Obsessive-compulsive disorder (abbreviated as OCD) - obsessive states, characterized by constantly arising in the patient unwanted intrusive thoughts, memories, doubts, desires, fantasies, fears and actions that are perceived not as introduced from outside, but as their own.
Obsessions ( intrusive thoughts) cause a person to commit compulsions (obsessive actions), perceived as painful, and perceived with a feeling of strong internal resistance. Intrusive thoughts, as a rule, are associated with psychological discomfort or anxiety, they are repeated constantly, and the patient cannot get rid of them.
The common figures of those who suffer from this disorder are people who wash themselves, who are in control, who doubt everything and what sins, who count and tidy up and what they accumulate. They feel the impulse to wash their hands or fix the cleaning: they probably need to do soap and water even five times after taking out the trash, they can vacuum the same room several times because they feel it is not clean enough . Controllers constantly check what they associate with disasters or dangers. They can check for infinity that door lock closed before deciding to go to sleep, they may feel the need to constantly get up during lunch to make sure they turn off the oven, even if they remember doing it, check repeatedly to make sure the book in the library is the one you want. Controllers feel compelled to control more than ten, twenty, thirty times in order to feel safe. Doubts and sinners are afraid that something terrible will happen or that they will be punished if everything is not perfect or not. This is done absolutely right. These people may exhibit "an obsession with cleanliness, they tend to be precise, or they suffer from paralyzing doubts that prevent them from acting." You can constantly waste time looking for flaws in your thoughts and actions. Subjects who count and reorder are obsessed with order and symmetry. They may have superstitions about certain quantities, certain colors, or ways of arranging things, and may feel a sense of regret that things are not ordered according to a certain logic. Keepers have a strong aversion to getting rid of things. They may compulsively accumulate what they do not need and should not use. They may feel strong and irrational attachments to certain objects, even if they are well aware of their worthlessness. People who wash are afraid of infection. . The disorder tends to appear for the first time in childhood, adolescence or in early adulthood.
Causes of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Reliable causes of this disorder have not yet been established, and the following are considered to be suspected risk factors:
- Heredity;
- Micropathology of the brain;
- Violations of the level of neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine, etc.);
- social factors;
- Situations that traumatize the human psyche;
- Features of the functioning of the autonomic nervous system;
- All kinds of personality/character accentuations;
- Infectious diseases of streptococcal nature.
Hereditary predisposition, infectious diseases and changes in the brain (in particular, a decrease in the level of neurotransmitters) are biological factors development of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Approximately half of patients have relatives suffering from this disease.
Typically, symptoms worsen as anxiety increases, and in some cases, the disorder can become a real disability if it is very severe and interferes with normal daily activities. If you identify with several obsessions in the past and find that you are wasting an important part of your life behind these fixations, it is best to go to the doctor and get a professional diagnosis.
You cannot know if you are suffering from it until a specialist knows for sure. There are no laboratory tests to diagnose obsessive-compulsive disorder. You need to learn to live with obsessions, but you must not let them control your life. The therapy also aims to reduce the magnified or catastrophic thoughts that often accompany people with the disorder.
All other causes are psychological factors. It should be noted that various stressful events and situations in themselves cannot cause a disorder, but they can act as a trigger for the onset of the disease in people who have a hereditary predisposition to it.
The incidence of this disease is only 0.05%, but in most cases people simply hide their feelings and go to the doctor after 5-10 years. This means that the prevalence of the disease is actually much higher. In women, the disorder manifests itself at about 20-29 years, in men - at more early age- at 6-15 years old. Moreover, according to statistics, these people have a higher level of intelligence than the population as a whole.
You may need to visit a clinical psychologist to start cognitive behavioral therapy. A family doctor or psychotherapist can contact the right people. . Even older drugs, such as tricyclic antidepressants such as Anafranil, can be effective.
What is Impartial Personality Disorder?
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a serious and debilitating illness and you can offend people if you don't have respect for their illness. Most people sometimes use avoidance to relieve anxiety or to prevent difficult situations. On the other hand, avoidant personality disorder is characterized by a widespread pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and hypersensitivity to negative evaluations. People with this disorder are concerned about being ridiculed, rejected, or criticized by others.
There are special tests for obsessive-compulsive disorder that allow, by answering questions with enough a high degree the probability of determining whether a person has the disease.
Signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder
As is clear from the very name of the disease, its main features are obsessions - obsessive thoughts, and compulsions - obsessive actions.
This causes them to avoid social situations in which they have to interact with others, which limits the normal development of social skills over time. People with avoidant personality disorder live generally isolated, spectators of a world they would like to take part in but are too afraid of. In fact, they tend to think that they are not good enough, that they can be rejected or offended, that they do not like others, that they are unattractive and socially inadequate.
These thoughts lead to high states of anxiety in social situations, such as work, friends, intimate relationships, which they try to avoid for fear of being ridiculed, criticized and rejected. The main condition is "social discomfort and anxiety" and a noticeable tendency to play everyday life, which moves these subjects away from the potential risks associated with novelty. In order to experience positive and satisfying feelings, even if they are temporary, shunners cultivate solitary interests and activities.
Video: Veronika Stepanova. OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Self Help Techniques
Obsessions are manifested by repetitive painful stereotyped obsessive thoughts, images or drives. A person understands that they are meaningless, but they come to his mind again and again, causing an unsuccessful attempt at resistance.
Social withdrawal finally confirms their personal sense of social inadequacy in a seemingly endless spiral. keyword to describe this personality disorder is "hypersensitivity". Their low tolerance for negative feelings and their sensitivity to failure and rejection pervades all their actions.
Psychological characteristics of inhuman personality disorder
Of course, disordered personality disorder is equally common in men and women. The prevalence of promiscuous personality disorder in the general population is between 0.5% and 1.0%. useful to analyze psychological characteristics people with avoidant personality disorder in terms of their vision of self and others, intermediate and deep beliefs, perceived threats, coping strategies, and core emotions.
Compulsions are repetitive behaviors designed to prevent some objectively unlikely event from occurring.
Video: Obsessive-compulsive disorder, using the example of Sheldon Cooper from the series "The Big Bang Theory"
All these thoughts and actions are experienced by a person as absurd, alien and irrational.
Self-vision: They see themselves as socially incompetent and inept in school or work situations. Threats are perceived: "others find themselves failing", fear of being humiliated, disqualified, abandoned. So stay in the fields social groups and avoid drawing attention to yourself. In work situations, they tend to avoid taking on new responsibilities or seek out roles because they fear failure and are attacked by other core emotions: main emotion is dysphoria, a combination of anxiety and sadness associated with difficulty in enjoying intimate relationships and a sense of mastery from the tasks performed. They experience anxiety associated with the fear of getting out of the way. a short time in social or labor relations. Avoidant symptoms. How to tell if a person is suffering from Insensitivity Personality Disorder. Coping strategies: avoid situations in which you can evaluate. . Elimination of a personality disorder usually begins in early adulthood and includes the following symptoms.
The most common obsessive-compulsive disorders are:
Video: A film about the love of a patient with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
- Mysophobia (fear of pollution), when people repeatedly wash their hands and clean their clothes during the day, because they are afraid of contracting serious diseases;
- Obsessive doubts that are accompanied by compulsive checks - whether the gas is turned off, whether the water is turned off, whether the door is closed, etc.;
- Obsessive slowness, characterized by a combination of obsessions and compulsions, which causes the person to perform daily activities very slowly.
Obsessions and actions may be aggravated in certain situations and places, for example, obsessions about committing violence against people may be intensified by the sight of knives, or in the kitchen, from the thought that they are stored here. As a result, a person tries in every possible way to avoid such places. The desire to avoid a situation that provokes fear is a characteristic clinical symptom of a phobic disorder.
What are the causes of Inhuman Personality Disorder?
Avoid participation in activities that involve significant interpersonal contact for fear of being criticized, disapproved or rejected. Unavailability to interact with other people if you are not sure that you will be held in social relations out of shame and fear of being ridiculed. An excessive occupation to be criticized or rejected in a social situation. The tendency to evaluate oneself inappropriately socially, ineptly, unattractively, or inferior to others. Not willing to take personal risks or engage in new activities because it can be embarrassing. Inhibition in new social situations due to feelings of inadequacy. . The causes of disordered personality disorder are not entirely clear, although genetic, psychological, and social factors are thought to be involved in its onset.
An important symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder is anxiety, the severity of which, as a rule, decreases after the “commitment of the ritual”, but after some time it intensifies again.
It is important to note that most people with this disorder know that their obsessions and thoughts do not correspond to reality, in contrast to patients with psychotic illness, when an adequate assessment of reality is absent. 
Sequelae of apparent personality disorder
Numerous studies have shown that the history of the physical and psychological abuse, rejection and marginalization in the context of a peer group can also lead to an excessive desire to accept and make it difficult to receive any criticism. People with avoidant personality disorder due to high level social anxiety and perceptions of inadequacy in context tend to avoid any situation in which they feel they can be criticized, ridiculed or dismissed. They are usually perceived as very shy and distant, rigid or restricted, and hence the social isolation of people avoiding a personality disorder can be almost complete, with contact limited to a few family members.
80% of all patients have both obsessions and compulsions, and only 20% have thoughts isolated from actions. conditions are characteristic of 1/3 of patients, but at some point they develop in the majority.
Diagnosis of OCD
Only a psychiatrist can establish a diagnosis; the diagnosis of this disorder is not within the competence of psychologists.
There are several diagnostic criteria that are confirmed by clinical tests for obsessive-compulsive disorder, but only after differentiation of this pathology from other diseases similar in manifestations.
Treatment for inhuman personality disorder
Finally, this type of impairment also jeopardizes the job, both in terms of job search opportunities and career advancement. Social withdrawal typical of avoidant personality disorder, although it is short time protects against anxiety to expose oneself and feel unwell, generated by the perception of inferiority, feelings of inadequacy and exclusion, in the long run leads to an existence without irritants, sad, with a visible sense of emptiness. Depressive mood or panic crises are motives that can push the subject towards psychological intervention.
Treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder
Medication or psychotherapy can be used to treat OCD, but a combination of the two is considered the most effective.
The drugs of choice used in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder are antidepressants with an anti-obsessive effect and anxiolytics, for example, Anafranil, Zoloft, Prozac, Paxil, Fevarin.
Decreased humoral tone can become very serious and even lead to suicidal ideation. To address the problem of depression associated with depression, avoidance of patients may sometimes abuse substances. Among the proven treatments for avoidant personality disorder can be mentioned.
Cognitive behavioral treatment for avoidant personality disorder primarily works with an analysis of the dysfunctional, distorted, and inaccurate automatic thoughts that underlie the disorder. These thoughts, once identified and shared with the patient, are challenged by refutation and replaced by new, more functional thoughts. For example, suppose the patient strongly believes that he is inferior to others and that others would like him to leave the company where he works. The therapist, with various techniques, questions the validity of the thoughts by asking him the name of people who like to spend time with him or other events in which he entertained them.
The goal of psychotherapy is to help a person resolve the underlying psychological problems.
Video: Veronika Stepanova "Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, OCD"
Unfortunately, no practitioner has provided information about the final cure of patients, and therefore the suppression of the severity of the symptoms of the disorder comes to the fore in the treatment.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (or obsessive-compulsive disorder) is a form of neurosis characterized by the patient having obsessive thoughts (obsessions) that cause him anxiety, which in turn causes him to repeatedly perform certain obsessive actions (compulsions).
obsessive-compulsive disorder (compulsive disorder)
WHAT IS OBESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER?
What is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (or obsessive-compulsive disorder) is a form of neurosis characterized by the presence of intrusive thoughts (obsessions), which cause him anxiety, which in turn causes him to repeatedly perform certain compulsions (compulsions). This disease (especially in the absence of timely treatment) can continue for a long time.
It should be noted that short-term intrusive thoughts can quite often be noted in people. If these thoughts do not cause you significant anxiety, fears and psychological discomfort, pass quickly and do not repeat often, you should not worry - this often happens to absolutely anyone. a healthy person. People who do not have obsessive-compulsive disorder may also engage in various compulsive acts (eg, picking a rosary, pulling various objects). If these obsessive actions are not associated with anxiety and fears caused by certain obsessive thoughts, then they are considered a variant of the mental norm. Since such obsessive thoughts and actions are not associated with psychological discomfort, a person can easily get rid of them.
Unlike "ordinary" obsessions, in obsessive-compulsive disorder, obsessive thoughts and actions are associated with anxious tension and significant psychological discomfort, they are often repeated, and the person cannot get rid of them.
The changes that occur in the mind and behavior of a person in this disease can be schematically depicted as follows:
Obsessive thoughts create psychological discomfort, in order to get rid of it, a person performs certain obsessive actions, which leads to a temporary relief of the internal stress state. However, this relief does not last long, obsessive thoughts return again, and the whole chain of thoughts, sensations and actions is repeated. Thus, obsessive thoughts and actions are, as a rule, interconnected, creating the so-called " vicious circle» obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a fairly common form of neurosis - the risk of getting this disease during a lifetime is on average 2.5%. This disease is more common among intelligent people: the risk of getting sick among people who graduated from the university is 1.5 times higher compared to people with secondary education. The prevalence of the disease is the same among men and women. In men, as a rule, this neurosis begins in adolescence, and women most often fall ill with it at the age of 20-30 years.
Why does this disease occur?
The causes of obsessive-compulsive disorder can be divided into two groups: biological and psychological.
Biological factors
Biological factors include hereditary predisposition to the disease. Approximately half of people who develop the disease during adolescence have close relatives who also suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Biological factors also include characteristic chemical changes. In the brain there are biologically active chemical substances, calledneurotransmitters. Various neurotransmitters carry out the transmission of certain impulses between brain cells. A decrease in the level of one of these neurotransmitters - serotonin - observed in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Psychological factors
Psychological factors that can trigger obsessive-compulsive disorder include various stressful situations and events in a person's life. It can be said that stress in itself is not the cause of obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, stress factors are a “trigger” for the onset of the disease in people who have a hereditary predisposition to it.
What are the signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder?
As follows from the very name of the disease, the main signs (symptoms) of obsessive-compulsive disorder are the presence in a person obsessions (obsessive thoughts) and compulsions (compulsions and rituals).
obsessions , as a symptom of the disease, are characterized by the following features:
- The person has repetitive and persistent thoughts or representations that appear when he is in a state of anxiety (for example, the thought that he forgot to close the door when leaving the house, or the thought of infection due to touching a dirty object);
- These thoughts or ideas cause anxiety and psychological discomfort in a person;
- These thoughts or notions are not just overexpressed concerns about real life problems;
- The person tries to ignore and / or suppress these thoughts, impulses or ideas, or neutralize them with the help of any thoughts or actions.
obsessionsare very varied. The most common obsessions include:
· Obsessive thoughts and fears about cleanliness and hygiene (constant washing that you can get infected from "dirty" objects);
· Obsessive thoughts associated with the fear that the person did something wrong (forgot to close the door, turn off the gas, etc.);
· Obsessive thoughts about possible aggression towards others (for example, the patient's thoughts associated with the fear that at the sight of a knife he will lose control of himself and involuntarily hit someone with it);
· Obsessive thoughts and feelings related to sex (for example, fear of becoming a homosexual).
Compulsions , as a symptom of the disease, are characterized by the following features:
- The person has frequently repeated actions (eg, washing hands, checking something) or thought processes (eg, prayers, counting, mental repetition of words);
- These frequently repeated actions are felt and carried out as a necessity in response to obsessions and are aimed at neutralizing undesirable events or situations associated with them;
- These actions are perceived as rules that should be strictly observed.
The most common compulsions include:
· Frequent hand washing in compliance with certain rules, how to do it;
· Repeated checks of committed actions (for example, repeated checks of a closed door);
· Ritual repetition of certain words (mentally or aloud) in order to avoid situations that the patient fears.
good exampleobsessive-compulsive disorder is the fear of pollution, in which every contact of the patient with dirty, in his opinion, objects causes him psychological discomfort and obsessive thoughts associated with it. To get rid of these thoughts, he begins to wash his hands. But even if at some point it seems to him that he has washed his hands enough, any contact with a “dirty” object forces him to start his ritual again. These rituals allow the patient to achieve temporary relief. Despite the fact that the patient is aware of the meaninglessness of his actions, he cannot get rid of them.
In 80% of cases, patients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder have both obsessions and compulsions; in 20% of patients, obsessions occur in isolation from compulsions.
How do I know if I have obsessive-compulsive disorder?
If you have the symptoms described in sectionWhat are the main signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder? , then it is advisable for you to consult a doctor who will determine the exact diagnosis.
There are also self-assessment mental health tests. As you complete these tests, you answer questions about how often you have OCD symptoms and how severe they are. Based on the total number of responses, you get a certain amount of points. Depending on the number of points you have scored, you can determine with a high degree of certainty whether you have an obsessive-compulsive disorder and, if so, its severity. In order to test yourself, .
How to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder?
There are two main ways to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder: medication and psychotherapy. Drug therapy depression is carried out by various medicines. The main drugs used in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder are antidepressants, which have a so-called anti-obsessional effect(the ability to reduce intrusive thoughts) and anxiolytics(anti-anxiety drugs).
In the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, the use of psychotherapy is also effective.
Psychotherapyis a method of treatment carried out through psychological counseling of the patient. Psychotherapy aims to resolve various psychological problems person (emotional, personal, etc.), which are among the main causes underlying this disease. This method of treatment requires regular, usually weekly visits to a psychotherapist.
The most recommended type of psychotherapy used in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder is cognitive behavioral psychotherapy.
cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy - a method of psychotherapy that helps the patient to discover and change the mental and behavioral attitudes that underlie mental problems. Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy is usually short-term, its duration is from 12 to 20 psychotherapy sessions, conducted once a week.
Most effective method The treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder is considered to be complex therapy, in which the combined use of medicinal and psychotherapeutic approaches is used.
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