OCD: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Compulsions

• OCD is an anxiety disorder in which a person feels attacked by unwanted, reoccurring thoughts and feelings.

• Causing distress, most of these thoughts deal with sexual, violent, and even religious thoughts that lead to the person becoming distressed and agitated.

Examples:

• Excessive washing • Hoarding• Rituals• Repeated checking• Obsessions

Realization

• Obsessive compulsive disorder can be realized by the afflicted person, however the repetitive cycles cannot be stopped.

• Normally, when a person is aware of the obsessive rituals, the realization makes them more distressed.

• Originally, OCD was attributed to varying levels of serotonin within the brain, but it is now looked upon as a problem caused by the neural pathways in the brain that communicate judgement and planning.

Characteristics

• People with OCD are normally shown you have am above average intelligence rating than that of others.

• However, people with OCD show symptoms of irrational behavior and distress in social situations.

Biological - Serotonin

• Serotonin is considered to be the neurotransmitter that helps to regulate mood and anxiety within the brain.

• With people affected with OCD, the serotonin receptors are under-stimulated, therefore causing abnormalities in their anxiety levels.

• As observed with OCD patients, increased levels of serotonin within the brain, through the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, act as an antidepressant that makes serotonin more available for other nerve cells.

Psychological

• From an evolutionary psychologist’s perspective, these compulsive behaviors may have been favorable.

• Hygiene, Safety, and maintaining shelter all attribute to the evolutionary advantages of being compulsive.

Treatments & Therapy

• Exposure and Ritual Prevention has been known to be a common way for treating a patient to tolerate their anxiety; this is used by isolating the person from their rituals.

• Electroconvulsion Therapy is another use for treating OCD, but is used in a last-ditch effort; this therapy is used by giving patients shocks that induce seizures

• Electroconvulsion’s side-effects include confusion and temporary memory lost.

Treatments & Therapy cont.

• Medication:- Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors

- Provides more serotonin to be accessed by nerve cells within the brain

- Tricyclic antidepressants- Highly effective in treating depression, but replaced with newer antidepressants

- Clomipramine - Antidepressant, very effective

• This a project for a high school AP Psychology course. This is a fictionalized account of having a psychological ailment. For questions about this blog project or its content please email the teacher, Laura Astorian: laura.astorian@cobbk12.org