Overview
OCD is not just liking things neat. It is a debilitating disorder which causes significant distress to someone suffering from it. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic mental health condition characterized by obsessions which lead to compulsive behaviors.
OCD features a pattern of unwanted (and often distressing) thoughts (obsessions) that lead you to perform repetitive behaviours (compulsions). You might try to stop these behaviours but that increases your anxiety, ultimately you’re driven to perform these compulsive acts which in turn might offer temporary relief.
Although people with OCD may know that their thoughts and behaviors don’t make logical sense, they’re often unable to stop them. Or in other words an anxiety disorder in which a person has intrusive ideas, thoughts, or images that occur repeatedly, and in which he or she feels driven to perform certain behaviors over and over again
Throughout this handbook Dia will be our model child who experiences OCD
Source:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/obsessive-compulsive-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20354432
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-when-unwanted-thoughts-take-over
Symptoms
- Recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges or images that are experienced, at some time during the disturbance, as intrusive, unwanted, and that in most individuals cause marked anxiety or distress.
- The individual attempts to ignore or suppress such thoughts, urges, or images, or to neutralize them with some thought or action (i.e., by performing a compulsion).
- Repetitive behaviors (e.g., hand washing, ordering checking) or mental acts (e.g., praying, counting, repeating words silently) that the person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession, or according to the rules that must be applied rigidly.
- The behaviors or mental acts are aimed at preventing or reducing distress or preventing some dreaded event or situation.
- The obsessions or compulsions are time consuming (e.g., take more than 1 hour per day) or cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
For example: Dia has trouble sleeping on time everyday, because she spends 2 hours completing her ‘rituals’ to check if everyone at home is alright- by checking the locks, doors and asking her family members if they are alright.
References: American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).
Prevalence
Lifetime prevalence of OCD worldwide ranges from 1% to 3%, with a rate higher in the developed world 2%–3%. Indian data from the national mental health survey and one more study shows a prevalence of 0.8% and 0.6% respectively. Worldwide 1 in 100 adults are estimated to have OCD.
There are as many children with OCD as there are children with diabetes. OCD can emerge at any time from preschool to adulthood, but most commonly appears between ages 10-12 or in late teens/early adulthood.
References: Avasthi, A., Sharma, A., & Grover, S. (2019). Clinical practice guidelines for the management of obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents. Indian journal of psychiatry, 61(Suppl 2), 306.
International OCD foundation. (2017). Help Separate OCD Myths from the Facts.
Source: https://iocdf.org/blog/2017/10/03/help-seperate-ocd-myths-from-the-facts/