OCD is a common disorder that affects adults, adolescents, and children all over the world. Most people are diagnosed by about age 19, typically with an earlier age of onset in boys than in girls, but onset after age 35 does happen.
OCD often centers around certain themes — for example, a fear of getting contaminated by germs. To ease your contamination fears, you may compulsively wash your hands until they're sore and chapped.
If you have OCD, you may be ashamed and embarrassed about the condition, but treatment can be effective.
What Is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)?
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) features a pattern of unreasonable thoughts and fears (obsessions) that lead you to do repetitive behaviors (compulsions). These obsessions and compulsions interfere with daily activities and cause significant distress.
You may try to ignore or stop your obsessions, but that only increases your distress and anxiety. Ultimately, you feel driven to perform compulsive acts to try to ease your stress. Despite efforts to ignore or get rid of bothersome thoughts or urges, they keep coming back. This leads to more ritualistic behavior — the vicious cycle of OCD.
What Are The Symptoms?
People with OCD may have symptoms of obsessions, compulsions, or both. These symptoms can interfere with all aspects of life, such as work, school, and personal relationships.
Obsessions are the repeated thoughts, urges, or mental images that cause anxiety. Common symptoms may include:
- Fear of germs or contamination
- Unwanted forbidden or taboo thoughts involving sex, religion, and harm
- Aggressive thoughts towards others or self
- Having things symmetrical or in a perfect order
Compulsions are the repetitive behaviors that a person with OCD feels the urge to do in response to an obsessive thought. Common compulsions may include:
- Excessive cleaning and/or hand washing
- Ordering or arranging things in a particular, precise way
- Repeatedly checking on things, such as repeatedly checking to see if the door is locked or that the oven is off
- Compulsive counting
Not all rituals or habits are compulsions. Everyone double checks things sometimes. But a person with OCD generally:
- Can't control his/her thoughts or behaviours, even when those thoughts or behaviours are recognized as excessive
- Spends at least one hour a day on these thoughts or behaviours
- Doesn't get pleasure when performing the behaviours or rituals, but may feel a brief relief from the anxiety the thoughts can cause
- Experiences significant problems in their daily life due to these thoughts or behaviours
Some individuals with OCD also have a tic disorder. Motor tics are sudden, brief, repetitive movements, such as eye blinking and other eye movements, facial grimacing, shoulder shrugging, and head or shoulder jerking. Common vocal tics include repetitive throat-clearing, sniffing, or grunting sounds.
Symptoms may come and go, ease over time, or worsen. People with OCD may try to help themselves by avoiding situations that trigger their obsessions, or they may use alcohol or drugs to calm themselves. Although most adults with OCD recognize that what they are doing doesn't make sense, some adults and most children may not realize that their behavior is out of the ordinary. Parents or teachers typically recognize OCD symptoms in children.
What Are The Risk Factors?
The causes of OCD are unknown, but risk factors may include:
- Family History. Having parents or other family members with the disorder can increase your risk of developing OCD.
- Stressful Life Events. If you've experienced traumatic or stressful events, your risk may increase. This reaction may, for some reason, trigger the intrusive thoughts, rituals and emotional distress characteristic of OCD.
- Other Mental Health Disorders. OCD may be related to other mental health disorders, such as anxiety disorders, depression, substance abuse or tic disorders.
What Are The Complications?
Problems resulting from OCD may include:
- Health issues, such as contact dermatitis from frequent hand washing
- Inability to attend work, school, or social activities
- Troubled relationship(s)
- Overall poor quality of life
- Suicidal thoughts or behaviours
What Are The Causes?
- Genetics. Twin and family studies have shown that people with first-degree relatives (such as a parent, sibling, or child) who have OCD are at a higher risk for developing OCD themselves. The risk is higher if the first-degree relative developed OCD as a child or teen.
- Brain Structure or Function. Imaging studies have shown differences in the frontal cortex and subcortical structures of the brain in patients with OCD. There appears to be a connection between the OCD symptoms and abnormalities in certain areas of the brain, but that connection is not clear. Research is still underway.
- Environent. People who have experienced abuse (physical or sexual) in childhood or other trauma are at an increased risk for developing OCD.
