What is OCD?
Recognizing OCD People with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) suffer intensely from recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) or rituals (compulsions), which they feel they cannot control. Rituals such as hand washing, counting, checking, or cleaning are often performed in hope of preventing obsessive thoughts or making them go away. Performing these rituals, however, provides only temporary relief, and not performing them markedly increases anxiety. Left untreated, obsessions and the need to perform rituals can take over a persons life. OCD is often a chronic, relapsing illness. Fortunately, through research supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), effective treatments have been developed to help people with obsessive compulsive disorder. How Common Is OCD? • About 2% of the U.S. population has OCD in a given year. • OCD typically begins during adolescence or early childhood; at least one-third of the cases of adult OCD began in childhood. • OCD affects men and w
OCD stands for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. A very simple description of OCD is that it is a condition in which an individual experiences recurrent obsessions and/or compulsions. Obsessions are defined as repetitive thoughts, ideas, or impulses that an individual experiences as inappropriate, intrusive, and unwanted. Compulsions are defined as repetitive behaviors that an individual feels driven to perform in an effort to avoid or decrease the anxiety created by obsessions. In OCD, obsessions are not just exaggerated fears about real-life situations, and usually are not directly connected to commonplace problems such as normal relationship, academic, or financial concerns. In fact, the individual with OCD is quite often very distressed precisely because he or she recognizes that the thoughts are excessive, irrational and/or inappropriate. OCD compulsions may appear in various forms, including recurrent observable behaviors such as hand washing, repetitive “mental compulsions” such as
