Understanding Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Like other anxiety disorders, OCD involves unwanted thoughts, fears, or worries that prevent children, adolescents, or adults from normal, healthy engagement.
OCD also involves time-consuming rituals and compulsive behaviors that disrupt your quality of life. These include repeated hand washing, checking, and other rituals, all symptoms that Mark Behavioral Health can help you control.
About 1.2% of adults in the U.S. had OCD in the past year.
OCD should not be confused with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, which involves an obsessive fixation on control, organization, and perfectionism.
People who have OCD feel like they can’t participate in life. However, through treatment like what we offer at Mark Behavioral Health in Florida, you can manage your OCD symptoms and engage in life again.
Symptoms of OCD
Like other mental health conditions, symptoms of OCD have a range in terms of severity. Someone who has mild OCD may not experience the same level of fear and worry as someone who has severe OCD, though both are treatable at Mark Behavioral Health.
Symptoms of OCD tend to break down into obsessions and compulsions. These symptoms can apply in one way or another to the different types of OCD.
Obsessions that tend to be symptomatic of OCD include:
- Repeated doubts about having done something
- Fixation on germs or contamination
- Thoughts of hurting someone (not desire to)
- An inordinate desire to create a specific order for certain items
- Fixation with symmetry
- Touching or counting things for a long time
- Thoughts that go against religious beliefs
- Thoughts of forbidden or harmful sexual acts
Symptoms of compulsions related to OCD include:
- Repeated checking (such as if you locked the door)
- Excessive cleaning
- Excessive hand washing
- Compulsive counting
- Following a rigid and arbitrary set of rules such as in what order you should put on your clothes
If you are experiencing some of these symptoms, you can find help at Mark Behavioral Health. Reach out to us today to talk to a mental health professional and learn more about what you’re experiencing and how you can manage it.
Causes & Risk Factors of OCD
There is rarely a single cause of OCD or related disorders. The onset of mental health disorders is often related to a combination of probable causes and risk factors.
Anyone can develop OCD, but it often occurs in teens and young adults. Children can develop it too. Nevertheless, everyone can find treatment for OCD at Mark Behavioral Health.
Risk factors for OCD may include:
- Having a parent or sibling with a mental illness
- Having a parent or sibling with OCD
- Being a teens
- Being a young adult around the age of 20
- Childhood trauma
Some brain images of people with OCD suggest a correlation between OCD and the structure of certain parts of the brain. But this is the source of ongoing study.
Types of OCD
While OCD has a general set of symptoms, there are many different types of this anxiety disorder which are recognizable through the symptoms.
For example, someone who is suffering from contamination OCD may not experience symptoms related to order and counting.
But no matter what form OCD takes, we at Mark Behavioral Health can help you learn how to overcome it.
Checking
Checking is a form of OCD that causes excessive worry about whether you have completed a certain task, done something correctly, or turned something on or off.
Symptoms of checking can include checking that:
- You haven’t hurt yourself
- You haven’t hurt others
- You didn’t make a mistake, like at work for example
- Nothing bad happened
- Your body or certain parts of it are OK
Contamination
Contamination is a form of OCD that revolves around the fear or worry of catching germs, becoming sick, or getting dirty or contaminated.
Obsessions related to contamination OCD include the fear of coming into contact with:
- Feces, urine, or other bodily fluids
- Asbestos or other environmental contaminants
- Diseases or germs
- Household cleaners, solvents, or other chemicals
Compulsions related to contamination OCD include:
- Excessive grooming such as showering or brushing your teeth
- Washing hands excessively or in a ritualistic way
- Preventing contact with contaminants or germs by isolating
- Excessive cleaning of household objects like door knobs, for example
OCD can take over your life, but through psychotherapy and other treatments at Mark Behavioral Health, you can learn to control the disorder.
Symmetry and Ordering
OCD that relates to symmetry and ordering causes excessive worry or concern over the exactness, numbers that are “safe”, or order of certain objects or actions.
Symmetry and ordering obsessions can include excessive concern over:
- The need to remember something correctly
- Exactness or evenness
- Performing tasks perfectly
- Accidentally losing something important when throwing something out
- Making mistakes
Ruminations and Intrusive Thoughts
Intrusive thoughts and ruminations are excessive fears over doing something that you find awful or abhorrent or something that involves harming others.
When you come to Mark Behavioral Health for help, our mental health professionals treat you with compassion and respect so you can learn to manage the disorder.
Obsessions related to ruminations and intrusive thoughts include excessive:
- Concern over violent images in your mind
- Fear of harming yourself
- Fear of harming others
- Concern over right and wrong
- Fear of blaspheming against God or offending God in some way
- Fear of sexually harming relatives, children, or others
- Fear of acting in a sexually impulsive way
- Fear of acting in a sexually aggressive way
Other Types
There are other types of OCD that can affect people. Some disorders, like body dysmorphic disorder, have similarities with OCD but are not obsessive compulsive disorders.
The disorders listed below are other types of OCD:
- Hoarding disorder, in which a person hoards items of little value, purchases that are never used, or duplicates
- Relationship obsessions revolve around obsessive concern over whether someone is the “right fit”
- Identity obsessions that express excessive concern over one’s gender identity or sexual orientation
- Existential obsessions in which someone has a preoccupation with death or philosophies that relate to one’s place in the world
- OCD tics that involve repeated motions or vocal tics
Effects of Untreated OCD
OCD can become severe when left untreated. The amount, type, and intricacy of rituals tend to increase, and obsessive thoughts become more severe.
The need to keep up rituals can become all-consuming, taking over your life and affecting the lives of family members and loved ones.
If left untreated, OCD can sometimes become tangled with other mental health disorders, such as depression, or other anxiety disorders.
Diagnosing OCD
If you are experiencing any of the symptoms above, consult a doctor to learn more about what you are experiencing.
Qualified medical professionals will run an OCD test to determine if that is what you have. An OCD test typically involves three components:
- A blood test
- A physical examination
- A mental health test
The reason for the blood test and examination is to see if your symptoms are being caused by a physical disorder, side effects of medication, or another mental illness.
A mental health test involves answering a series of questions that are geared toward discovering the nature of your symptoms.
Treatment for OCD at Mark Behavioral Health
Mark Behavioral Health offers a variety of treatment options for OCD. These range from therapy and medication to inpatient care.
When you first come to Mark Behavioral Health, we will go over our treatment programs, help you find the approach that is best-suited to what you need, and develop a treatment plan.
Residential Treatment
At Mark Behavioral Health, we offer residential care for people who need to stabilize and focus on symptom management.
Our residential treatment program offers care for weeks up to months, depending on your needs. During your stay, you will take part in counseling, therapy, and other treatment methods to help you learn to manage OCD.
Compassionate, experienced, and licensed mental health professionals will guide your treatment and help you find coping methods that work for you.
Ultimately, you will work toward learning to identify and manage symptoms in real time, so you can function in daily life without help.
Medication Management
Mark Behavioral Health provides medication management to help you safely take your medication and monitor for side effects.
FDA-approved medications usually include Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), which are a first-line treatment, and Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SRIs).
Antidepressant medications used for OCD include:
- Clomipramine (a tricyclic antidepressant)
- Fluoxetine
- Fluvoxamine
- Paroxetine
- Sertraline
Talk Therapy & Support Groups
Talk therapy, support groups, and other psychotherapeutic interventions are extremely important in treating OCD.
Standard treatments for OCD include a form of talk therapy called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and exposure and response prevention (ERP) which is a type of CBT.
Alternative therapies include transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which Mark Behavioral offers, and a neurosurgical solution called deep brain stimulation (DBS).
Manage OCD with the Right Support at Mark Behavioral Health
If you are suffering from symptoms related to OCD, you can find help today at Mark Behavioral Health.
Our professional and compassionate providers are ready to answer your questions and give you the tools you need to manage this disorder.
You don’t have to live your life controlled by OCD. At Mark Behavioral Health, we can help you take back your life today. Connect with us to learn how to get started.
