Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

[Xephyr]

Wikipedia defines this as,

Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry, by repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the associated anxiety, or by a combination of such obsessions and compulsions. Symptoms of the disorder include excessive washing or cleaning; repeated checking; extreme hoarding; preoccupation with sexual, violent or religious thoughts; aversion to particular numbers; and nervous rituals, such as opening and closing a door a certain number of times before entering or leaving a room. These symptoms can be alienating and time-consuming, and often cause severe emotional and financial distress. The acts of those who have OCD may appear paranoid and potentially psychotic. However, OCD sufferers generally recognize their obsessions and compulsions as irrational, and may become further distressed by this realization.

inb4tl;dr

Anyway, I am a bearer of said disorder (despite the fact that Gen Empoleon doesn't believe it), and I am on medication for it and everything. Basically the most primary problem that is presented to me because of it is the fact that everything has to, essentially, be to my liking, or else I will go literally insane. It can be as little as the corner of a piece of paper sticking out of a folder. Just the thought of that makes me cringe.

Taking the anti-depressant anafranil (which, funny enough, is sometimes used to treat premature ejaculation apparently. Which, I assure all of you, is not something that bothers me), actually helps a lot. It helps maintain my mental balance and makes me a lot less freakish about some of the things I do. Some of the weirder things that I do include breathing in the most equal sense possible, if that makes sense. For instance, my inhale must be equal to my exhale. I must keep both sides of my body equal at all times. If I blink with my right eye only, I must blink also with my left eye. When I'm doing something like preparing for a cross country race, I have to stretch both legs for an exactly equal amount of time. Most guys just casually count in their head, I actually have to keep a timer. Things of that nature which brought me headaches and almost madness before my medicine was prescribed.

Basically, I'm starting this thread to stimulate some intelligent conversation about the disorder. Do you have some slight form of it? Do you know someone else that does? Why do you think this disorder happens in people? How can it prevented?

 

[Smaug]

I have a minor form of OCD. I was diagnosed, but nothing was prescribed. If, for example, I step on a sidewalk crack with my right foot, I feel the need to also do so with my left. Sometimes a single thought will stick in my head for up to weeks at a time- the "obsessive" side of the disorder. I generally feel the need to check closets and suchlike for people hiding there.

I think there is no specific cause for it- either someone has it, or he/she doesn't.

Oddly enough, and unlike many OCD victims, I am something of a slob.

 

[Probably]

Everytime I wake up at night I have to turn my alarm off and then on again, but other than that I can't think of anything.

 

[MrIndigo]

I seem to remember reading/hearing OCD is thought to be a corruption of the hygiene instinct, which is why the most common manifestation is repetitive hand washing; the internal need to be properly clean bleeds into ritualised behaviours because the brain subconsciously thinks it isn't clean unless they're performed.

 

[Taylor]

ocd is treatable to the point where you essentially laugh the symptoms off yourself through self-medication and smoking/vaporizing weed, in an attempt to calm your mind and body through the high.

lots of people i know with ocd use marijuana to help cope with every symptom going; some claim to have the disorder/symptoms and perhaps don't truely recognise, without getting high first, that the disorder is very much real but at the same time has your thc-fueled mind thinking it should actually be a walk in the park with the "right" medication.

 

[Dan Dan]

you dont have ocd it's made up. you dont have to do any of the shit you say you do, you wont die if you don't.

 

[MackTheKnife]

Same as Smaug, I also sometimes have the urge to check closets for people hiding in there, even though I know that there is nothing in there.

Kinda funny when you think about it.

 

[Xephyr]

you dont have ocd it's made up. you dont have to do any of the shit you say you do, you wont die if you don't.

The problem with this statement is that you simply have never experienced it. It's simply impossible for someone without the disorder to understand the disorder. Your mind will literally drive you to madness if you don't do some of the little things.

 

[jumpluff]

It's not so much that you physically have to do it so much as you will experience often unbearable levels of anxiety if you do not, particularly if you don't discipline yourself in order (and it is hard) to resist.

 

[Dan Dan]

but it's something you can overcome if you just step back and realise how stupid the 'quirks' are. there's no dependency or withdrawl like a drug, in fact you'll probably feel the opposite.. euphoria at how easy it is to not give a shit if you blink with the right eye first. it's just the brain's percieved threat of something going wrong if you don't do said 'ocd' thing. i'm sorry but i don't buy it, hyperchondria at it's finest.

 

[VKCA]

I once held a girl with ocd down who was trying to wash her hands. She was in tears pretty quickly.
Outside of that I've only had to deal with the fuckwads who are "pretty much ocd about x" because they don't like stacking plates funny or something equally retarded.

Do you have some slight form of it?

oh yeah this

I'm just slightly obsessive compulsive. Fucking retarded.

 

[the pugilist]

are you an expert on this subject, dandan? just curious as to where your views are coming from.

 

[Dan Dan]

@vkca probably because you we holding her down against her will when she was trying to wash her hands..

and no im not an expert on the subject... you cant be an expert on something that doesn't exist. call me out all you like but i dont give a shit, this is my opinion.

 

[rowsdower44]

Outside of that I've only had to deal with the fuckwads who are "pretty much ocd about x" because they don't like stacking plates funny or something equally retarded.

I can't stand when people say they're somewhat OCD about x. It's not OCD; it's a routine or a habit.

 

[Alan]

Outside of that I've only had to deal with the fuckwads who are "pretty much ocd about x" because they don't like stacking plates funny or something equally retarded.

This really grinds my gears. You're not OCD, you're anal retentive, a.k.a. a fuckwit.

 

[Oblivion IX]

~EDIT: Well, I thought about it some more and realized that none of the things I mentioned are really obsessions. They do annoy me but certainly not to the point where they become the only thing I think about or I actually go out of my way to fix them. I guess they're more like pet peeves. My mistake.

 

[zorbees]

I have a mild case of OCD and while it isn't severe enough to hinder me in my daily activities it can cause me to do some bizarre things. However, most of these little obsessions can be kept at bay as long as I remember to take my medication each day. My first obsession is my need for absolutely correct grammar. I just can't stand it when people use incorrect grammar. I even checked this post several times looking for mistakes. I probably made a few and the thought of that is going to be bothering me all day. When quoting a section of something like a newspaper I also need to make sure that the beginning of it is capitalized even if the quote was taken from the middle of the sentence.

My strangest obsession is definitely the fact that I hate certain numbers. I just can't stand numbers or even series of numbers that have the same digit repeated in them and it's even worse when those digits are directly touching each other (same with letters). I love the numbers five and zero because they are at either end and in the center of a number line. Another little thing is that everything around me has to be symmetrical. Just last night some friends were over and they moved one of the picture frames on the wall underneath another one. It was crooked and didn't line up exactly with the other. It was pretty annoying. I'm sure there's some other obsessions that I have that I'm simply forgetting at the time.



I hate that as well.

I find you're post quite amusing.

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

I have some compulsive tendencies. A lot of them have to do with feeling "even", like if I accidentally brush my ankle with my other foot while walking I have to do it to the other, and sometimes I have to do it a couple more times until it feels right. I'll also vary how hard I step if I have to "even out" how my feet feel.

I have an entire ruleset regarding stairs, though. Basically, I have to start on my left and end on my right, although there are some exceptions. If the staircase has an odd number of stairs, I start and end on my right foot. However, if the next staircase in my route is reasonably close by and also has an odd number, I'll start and end on my left for the first staircase and on my right for the second. If I'm on a staircase and I realize I'm going to end on my left foot I'll either skip a step or step twice on the same step (doesn't happen too often, I've gotten weirdly good at telling whether or not a staircase has an even or odd number of stairs just at a glance).

I call it "compulsive tendencies" and not OCD because, although if I fail to do something I just mentioned it will weigh heavily on my mind until I "correct" it, I don't get the crippling anxiety from it.

 

[Oblivion IX]

I find you're post quite amusing.

This is one of the best responses ever.

 

[Matthew]

You dare challenge your king?

 

[LonelyNess]

There was a show on Discovery or TLC or some channel that does all these shows (like hoarders) called "Compulsion" or something along those lines. Anyway, it was about people with OCD and how they overcame it. And I watched 3-4 of these episodes and we're talking about people with INSANE compulsions. Like, this one chick would literally PICK HER SKIN OFF HER FACE because she felt it was unclean... or the one guy who had to touch everything 150 times before he could be sure it wouldn't burst into flame... These people were completely socially retarded... then they brought in a psychiatrist...

and do you know what the psychiatrist's "cure" was?

He told them to just not do the compulsions. And lo and behold, after a couple of weeks of forcibly not giving into the compulsions, they were cured!!!!

This is such a non-disease it's astounding that people researching / studying it get huge grants in order to do so instead of that money going to researching REAL diseases.

 

[Bartman101]

I have 2 minor OCDs that I know of.

I can not go to the same place for lunch on consecutive days.

I must have a de-odourant can in my (school) blazer pocket at all times.

Lol, I don't smell (that bad) though, just my OCD...

 

[Yeah Galo Sengan]

i always have to start and finish a stair with my left foot

if the steps are uneven i do a complicated little dance near the top/bottom

 

[VKCA]

Oblivion put this back in your post

There was a show on Discovery or TLC or some channel that does all these shows (like hoarders) called "Compulsion" or something along those lines. Anyway, it was about people with OCD and how they overcame it. And I watched 3-4 of these episodes and we're talking about people with INSANE compulsions. Like, this one chick would literally PICK HER SKIN OFF HER FACE because she felt it was unclean... or the one guy who had to touch everything 150 times before he could be sure it wouldn't burst into flame... These people were completely socially retarded... then they brought in a psychiatrist...

and do you know what the psychiatrist's "cure" was?

He told them to just not do the compulsions. And lo and behold, after a couple of weeks of forcibly not giving into the compulsions, they were cured!!!!

This is such a non-disease it's astounding that people researching / studying it get huge grants in order to do so instead of that money going to researching REAL diseases.

So because something is curable it doesn't exist? I don't know, what do you define as a disease? Psychological diseases are pretty iffy proof wise anyways, since we don't all that much about the brain.
I mean, could you argue that addiction doesn't exist because people can stop being addicted to something by not doing it for a while? We're talking psyc addiction, to, say marijuana. Not like alc or horse.

 

[Xephyr]

You dare challenge your king?

Yeah man. You don't believe me, I make a thread about it.

The guy who mentioned symmetry hit the nail right on the head. So many OCD people have this issue. I don't know why, and I don't care why, it's just that when something isn't symmetrical, such as my hair or anything of that nature, I go absolutely nuts.

And to the people denying the fact that this disorder exists: fuck you. As a college psychology major who is even currently in an upper level abnormal psychology class, I can safely say the disorder exists and is extremely common. Have you seen that show called Hoarding? That's a form of OCD. Are you going to go and say that those people don't have psychological problems? If you try to say that, you're a damn fuckwad that has an IQ of like 60.

While it is out of my realm of study, the disorder is often linked to "abnormalities with the neurotransmitter serotonin". Essentially, when there's a fuck up with serotonin in your body (that's the transmitter that functions to control your levels of anxiety), you develop anxiety problems from little things, whether it be washing your hands compulsively or the whole symmetry thing I talked about earlier. OCD isn't just a psychological problem that is diagnosed by psychologists; rather, it can be diagnosed by almost any kind of health professional, as it is a problem that goes far beyond the realms of simple psychology. There really is no denial that it actually exists, the real problem lies in people that think they have it but actually don't (people that say they're "OCD about stacking their books from largest to smallest" or shit like that. Unless it's too a bizarrely obsessive point, it's not OCD. It's just a habit that even happens to be very common).

This is such a non-disease it's astounding that people researching / studying it get huge grants in order to do so instead of that money going to researching REAL diseases.

No one ever called it a damn disease. A disease is a virus that enters your system and is contagious through saliva and shit. OCD is a psychological disorder. Calling it a disease is just plain ignorant. It does indeed require research and study, because there's still no definitive reason as to why people develop these strange compulsions. It's not because they love to do something and want to keep doing it. Who the fuck wants to pick skin off their face or constantly wash their hands? It's annoying as fuck to have to do these things all the time, and the research is so we can understand why the disorder occurs and how to prevent it.