- [Voiceover] Right before you leave the house, you might
double-check that you've turned off the stove, right?
So it doesn't burn the house down or something.
This is a totally normal thing to do.
Someone with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
might feel the need to triple or even quadruple-check it,
or even do other things, or have to perform a specific
series of things or a routine before they can leave.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, or OCD,
is a type of anxiety disorder, where you have
these frequent and upsetting thoughts
that are basically unwanted and intrusive,
so they just sort of force their way into your brain,
and so you tend to obsess over them,
and we end up calling these thoughts obsessions.
And these produce some sort of anxiety,
and in this attempt to try and control these
intrusive obsessions and anxiety,
you feel this overwhelming urge, or you feel
compelled to repeat certain rituals or behaviors,
which we call compulsions, and so the two
components to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
are obsessions and compulsions, that makes sense.
And for someone with OCD, these thoughts
and rituals cause serious distress to their
daily life and can also interfere with their
daily activities and social interactions.
So, when looking at people with OCD,
there are several more common types
of obsessions and compulsions, and it's important
to note that the obsessions and compulsions
usually come together, but there can also be
just obsessions or just compulsions.
All right, first there's cleaning, and this compulsion
is very commonly associated with OCD and is brought
about by this obsession with germs and contamination.
To control these germs and apparent contamination,
someone might spend hours washing both
themselves and their surroundings.
Now, another type of compulsion is repeating,
and this involves saying a phrase or a name
or doing some behavior several times in a row.
With this compulsion, there's this obsession that if they
don't do these repetitions, then something bad'll happen.
As an example, they might have to turn on and off
a light switch multiple times before entering a room.
Checking is another compulsion, and patients will
constantly check and re-check something to make
sure that it's safe because they have this obsession
or fear of hurting themselves or others.
An example might be checking several times that the
door is locked, or checking that the gas stove is off.
Ordering and arranging is this compulsion to order
objects in a certain way or make sure that
they're symmetrical in some way, or to always
have to have things perfect or just so.
An example might be needing to have the books
on a bookshelf organized by color.
They become obsessed with this order and
feel that it reduces discomfort and anxiety.
Finally, mental rituals are these prayers
or phrases that are performed to try and
neutralize or get rid of these intrusive thoughts,
or to try to prevent this dreaded future event.
So if they have this bad thought, they might
try and use this specific phrase or prayer
to replace this bad thought.
Okay, so now, if someone has one of these obsessions
or compulsions, they may meet the criteria for OCD.
In order to figure this out, a mental health professional
will look at the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
for Mental Disorders, the 5th edition,
or more fondly known as the DSM-5.
For it to be an obsession, the first criteria is that
they have to have this recurrent and persistent unwanted
thoughts that cause a lot of anxiety and distress.
Secondly, the patient has to have tried to suppress
or ignore these thoughts, and then for it to be
a compulsion, the first criteria is that either
repetitive behaviors like ordering or checking,
or mental acts like praying or counting,
are done in a response to an obsession.
And then secondly, the compulsions are done
to reduce anxiety or prevent some sort of distress
and are clearly excessive.
Again, someone doesn't need to have both obsessions
and compulsions for a diagnosis of OCD and may have
only one or the other, but why might someone
have one of these obsessions or compulsions?
What causes someone to develop OCD?
Well, what we do know is that OCD tends to run in families,
and the cause is now thought to be largely biological,
as opposed to completely environmental.
Ultimately, though, we still don't really know
what the exact cause of OCD is.
Usually, though, it starts for many people
in their childhood or teen years,
most being diagnosed by about age 20,
and affects about two million Americans,
and it's equally as common with men as with women.
Once OCD's been diagnosed, we're going to look
to treatment, which is either psychotherapy, specifically
cognitive behavior therapy, medications, or both.
One particularly effective cognitive behavior
therapy that they'll probably try is
called exposure and response therapy.
With this therapy, the patient is exposed
to the situations that might be causing
some sort of anxiety or causing them
to follow through with their compulsions.
Through this exposure, the patient might
be able to reduce the resulting compulsive rituals
and find that the anxiety that comes from the
obsessions actually lessons without the rituals.
This treatment, though, is only effective
if the patient adheres to the procedures.
Some patients don't agree to participate
because they don't want to experience the anxiety.
On the other hand, some patients are given medications.
Serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SRIs, can be effective
in treating about half the patients that take them.
Although very helpful, they'll often leave residual
symptoms, though, or side effects, that might need
to be treated with other medications or psychotherapy.
Patients that have gotten treatment, though,
via these methods are shown to have an
increased quality of life and are usually
able to get back to their normal routine,
including school, work, and relationships.