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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

The most salient feature of an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) are recurrent obsessional thoughts or actions. These obsessional thoughts are ideas, images, or impulses that come into a person’s mind repetitiously in a stereotyped form. These thoughts are most always distressing (being that they can be violent, obscene or simply senseless) and the sufferer usually tries to resist them, if unsuccessfully. These are, however, recognized as the individual’s own thoughts, even if they are involuntary and sometimes repulsive. In very long cases, the resistance can be half-hearted and minimal.

An obsessive compulsive disorder is considered equally common in both men and women. There are also often very major anankastic features in the basic personality. The disorder usually appears in childhood or early adult life. The course of the disorder is erratic and could become chronic in the absence of significant depressive symptoms.

Distinguishing between obsessive-compulsive disorder and a depressive disorder can be difficult because these two types of symptoms frequently occur together and often have similar causes in the brain. When both these types are present in a patient but neither one predominates, it is usually decided that the depression is the primary symptom.

The core cause of OCD is overactivity in a certain neural network in the brain that triggers the persistent feeling that something is wrong and leads to a behavioral compulsion. This brain network has come to be known as the OCD circuit and overcoming obsessive compulsive disorder requires that the OCD circuit be modified in some way.

Web Resources On Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive Compulsive Foundation
Internet Mental Health: OCD

Book Resources On Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders : A Complete Guide to Getting Well and Staying Well by Fred Penzel
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders: Practical Management by Jenike et al.

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