Patients place much thought into the reasons that they commit rituals and also the frequently pointless rationales of how they help satisfy the obsessions. When not on an obsessive run, patients realize and understand their obsessions and compulsions make no sense, however, once they are initiated, the persons have no way of stopping them (NIMH 2).

Patients are against having these thoughts and committing these rituals, and when a patient tends to be concentrating on something else, there tend to be no occurrences (OCF 2). Symptoms of O.C.D. mostly surface prominently in adolescence and adulthood, and if left alone untreated can last through one's lifetime (NIMH 1). The National Institute of Mental Health, otherwise known as N.I.M.H., is the "federal agency that supports research on the brain, mental health, and mental illnesses. It conducted a nation-wide survey in 1980 that uncovered the surprisingly high number of adults that were then diagnosed with O.C.D. Approximately one out of every fifty American adults has some form of the illness. It makes no difference of your race or sex, in that O.C.D. is found mostly equal among all people diagnosed with it (NIMH 2). O.C.D. usually lies unnoticed due to the fact that most people are embarrassed that they have a mental disorder, and are too insecure to confront anyone about their illness (NIMH 1). There is no proven source of O.C.D. (OCF 2 4) Nonetheless, research shows that it involves communication problems between the front part of the brain and deeper brain mass, from which information is linked my the chemical messenger serotonin (Osborn 8).

Medications that effect the neurotransmitter serotonin are responded to positively by patients, leading scientists to believe that the cause of O.C.D. is related to insufficient levels of serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is the chemical messenger used by the orbital cortex and the basal ganglia, parts of the brain (Valente 125). Scientists at N.I.M.H. use a device known as the position emission topography, or PET, that maps out electrical activity of nerves in the brain. Their findings show us that everyday brain patterns that are involved in everyday tasks differ from those of O.C.D. patients (NIMH 3). The following are some different cases of O.C.D., and how they are set off. A case involving intense fear of being contaminated with dirt or germs is related to the compulsion of washing oneself ritualistically.

Fear of having indirectly harmed a loved one leads to a strong felt need to protect that person, due to the level of paranoia the patient feels of an event causing harm will come to the person; the most common ritual associated with this is repeating actions that would insure the safety of the individual that has been pictured in a situation that was related to the harming of him / her. In a case involving intimate sexual thoughts or urges, the patient has uncontrollable outbursts of sexual desire; the corresponding compulsion to this is called "touching", and is shown when the patient grabs at or feels sexual regions of someone else's body or his / her own. The most severe of the compulsions for people with this case is rape. In religious and moral insecurity cases, the person's compulsion is counting objects; this is an example of a, what most normal people would consider, pointless action in relation to its obsession.

Another example of this is the cases in which patients have "forbidden thoughts", such as mental depiction of violent killings, abnormal sexual intimacy, torture, etc., are calmed by ritualistic rearranging and ordering objects. A common case of O.C.D. involves a special need to have things "just that way" that a person wants them; saving and hoarding items and money are the routine compulsions that go with it. Sometimes patients with a certain type of O.C.D. can be confused with radically open people. These patients feel a great need to tell or confess their feelings or something they have done; common compulsions are usually having to tell someone everything little detail of a situation, and praying to confess when someone is not there or often randomly in public (OCF 1-2) (Osborn 38-51). Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder can be treated in a variety of ways, most result in a combination of treatments that work together to produce faster and more effective results (OCF 2 2). First, however, patients need to thoroughly understand their specific case, and know what to do when an occurrence occurs (OCF 2 1).

This helps patients be able to treat O.C.D. and also to help keep it somewhat under control. It is also very important that family and friends of the patient provide the crucial element of support. Often patients deny that anything is wrong with them, which is where people with a good relationship with the patient can help in making decisions (OCF 2 2). A specific medication that is shown to have a significant effect in the treatment of O.C.D. is the serotonin re uptake inhibitor, or the SRI.O.C.D. is believed to be caused by the brain having an inability communicating with itself, its internals (Biomolecular Diagnostics News 2). SRIs increase the level of serotonin, a chemical messenger when referred to in humans, in the brain. Clomipramine, Fluoxetine, Fluvoxamine, Paraxotine, Sertraline, and Citaprolam are SRIs that are available for prescription in the United States (Osborn 8).

The first five out of the set named previously are Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, or SSRIs. They are called SSRIs because they target serotonin by itself (OCF 2 6). Citaprolam is a non-selective serotonin re uptake inhibitor, or N SSRI, being that it targets other chemical messengers besides serotonin. SSRIs have less possible side effects; therefore it is tried before Ssris because the patient is less likely to have negative reactions to them. Also as a precaution to this one SRI is prescribed at a time. Moderate improvement is normally seen eight to ten weeks on an SRI.

Small amounts of patients, about twenty percent, treated with a medication by itself eventually experience no O.C.D. symptoms whatsoever. Another twenty percent little to no effect with the first SRI that they use, and need to try others to see which one suits them the best. Nevertheless, all SRIs are effective on the same level; it is just that different people respond better to certain SRIs more than others do (OCF 2 7). The best overall treatment for O.C.D. is Cognitive Behavior Therapy, or CBT. CBT is the treatment for O.C.D. of all ages.

Behavior therapy focuses on the relationship between the disorder, the treatment, and the desired outcome, also helping parents and children in developing strategies for battling future recurrences (OCF 2 4). It works by changing the thoughts of the patient by forcing them to change their actions. This is usually known as Exposure / Response Prevention. Over time it reduces the enormous amount of anxiety produced by the responsibility felt by the patient to perform his or her compulsion or ritual (OCF 2 4). About one fourth of patients tend to refuse CBT when they are first exposed to it. The patients who finish CBT have a fifty-eighty percent decrease in the amount of O.C.D. symptoms after a ten to twelve week period of weekly sessions an hour at a time, however some cases take only two months to get acceptable results.

There is also a form of CBT called ICBT, or intensive cognitive behavior therapy. It involves being with a therapist two-three hours a day, on an every day session basis for three weeks straight. ICBT is the fastest known way to treat O.C.D. (OCF 2 4) Understanding obsessive-compulsive disorder requires one to know what this sickness is, why people have it, the different ways in which it affects different people, how these various episodes are triggered, and the means by which this sickness is treated. It is a dangerous disease if left untreated as it can destroy the life of an individual and have permanent effects on his or her relationships. There are various types of OCD that can be related to every day actions, but much more severe in nature. It is primarily treated by medications known as serotonin re uptake inhibitors in combination with cognitive behavior therapy.