Understanding OCD: Recognizing the Signs and Finding Help

About 2.2 million American adults are living with obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD. While everyone experiences the occasional obsessive thought or struggles with persistent habits, OCD is a chronic disorder that deeply affects mental wellness and the ability to function. When you are living with OCD, you may deal with these overwhelming thoughts and urges every day.

If left untreated, OCD can significantly disrupt your ability to work, maintain healthy relationships, and enjoy life.

What Is OCD?

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition characterized by a continuous cycle of intrusive, unwanted thoughts that trigger intense distress, anxiety, or fear and the compulsion to carry out certain repetitive behaviors to reduce this discomfort.

Understanding OCD Obsessions

Obsessions are persistent, involuntary thoughts, images, or urges that cause significant anxiety or unease. These thoughts are typically centered around specific themes and are difficult, if not impossible, to dismiss. If you have OCD, you will likely recognize that your fears are irrational, but the anxiety they provoke is very real.

Common types of obsessions include:

Contamination: Fears of becoming contaminated by bodily fluids, infectious diseases, or harmful environmental substances, like asbestos or toxic waste

Responsibility for harm: Anxiety about being responsible for a terrible event, such as starting a fire or causing a car wreck, or unintentionally causing harm by being careless, like leaving something out that someone could trip over

Loss of control: Worries about losing control over your actions and causing harm, such as hurting oneself or others, blurting out offensive comments, stealing, or damaging property

Perfectionism: An obsession with things needing to be symmetrical, in exact numbers, or done perfectly, such as a need to remember specific facts or have everything pristine and organized

Other obsessions: Fear of developing serious illnesses, such as cancer, or a fixation on superstitions, such as a lucky or unlucky number

Understanding OCD Compulsions

Compulsions are repetitive actions or mental rituals that someone with OCD performs to try and relieve their obsession-triggered anxiety or prevent something bad from happening. Although these actions seem unnecessary or excessive to others, they provide momentary relief when performing them.

When you have OCD, you know your compulsions are not a productive way to address your fears, but you may still feel powerless to stop. These behaviors can be very time-consuming and significantly interfere with everyday life.

Common types of compulsions include:

Checking: Repeatedly ensuring that no harm has occurred, verifying that appliances are off or doors are locked, or compulsively checking the body for signs of illness

Repeating: Performing certain actions multiple times, such as rewriting, re-entering a room a specific number of times, turning light switches off and on, or repeating body movements

Mental rituals: Silently reviewing past events, mentally repeating phrases, or attempting to overwrite bad thoughts by thinking good ones

Cleaning and washing: Engaging in excessive cleaning routines, frequent handwashing, or intense grooming habits to prevent contamination

Other compulsions: Organizing or rearranging objects obsessively or constantly seeking reassurance by confessing, asking questions, or sharing thoughts with others

What Kind of Treatment Helps OCD?

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)focuses on how your thoughts, beliefs and attitudes affect your emotions and behavior. Exposure and response prevention (ERP), a type of cognitive behavioral therapy, is often used in the treatment of OCD to help clients work through their fears and obsessions and learn ways to stop engaging in compulsive behaviors. ERP can be challenging and take practice, but it is one of the most useful treatments to help improve symptoms of OCD.

Medication: Medication is often recommended along with CBT to help clients alleviate their symptoms. Antidepressants are often tried first, but your doctor may prescribe more than one medication to help you control their obsessions and compulsions. It's not uncommon to try more than one medication before finding one that works well.

Support groups: Seeking support from others who are facing a similar struggle is another helpful way to manage OCD and improve quality of life. OCD support groups offer a safe space for you to share your experience, gain helpful insight and advice, and connect with others who are coping with the disorder.

Compassionate OCD Treatment at LiveWell

At LiveWell Counseling, Christian health’s outpatient counseling center, our expert mental health professionals provide compassionate, nonjudgmental care in a comforting and supportive setting. Our personalized treatment plans incorporate medication management and talk therapy to help clients with a variety of mental health conditions, including OCD, improve their symptoms, learn effective coping methods, and boost their mental wellness. To learn more about how we can help you, please call (201) 848-5800 or visit ChristianHealthNJ.info/LiveWell.