About O.C.D. - Information for O.C.D. Sufferers
Of all the problems we deal with at our group, Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is the most distressing of all the conditions
we encounter. I [Terri Conley] personally have the
greatest admiration for anyone who suffers from this type of disorder
and has to live with it on a daily basis. It seems to completely take
over their lives and the rituals they have to perform can take up hours
and hours of their day. They must be tremendously
courageous and strong people to be able to do this.
For anyone who doesn't know what OCD is, the words
"Obsessive Compulsive" sum it up. Simply, it is when a
person has obsessive thoughts, either in isolation or combined with a
need to carry out actions compulsively, such as repeated hand washing.
OCD often affects creative, artistic
people whose minds are highly active, and those who are
perfectionists and highly meticulous. A person who is afraid of
personal failure is open to it, as is any one who is naturally
cautious. Those who cannot express emotions are also vulnerable, and it
would seem that the more happy-go-lucky a person is and the less
imagination they have, the less likely they are to suffer from OCD. As Paul
Lanham states in his excellent article on OCD printed in issue
7 of the Wallsend Self Help Group "Emotions" magazine - "An
obsession is something natural that can grow into a monster which first
consumes and then destroys".
You can see how this works in practice if you recall how you would
check and re-check an alarm clock before going to bed to ensure it woke
you in time for an important appointment the following morning... Or
maybe the time you had to clean up a particularly dirty mess and then
wash your hands several times over... Then there might have been a time
when you were expecting guests to your house and you spent hours
cleaning and tidying the place. Of course, all of these are quite
normal responses - but just imagine what it must be like if they got
out of control and you felt a compulsion to repeat these actions
continuously in order to relieve the anxiety you felt.
On the following page, we look at the common symptoms of O.C.D. which sufferer's experience.
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The most common forms of compulsive rituals are Checking, Cleaning, Slowness and Ruminations.
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