Quirky Habit or Sign of OCD? Get the Facts...
Is your daily routine a quirky habit or a sign of OCD? Dr. Jennifer O'Connor shares her list of common OCD symptoms:
Dr. Jennifer O'Connor: OCD involves the experience of unwanted and highly distressing thoughts that come into a person's mind over and over again, despite persistent efforts to push the thoughts away.
Common Obsessions in OCD Include:
OCD also involves the presence of compulsions.
Compulsions are repetitive behaviors that a person engages in to make the obsessions go away. They are highly time-consuming and get in the way of activities that the person values, like spending time with friends or family.
Common compulsions in OCD include:
- excessive and ritualized washing and cleaning behaviors (i.e., wiping over and over again after using the toilet)
- excessive checking behaviors (i.e., checking repeatedly to make sure the stove was turned off)
- repeating routine activities or doing things according to a certain number (i.e., rereading something exactly 3 times)
- praying or confessing to others in an effort to eliminate "bad thoughts" (i.e., praying a specific prayer each time a certain word or image comes to mind)
- collecting or hoarding (i.e., keeping things that most people would throw away like trash or old papers)
To learn more about Dr. Jennifer O'Connor, a licensed psychologist specializing in anxiety disorders, eating disorders & adolescent issues, go to DrJenniferOConnor.com.
Comments
I am 42 years old and have suffered from OCD since the 7th grade. Fear of being judged has always been the driving force behind my OCD. Many reasons behind the rituals have come and gone throughout the years. Everything from an abusive alcoholic parent to living in my head as a man when I'm biologically a woman. Keeping everything clean and neat on the surface is a defense mechanism I developed as a child in an effort to go unnoticed. If the outside was clean and orderly, then no one would ask me if anything was wrong and therefore, I didn't have to talk about it. Now the OCD has taken on a life of it's own and it will find any reason to rationalize irrational cleaning rituals. I know I will never be free of OCD completely. Not even if I were to ever go through a gender change. I feel like two people, me and OCD. My spouse also walks same fine line of enabling and loving. She tells me I am not Cindy and OCD, but that I am Cindy with OCD. She doesn't deserve to sit next to me in the OCD prison and I've told her she is not enough for me to change. I know I have to want to do it for myself. However, like Jennifer I too often feel death is the only escape and the ultimate anxiety relief. So what happens when your self-worth is only just enough to get you out of bed each day?
Thank you for the ocd show, You are right it should be discussed more. My son has ocd and they really do suffer.Thank you, Thank you. You are a great guy!!!
I watched the show on OCD. Jennifer reminded me of my daughter who is 28. The show helped me to better understand what she goes through on a daily basis. She has received mental health counseling but she seems to be getting worse. I fear that one day I will find her dead because she is mentally tortured on a daily basis. This has been going on since she has been a teenager. Can you help us?
Thank you so much for your show featuring Jennifer and her OCD! I suffered with extreme OCD five years ago and also felt incredibly hopeless and depressed. Knowing that I had three children gave me the motivation to live and get help, and even though it was not easy for any of us, I was able to get help through therapy and medication (which I had previously been very opposed to taking). Five years later, I am now the person I used to be and am able to do the things that I had once feared. I still take medication and check in with a psychiatrist every 3-4 months, but that is such a small price to pay to have my life back. I would be more than happy to share specific details of my illness and recovery with Jennifer and with others who need help. You really can manage your symptoms and lead a normal life if you can accept that you need help. I know it is not easy, but it is well worth it! Please feel free to e-mail me if you would like to chat! I feel blessed to have my life back and would love to help Jennifer and others who are suffering.
I suffer from OCD, albeit not as severe as the case that Jennifer is experiencing. I have struggled with things like excessive hand washing, checking doors, stoves, alarm clocks, and electric appliances for long periods, and some of the obsessive thoughts detailed above. I keep things that I have no use for, until they pile up. About the only thing I do not notice having problems with is the superstition and prayer/blasphemy. (I am an atheist, so I suppose that eliminates the concern that I will be blasphemous or the need to pray, as well as the superstitious concerns about numbers.)
I also suffer from depression and anxiety when in public places, which seems to be a component of my OCD, at least to the point that many of my rituals incorporate my fear of interacting with others and leaving the house.
I feel soo bad for Jennifer,her mom,her friend, and whoever else is in this situation with her...she needs help but will not agree to get it...if i could send her any message it would be "suicide" is extremely selfish...and if she decides to take this action she'll never be an "angel" in heaven....she might wanna re-think treatment...i pray she does...
I have OCD and I have found very little assistance for it in either the US or Canada where I now preside - unless it's life or death situations. My entire life is ritualized to the point that I don't even like leaving my home (unless it's part of a weekly ritual). The doctors consistently go looking for another mental illness and focus all their energy on that. I have been treated for situational depression, totally unrelated to my OCD. I have never been able to get my OCD under control and I fear that over the years it will only continue to get worse. My OCD has even led to extreme agoraphobia and I often feel like it could turn that way again. I've been told by my doctor to go out for a walk, even if it's just five minutes -- but telling myself to do it isn't really enough. I really can't GET myself to do it. Everything else that "must be done" has to "come first". I feel helpless and resigned to a life of routine. The only thing I have found that helps is actually incorporating my obsessions and compulsions into my work and I worry that sometimes it actually encourages it.
Wow - hilarious! You guys actually bleeped out the the last letter of the word "just" & the first 3 letters of the word "watched" - the reasons are obvious but crazy: There was a space between the 2 words! Your dirty word checker needs some fine tuning!
I jus*****ched the segment about Jennifer. She obviously has serious problems & needs help. But I don't understand why she would not be permitted to exercise 1 hour per day during treatment. 1 hour per day is actually the amount of exercise that every person should be getting. We can "get by" with something like 20-30 minutes, but healthy people should be getting about an hour of vigorous physical activity per day. BTW, I don't say this because I am an exercise freak myself, I don't get any exercise at all far too much of the time, but I know what I need to get. The fact that exercise plays into this young woman's compulsive symptoms should not mean she would be forbidden to do it. People obsessed with locking doors can't be forbidden to ever lock their doors, people obsessed with washing their hands can't be told to stop washing their hands completely, it's absurd. I think the refusal of the experts to work with her on this point was one of the reasons she dropped out of treatment later. Why could they not bargain & say that her food intake needs to be increased for her to exercise at that level, if that is the case. It was like the goal is for her to "surrender unconditionally", which has the connotation of those she "surrenders" to "winning" & her "losing". I think this approach is something that would put off many people.