Mania or obsession: OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a problem of anxiety that causes recurrent thoughts that make it necessary for the sufferer to repeat rituals and behaviors that help to calm the sensation. In many cases, these come to interfere with daily life, because they escape the control of those who perform them.

Figure among the twenty most disabling diseases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The TOC conditions the daily routine and generates suffering when the person who suffers it is incapable of breaking the ritual that the disease imposes, often absurd in the eyes of the same patient.

The obsessions they have to do with contamination (touching certain things or substances, for example), repeated doubts (as if the gas or door has been closed) and impulses of an aggressive or horrendous nature (such as hurting or killing).Other obsessions refer to the need to have things in a certain order and to spend very long periods of time thinking unproductively about any issue such as a philosophical, religious or family issue.


Mania or obession

If it conditions your daily routine, generates anxiety or forces you to lose more than an hour a day of your time, what you thought was a mania may actually be an obsession.

Some examples are:

1. Excessive fear of microbes

2. Forbidden thoughts related to sex, religion, or about harming others or themselves

3. The need for an order

4. Perform repetitive behavior in response to a thought or idea, such as:

- Verify actions over and over again (how to turn off the lights and close the door)
- Telling things again and again
- Sort things in a certain way
- Wash your hands repeatedly to avoid infection
- Repeat the words in silence
- Pray in silence again and again


Characteristics of people with OCD

Keep in mind that not all people who follow certain habits or rituals have OCD. But the person with OCD:

1. He is not able to control his thoughts or behaviors, even when he understands that they are excessive.

2. Devote at least one hour a day to these thoughts or behaviors.

3. Does not get pleasure from performing a behavior or ritual, beyond a brief relief of anxiety, perhaps.

4. Has great problems in daily life because of these thoughts or rituals.

"We talk about compulsions when repetitive behaviors or mental acts or external rituals are performed in response to an obsession and in order to avoid a feared situation or momentarily reduce discomfort." Immediate relief produces an increase in anxiety and need. to repeat, entering the vicious circle of anxiety, "says María Nebot, psychiatrist at the Mental Health Unit of the Nisa Valencia al Mar Hospital.


How to diagnose obsessive-compulsive disorder

The diagnosis is made by the psychiatrist or the clinical psychologist through the interview in which the presence of defining symptoms of OCD and those avoidance behaviors that may be maintaining it are explored. There are also specific tests that assess the impact of the disorder on the patient's life.

Treatments for people with OCD

The studies confirm that the best therapeutic option includes pharmacological treatment and psychotherapeutic intervention.

- At the pharmacological level, Some antidepressants have proven effective in reducing symptoms, although their combination with other drugs such as anxiolytics is common.

- The psychotherapeutic interventionThe most used is the cognitive-behavioral orientation and is known as exposure with response prevention. In this treatment the patient is exposed in vivo and / or in the imagination to the external and internal feared stimuli while preventing the occurrence of compulsions until the anxiety decreases significantly. "This procedure has been investigated in a large number of controlled studies and has been more effective than training in anxiety management strategies and it has been proven that its positive effects last once the treatment is finished," says Dr. Nebot.

With proper treatment and monitoring by mental health professionals can refer symptoms. However, OCD is a chronic disorder and without the correct approach can become highly disabling for the person who suffers. WHO emphasizes its ability to limit the patient's personal, family, social and work life. Despite this, a high proportion of people who suffer an obsessive - compulsive problem, and who are treated with the right tools, solve their problem.

Marina Berrio
Advice:María Nebot, psychiatrist of the Mental Health Unit of the Hospital Nisa Valencia al Mar.

It may interest you:

- How to make negative thoughts disappear

- Anxiety ... what does it hide?

Video: Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) - causes, symptoms & pathology


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