This article has been prepared to give you information about the mechanism of obsession disorder.
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is defined as negative, constantly recurring thoughts and mental and behavioral repetitive efforts to reduce the distress related to these repetitive thoughts. It is a psychiatric disorder. Although the causes of OCD are not well understood, the findings of Cognitive and Behavioral theories regarding its course and development have been widely accepted. Cognitive and Behavioral theories examine the mechanism of psychiatric disorders from the perspective of dysfunctional thoughts and beliefs. What brings a person to psychotherapy is not the dysfunctional thought and belief system, but the results of the dysfunctional thought and belief system. In other words, Cognitive and Behavioral theories examine the effects of dysfunctional thought and belief systems on life and maladaptive behaviors. It is possible to say that some dysfunctional thought and belief systems and their consequences are of distinctive and critical importance in OCD. These are;
1- Thought Processes: Obsessions and threat assessments related to obsessions.
2- Behavioral Processes: Compulsions are dysfunctional coping strategies (rituals and ruminations) aimed at eliminating this threat.
It is thought that both the intellectual and behavioral processes of OCD are based on beliefs. The theory called super-consciousness theory is as follows; Beliefs or stable knowledge about the person's cognitive system and information about the factors that affect the functioning of the system; awareness and regulation of the current state of cognition; It can be defined as evaluating the importance of thoughts and memories. (Wells 1995). The concept of meta-consciousness, which is a new concept, is a subject on which a lot of research has been done in recent years. Metacognition is a person's knowledge of what he knows, his thoughts about what he thinks, or his eye on his own cognitive process (Tosun and Irak 2008). In other words, we can say that it is our belief system regarding our thoughts and behaviors. These beliefs are briefly;
a) Being perfect
b) The belief that mistakes should be punished,
c) The person's ability to prevent bad consequences through magical rituals and ruminative thinking. The belief that one has the power to prevent the occurrence of disaster,
d) The belief that some thoughts are unacceptable because they may cause the disaster to occur,
e) The belief that it is easier and more effective to engage in neutralizing (not feeling) activities rather than confronting emotions
f) The belief that feelings of uncertainty and loss of control are intolerable (clark 2007).
They suggested that these dysfunctional evaluations and beliefs mentioned above contribute to the activation, emergence and continuity of obsessions and compulsions (Clark et al. 2003). Our thoughts, rules and beliefs regarding our mental functions and mental functioning are located in the metacognitive field. Metacognition is a metacognitive system that includes being aware of the events and functions in one's own mind and being able to direct mental events and functions purposefully (Dienes and Perner 1999, Doğan et al. 2013). The metacognitive model suggests that human cognitive processes play a major role in adaptation (Doğan et al. 2013).
Many studies have been conducted on OCD. One of these studies is on which beliefs are more related to OCD. For this purpose, an 87-item Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire (OBQ) was developed by the Obsessive Compulsive Cognitions Working Group (OCCWG 1997, 2001). The Obsessive Beliefs Scale measures some belief areas that are claimed to be important for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. OIB measures six areas;
1- Responsibility,
2- Importance of thoughts,
3- Control of thoughts,
4- Exaggeration of the threat,
5- Waist Intolerance to injustice,
6- Responsibility,
Responsibility is the belief that a person can and is obliged to prevent important negative events. Salkovskis (1985, 1989) suggested that people with OCD have excessive responsibility for preventing harm to others and themselves and have dysfunctional beliefs about guilt. They think that compulsive behaviors are functional in reducing or preventing potential danger and harm that may happen to the person or others, and that they can prevent blame and reduce the person's responsibility.
The importance of thoughts is that the mere occurrence of thoughts implies that the thoughts are meaningful and dangerous.
Control of thoughts is the belief that it is possible and necessary to control thoughts. Purdon and Clark (1999) suggested that erroneous beliefs about the importance of thought control and the negative evaluation of the consequences of failure to control repetitive thoughts are critical cognitive structures in the formation and maintenance of obsessions.
Exaggeration of the threat, exaggeration of the harm and its severity. It is an exaggerated belief in Rachman (1997, 1998), on the other hand, emphasizes that catastrophizing misinterpretation of one's unwanted repetitive thoughts is the basic form of evaluation that causes obsessions to persist.
Intolerance of uncertainty is the belief that there is a necessity for certainty and that uncertainty is intolerable.
Perfectionism is the belief that flaws and mistakes are intolerable (Myers et al. 2008).
While dysfunctional beliefs about the importance of thoughts, control of thoughts, and responsibility may be specific to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, intolerance of uncertainty, Exaggeration of danger and threat and other dysfunctional beliefs related to perfectionism may be related to more general anxiety states (Clark et al. 2003).
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