When you hear of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, what strikes your mind first? Maybe, aligning the objects, biting nails, or perhaps tidiness, isn’t it? But, the fact is, these are some of the common symptoms, whereas, in reality, there are several other rare too.
The intrusive and repetitive thoughts can make a person mentally sick and inferior to their existence too. On average, it takes around 14-17 years for a person to find treatment, and till then, the person has to go through their illness. Therefore, it is essential to understand that mental illness is not a crime; it’s something that needs to be understood by all without judgment.
Riverview psychological services intend to extend a helping hand to such sufferers. Here are some of the common and rare symptoms of OCD that we all must know.
Common Symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
The person starts to face the symptoms of OCD during teenage or even from the age, less than this. Furthermore, this indication begins to worsen as time passes. These symptoms can be mild or worse, as well. Some people face obsessive thoughts only without engaging in compulsive behavior.
Furthermore, many people facing OCD tend to hide their illness due to the fear of stigma related to mental illness and the feeling of embarrassment connected to it.
Obsessions
In a simplified manner, obsession is a feeling, the everyday worries experienced by most healthy people when thinking about real-life problems. The individuals with OCD experience unnecessary thoughts and concerns, which force them to engage in particular thoughts or actions, to release or suppress anxiety and fear.
Common OCD obsessions include:
- Losing control, this consists of a fear of acting on an urge to harm others or one’s self
- Contamination fears such as body fluids, dirt, and germs
- Perfectionism that includes concerns about exactness, fear of losing things, needing to remember things
- Unintended sexual thoughts including obsessions about incest or homosexuality
- Harm, including a constant fear of being accountable for something dreadful happening
- Religious obsessions that include the concerns about offending God
Compulsions
Compulsive behavior disorder is another aspect of this mental illness that also impacts the mind of a person. Furthermore, it is also crucial to understand that not all “rituals” or forms of repetitive behavior can be considered as compulsions.
The common repetitive behaviors that feature in regular life may include religious practices, bedtime routines, and learning a new skill. The action also depends on the context such as an individual who works in a video store arranging DVDs for 8 hours a day is probably not acting out of compulsion.
Common OCD compulsions include:
- Mental compulsions, which includes praying to prevent mentally reviewing events, and harm
- Checking that consists of the checking body parts or inspecting that nothing dreadful happened
- Cleaning and washing, including continuous hand-washing
- Repeating which includes repeating and rereading routine actions like getting up from a chair
Rare Obsession Compulsive Disorder
Hyperawareness OCD
Hyperawareness OCD, also known as sensorimotor or somatic OCD, is when a person becomes obsessed with body parts, or standard bodily functions that are unintentional. One of the collective obsession is Blinking is a, as is swallowing, or breathing.
Hyperawareness OCD can also be understood as excessive attention paid to external stimuli. The person experiencing Hyperawareness OCD feels that whatever their brain has fixated on is significantly brighter, louder, closer, occurring in higher frequency, persistent, and more distracting to them than to the average or ordinary person.
Emotional Contamination OCD
One more rare sort of compulsive behavior disorder is Emotional Contamination. Here the contamination can often be deep-rooted in a personality or the individual that the OCD contamination can often be deep-rooted in character.
In a case study, it was found that a 25-year-old man named Joe was facing compulsive thoughts that he would be polluted by one of his roommates at college, Connor. Joe was terrified of his roommate’s ruthless behavior and always faced a fear that he would also get polluted if he came in contact with him.
Eventually, such people start to avoid people or that though of contamination. Such contamination can spread like gems or radiations. Moreover, it can spread through the internet, air, and associations.
Pedophilia OCD
Pedophilia Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, also widely known as pOCD, is an enormously painful and shame-inducing type of OCD. It is one of the types that is often considered taboo, and that is the reason it’s the least discusses.
The people suffering from this form of OCD start to question themselves about their intentions around children. The person begins to have constant and disturbing thoughts when they are near kids. They feel their intentions are not right. Therefore it is crucial to cure this compulsive behavior disorder before the sufferer harms oneself or others.
