Key Symptoms of OCD and Treatment Options

People are often glib about quirks they find in themselves, labeling and dismissing them as OCD. Often, if a person is a bit of a perfectionist, or they like things just so, they may say they’re a bit OCD, but that’s misleading. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a real condition that can affect a person’s life in obvious and distressing ways. Being able to identify symptoms of OCD can help you seek the right treatment.

What is OCD?

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a condition in which a person has a pattern of recurrent and tenacious unwanted thoughts and fears, which are called “obsessions” that lead them to perform certain repetitive behaviors, called “compulsions.”

These obsessions may center on the fear of getting contaminated by germs, for example, and one may have compulsions to deal with those fears of contamination by washing their hands over and over again until they hurt and are raw.

One reason these obsessions and compulsions are serious and disruptive is that attempting to dismiss or abruptly stop those obsessions only serves to intensify one’s sense of distress. As the distress increases, that fortifies the desire to perform the compulsive actions that can relieve that distress.

One may try, but ignoring or simply trying to get rid of obsessive thoughts and compulsive urges can lead to more ritualized behavior that reinforces the OCD. In this way, OCD interferes with a person’s daily functioning.

Symptoms of OCD

OCD may be signaled by either obsession, compulsions, or both. One way to see these compulsions and obsessions for what they are is to consider how much time they take up in your day, and whether they disrupt your routines and functioning. It’s possible to be so used to them that they seem reasonable, but they more often than not interfere with getting on with life.

The main symptom of obsession is that you have intrusive, unwanted, and persistent thoughts, urges, or images that cause you distress and disrupt you when doing other things. These may center around needing order and symmetry, aggressive or violent acts, sexual thoughts, or a fear of getting dirty.

Compulsions are repeated acts that are intended to prevent something bad from happening or to deal with the anxiety that obsessions initiate. These rituals keep the anxiety or unwanted thoughts at bay temporarily, but they don’t offer permanent relief.

Some signs of compulsion may include being orderly and arranging things in strict patterns, counting in patterns, constant checking, washing, and cleaning excessively. These symptoms may vary in their severity.

Even though you’re aware mentally that the compulsions aren’t reasonable, or that they won’t prevent bad things from happening, it’s difficult to stop yourself from engaging in those behaviors.

Treatment options

The good news is that there are treatment options available for OCD; while this may not necessarily result in a total cure, it can reduce symptoms and prevent them from being as disruptive. OCD is treated primarily through psychotherapy or talk therapy, and medications. Typically, these are used in combination for effective treatment.

Psychotherapy. Several therapeutic techniques are used in addressing OCD, and these include Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), which is part of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps a person identify unhealthy thoughts and behaviors so that these can be disrupted and replaced with healthy ones.

ERP helps a person by exposing them systematically and gradually to their obsession or something of which they are afraid. Such exposure helps a person manage their compulsions and obsessions as they also learn how to resist the urge to lean on their compulsive behaviors to relieve anxiety.

Medications. Several medications may be prescribed to help address OCD, and these are primarily antidepressants such as Fluoxetine (Prozac), Sertraline (Zoloft), and Paroxetine (Paxil) to name a few. Your doctor may prescribe other medications, and it’s a process of figuring out which medication and dosage works best to reduce your obsessions and compulsions.

If you’re finding your flourishing and functioning being disrupted by either obsessions or compulsions, seek help from a health professional to begin your journey toward greater calm and peace.