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Imlibenla Mongro
Clinical Psychologist, CIHSR
Many of us are already familiar with the term OCD. The media has portrayed this particular disorder many times in different lights. One of the most popular TV series called The Big Bang Theory shows one of its main characters Sheldon Cooper having OCD.
Sheldon Cooper- “That is my spot. Nobody sits on my spot”
Penny- “Sheldon I made some toast for you”
Sheldon- “But today is oat meal day. I can’t have toast on oatmeal day” (Throws the delicious smelling toast into the dustbin amidst roaring laughter from the studio audiences).
The media has popularized this disorder in many movies and television series with the truth and sometimes with a lot of misconceptions as well.
We also know people in our lives we think have OCD. Or sometimes we think we ourselves have OCD. “Her room is always too clean. She has OCD.” “He has to finish this work otherwise he won’t have peace of mind. OCD asenaki?”
Let us take a look at what exactly is OCD and who needs treatment if they think they have OCD.
From the name itself we come to know that OCD has the characteristics of being “Obsessed” over something and being “Compulsive” about it or being “Compelled” by the obsession. According to the diagnostic criteria used by professionals (DSM and ICD):
Obsessions refer to-
1. Repeated and persistent thoughts, urges or images that are experienced by a person that are unwanted by him or her but is very intrusive and gets in the way of normal thinking and functioning. These experiences cause marked anxiety and distress to the individual.
(example: thinking repeatedly that his body is full of dirt and germs, repeatedly having the urge to arrange the surroundings, etc)
2. The individual tries to suppress or ignore these unwanted thoughts, urges or images or to make them go away and “normalize” them by doing certain actions which are called compulsions.
(example: some people wash themselves many times a day to make their thoughts of uncleanness go away, some people chant some meditative verses or prayers throughout the day to make their “unclean” thoughts go away taking up a lot of productive time and causing disturbances in their daily functioning).
Compulsions refer to-
1. Repetitive behaviours like washing hands repeatedly, arranging repeatedly, checking repeatedly
2. Mental acts like counting in your head repeatedly, repeating words in your head, chanting in your thoughts,
All of these the individual does in response to an obsession or to some set of rules the individual sets for himself or herself.
The obsessive thoughts and compulsive acts are time consuming for the individual and may cause significant distress and may also hamper social life, occupational functioning and other important areas of living.
One patient (name withheld) was brought by his parents with suicidal attempt the previous day. On conversing he revealed that he started having obsessions with cleanliness in his surroundings. At first it was not a problem for him and he thought that being a cleanliness freak was a personality quirk he had. Later on he found out that he was becoming more and more obsessed that he would monitor his mother washing the vegetables very closely and ask her to wash them several times. He would not allow anyone to wash his plate and cup because he was never satisfied with the way people washed things. He would keep checking to see if all the taps are closed properly and then he would wash his hands everytime he turned off the tap because he felt that the tap carried germs. His relationships with family members were greatly affected because he did not like anyone touching his stuffs and arranging it. He had his own system of doing things and he was very rigid about following it. These and more rituals were taking up a considerable amount of his time and because of this he was not able to complete any of his work during the day. He started thinking he was going “mad” and “out of control”. He became depressed and finally tried to take his own life.
With 2 months of therapy he is able to continue doing his work without being affected by his symptoms. He is currently taking coaching classes for civil examinations and has been regularly following up on his treatment.
Sometimes we may see some behaviours like this in ourselves or in others. Most people have some traits of Obsessive Compulsiveness. But treatment and help should be sought before it becomes a debilitating factor in one’s daily functioning and social life.
