What is OCD?
OCD is a mental disorder consisting of obsessions, that is, obsessive thoughts, ideas and impulses, and compulsions, that is, repetitive behaviors and mental actions (TPD, 2016). This disorder reduces the quality of life, causes serious problems with work, school and private life, and in some cases can even make it difficult for the person to continue with life.
What is obsession?
Thoughts, ideas and impulses that a person cannot prevent from entering his mind or remove from his mind. They come against the person's will, are evaluated as irrational by the person, and cause intense distress and unrest, that is, anxiety (TPD, 2016). To give examples of typical obsessions, these are urges to harm someone, including family members; recurring sexual urges and thoughts; Fear of contamination, contamination, catching and transmitting contagious diseases or infections; the constant thought of doing something wrong, the fear of going against religion, swearing, or becoming an infidel; fear of losing something very important; It's about worrying about symmetry and order. Obsessive thoughts, images, impulses, and desires can arouse unpleasant feelings in the patient, and these feelings can cause anxiety, boredom, disgust, depression, and guilt. The patient's desire to get rid of or neutralize these obsessions that tamper with his brain is usually very strong, or the patient simply chooses to escape and get rid of his obsessions. That's why the patient exhibits ritual and avoidance behavior.
What is Compulsion? And what is avoidance behavior?
It is repetitive behavior and mental actions performed to reduce or eliminate the intense distress and discomfort caused by obsessions (TPD, 2016). Compulsive behavior often becomes so extreme that people notice it; and at the same time, it manifests itself with a certain attitude or with the rules developed by the person himself. Compulsions are rituals developed by a person to reduce the discomfort, depression, feeling of guilt and tension caused by obsessions. In general, most patients realize that their behavior is excessive. Common compulsions include:
Repeatedly washing, showering, or washing your hands
E l refusing to squeeze or touch a doorknob
Constantly checking things like locks, stoves, etc.
Constantly counting numbers mentally or out loud while doing routine tasks
Constantly arranging things in a certain way
eating in order
Fixating on words, images, or thoughts that are often disturbing, haunting, and disrupting sleep
Repeating certain words, phrases, or prayers
Need to do things a certain number of times
Collecting or hoarding things that have no value.
In addition, these people may develop other methods other than the compulsions noted above, such as avoidance. These people can avoid any event that might trigger their obsessions. Typical examples of these behaviors are inability to use public toilets, inability to touch sharp objects, etc.
Compulsive behaviors, enhanced cognitive rituals, and avoidance behaviors temporarily reduce the anxiety caused by obsessions. These behaviors and rituals bring short-term relief, causing the patient to make these strategies a habit and repeat them constantly. People get so used to these behaviors and rituals that it can be difficult for them to even think that there would be no problem if they did not do the behaviors and rituals they do. Unfortunately, for these reasons, they can never test whether their hypotheses are wrong. Depending on the obsessions, compulsions can occur frequently or rarely.
How serious is OCD?
The severity of OCD is moderate to severe. He knows how to change. Some people have moderate obsessions that cause minor problems and go unnoticed by people. But in some people, it becomes very serious and can be severe enough to disturb people and themselves. In this case, there is now severe OCD and it requires treatment because it affects the person's quality of life.
How common is OCD?
OCD is a rare disease before. Although it is accepted as a rare disease, it has been determined that it is not rare at all in recent studies. Studies conducted in large groups of society have found that OCD is seen in 2-3 out of every 100 people. ır (TPD, 2016). Additionally, since many patients may experience this problem secretly, we cannot take those people into account statistically.
At what age does OCD begin and in whom is it more common?
OCD generally occurs It occurs in adolescence or early adulthood, but sometimes we can also encounter childhood obsessions. It occurs on average at the age of 22-23 in women and at the age of 16-17 in men. If OCD is not treated, it becomes chronic with increasing and decreasing symptoms. It appears equally in men and women.
What is the best treatment for OCD?
OCD treatment has improved dramatically in recent years. Many methods, including medications, can be used in the treatment of OCD. It is treated by increasing the level of serotonin secreted in the brain with medications. Behavior therapy (exposure) and cognitive therapy are used as therapies for OCD.
Cognitive Therapy - Obsessive patients try to cope with worrying thoughts by running away and avoiding these thoughts. However, as you try to escape from your thoughts, these thoughts increase even more, thus creating a vicious circle. The aim of behavioral treatments is to confront the patient with thoughts [obsessions] that are worrying and cause escape and avoidance behaviors because they create anxiety, and to prevent repetitive behaviors [compulsions] that come into play to reduce the anxiety created by this comparison. The goal is to extinguish the anxiety caused by the disturbing thought and to create a state of habituation. Treatment performed in this way is called "training treatments".
The aim of cognitive treatments is to reduce the perception of responsibility created by disturbing thoughts. When there is no perception of responsibility, patients will not feel the need to show repetitive behaviors to neutralize and neutralize the disturbing thoughts that come to mind. The aim is to reduce perceiving thoughts as real. For this reason, in the treatment, it is investigated together with the patient to what extent the perceptions of threat, danger and excessive responsibility are realistic and which thought errors result in exaggerated perceptions of threat and danger. cognition After the common errors are identified, these thoughts that are not functional enough are replaced with more realistic and functional ones. Patients who think their thoughts will result in a disaster are specifically asked to bring these thoughts to mind instead of stopping them, and then seeing that the feared consequences do not occur provides significant benefits in adapting to treatment.
Cognitive and behavioral therapies are very important both in the treatment of the disease and especially in the prevention of recurrences. They can be used sometimes alone or in combination with drug treatments.
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