Hey everyone.
Today's video topic comes by popular demand, and you've been waiting for ever and ever.
And many of you are like 'Kati, are you ever going to put this video out?'
And the answer is yes! I'm putting it out right now. Today.
You're watching it. Hello!
And today's topic is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Or OCD.
So stay tuned.
OCD is a disorder that, we have recurrent obsessions and compulsions.
That's what the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is.
And it's kind of hard to explain just, 'It is this'.
So I am going to explain is, why do we do it. What is it that we do. And how often are we doing these things.
So, the obsessions, these are the thoughts.
Think about it, if I am obsessed with something. I think about it all the time, it's all that I want to do.
It takes up all my time. And in the DSM, they require that it takes up at least an hour of your time doing these things.
The thinking and the doing. The obsessions and the compulsions. To get this diagnosis.
So the obsessions can be any recurrent thoughts.
So it's like, I may, a lot have obsessions about doing things a number of times whether it's cleaning or washing
your hands, can be turning off and on the lights can be locking and unlocking the door. It can be putting your shoes on and taking them off.
It can be brushing your hair a certain number of times.
You can see where it can be anything.
Everybody's different, everybody has a different obsession.
And the compulsions are the acts that we do.
So let's say that my obsession is cleanliness.
My compulsion would be cleaning.
Now usually obsessions are pretty specific. So they will be like a certain thing.
So I am obsessed with being, having a clean toilet.
So I may obsess about it. Like I can't sit down and go pee.
I have to pee really bad but I can't sit because I haven't cleaned it, I have to get my Clorox wipe, I have to wipe
around the toilet bowl five times this way five times that way, throw it away get a new one.
That could be my compulsion, all of those actions.
The obsession is that it has to be clean. The compulsion is making it clean.
Okay.
And these can be anything.
And the way that it pertains to our eating disorder or our self harm is that usually.
We'll talk eating disorders first. Because it's just easier to separate them.
So if we have an OCD component, and we also have an eating disorder.
Our OCD can sometimes, [forgive me for the term], but it feeds our eating disorder.
Because the obsessions will be about food. And the compulsions will be about food or exercise and you can see how it kind of ties together.
A lot of my eating disorder patients will have 'rituals', which is actually kind of a compulsion.
Where they do things in a certain order, where they eat things of a certain colour or type or all sorts of things you can imagine.
And so can see how those are linked, and how they can feed into one another and what we do.
And the same with our self harm.
A lot of people have rituals around self harm and things they have to do leading up to it. And it has to be done in a specific order or we have to start all over.
And I have a lot of patients who will cut certain numbers of times, or odd number even number.
I have patients who don't even like odd or even numbers.
And so anything with an odd or even number on it is bad. And they meet people with birthdays.
I mean it can be, you can see how these obsessions can go all over the place.
And that's how it links to other disorders. Our eating disorders, our self harm, as well as our depression.
Because it can take up a lot of time.
Now the DSM just requires that it takes up at least an hour a day.
But imagine if you are spending an hour a day, most people that I actually see is probably more than an hour if we add it all up all the time.
But the best thing for OCD in my opinion is another acronym. Because we are so full of acronyms.
Is CBT therapy. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
And I can do another video on this topic as a whole, what it is. There are tons of wonderful articles if you just
google 'cognitive behavioural therapy' or 'CBT therapy'. Describing it and how it works.
But a lot of it is getting us out of this cycle where our brain thinks this and we have to do the compulsion to release that anxiety that comes along with all of the obsessions.
And so CBT can kind of break that link and allow us to slowly fight the urges.
And I think that's why I talk a lot about talking back to that voice. Because that can even work with OCD.
If we talk back to that voice and we can even, for some people I know it works, for some of my clients to logically talk themselves out of eating disorder behaviours.
And that can also work for OCD.
There is a little difference, if any of you have ever heard of Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder.
The difference between Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder and OCD that I'm talking about today, is when people have the personality disorder, they actually enjoy it.
People with OCD don't enjoy it.
This is really hard on us, it is extremely stressful and anxiety provoking, it takes up so much of our time.
And it makes everything really overwhelming and it can make us late for things.
And it can make people frustrated with us. And we just feel really bad about it.
But people with the Personality Disorder are like 'It's the principle of it, like I do this because I have to you don't have to.'
And they have no problem telling people to just go away. Like I will deal with this on my own, it's my own thing.
There is no remorse for it.
So that's a little bit of differentiation.
So if you have heard that you have had the personality disorder, or you've had OCD. You can tell where the differences lie.
Now, what do we do once we have got this diagnosis, and now we know we have OCD.
Like I said before we take CBT therapy if we can.
Most therapists who are worth their weight at all, can do CBT therapy.
It's very simple. It's the only therapy that's actually statistically proven to be significant.
And we actually get improvement in the symptoms. And it's actually recordable.
There aren't really many therapies that can say that. So we all learn CBT in school. Or at least I did.
And I practice it in many of incoming internship sites.
So find someone who can do it, and do it well.
Get yourself a workbook on it.
I will link on my website into my recommended reads, there is a widget at the bottom of my website katimorton.com and I will put a book in there for you, a workbook for CBT.
And also. Please get into a group.
Groups are great for this. It's great to know that you are not alone. That all this anxiety and all the worry that you have,
and the kind of negativity that you feel, it's nice to know that you are not alone in that.
And other people have had that same experience and they have been able to get over it.
So I would encourage you to look into that.
And also seeing a psychiatrist.
Medication can also help with this, I know not all of you like medication and I know that it makes some of us very nervous.
But we have to get a full treatment team together, right. So that we can help ourselves a little better.
So I hope you enjoyed that video, and I will continue to touch on this topic and other anxiety disorders.
Give this a like if you want more information, if you liked this video.
And leave your comments and helpful hints below.
Because we can all help one another.
That's what's so great about our community.
And I will see you next time, as we work towards a healthy mind and a healthy body.
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