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OCD is a mental health condition that involves distressing, intrusive, obsessive thoughts and repetitive, compulsive physical or mental acts.

Approximately 2% of the population have OCD. About half of the time, the symptoms appear during childhood or adolescence, and this rarely happens after the age of 40.

OCD is an anxiety disorder, and it is one of several conditions involving obsessive thoughts and compulsive behavior.

Having OCD can significantly affect a person’s quality of life and their well being.

A person with OCD typically:

• has thoughts, images, or urges that they feel unable to control

• does not want to have these intrusive thoughts and feelings

• experiences a significant amount of discomfort, possibly involving fear, disgust, doubt, or a conviction that things must be done in a certain way

• spends a lot of time focusing on these obsessions and engaging in compulsions, which interferes with personal, social, and professional activities

Types

OCD can affect different people in different ways. It may involve:

Concern with checking

A person with OCD may feel the need to check repeatedly for problems. This might include:

• checking taps, alarms, door locks, house lights, and appliances to prevent leaks, damage, or fire, for example

• checking their body for signs of illness

• confirming the authenticity of memories

• repeatedly checking communication, such as e-mails, for fear of having made a mistake or offending the recipient

Fears of contamination

Some people with OCD feel a continual, overwhelming need to wash. They may fear that objects that they touch are contaminated.

This can lead to:

• excessive toothbrushing or handwashing

• repeatedly cleaning the bathroom, kitchen, and other rooms

• avoiding crowds for fear of contracting germs

Some people experience a sense of contamination if they feel that someone has mistreated or criticized them. They may try to remove this feeling by washing.

Hoarding

This involves a person feeling unable to throw away used or useless possessions.

Intrusive thoughts

This involves feeling unable to prevent repetitious unwanted thoughts These may involve violence, including suicide or harming others.

The thoughts can cause intense distress, but the person is unlikely to act in a way that reflects this violence.

A person with this type of OCD may fear that they are a pedophile, even with no evidence to support this.

Symmetry and orderliness

A person with this type of OCD may feel that they need to arrange objects in a certain order to avoid discomfort or harm.

They may repeatedly rearrange the books on a shelf.

Obsessions

While everyone worries, in people with OCD, worries and anxiety can take over, making it hard to carry out everyday tasks.

Common topics of this anxiety include:

• Contamination, by bodily fluids, germs, dirt, and other substances

• Losing control, such as the fear of acting on an urge to self-harm or hurt others

• Perfectionism, which may involve the fear of losing things or an intense focus on exactness or remembering things

• Harm, including a fear of being responsible for a catastrophic event

• Unwanted sexual thoughts, including thoughts about inappropriate activities

• Religious or superstitious beliefs, such as a concern about offending God or stepping on cracks in the sidewalk

Compulsions

Not every repetitious behavior is a compulsion. Most people use repetitive behaviors, such as bedtime routines, to help them manage everyday life.

For a person with OCD, however, the need to perform repetitious behavior is intense, it occurs frequently, and it is time-consuming. The behavior may take on a ritualistic aspect.

Some examples include:

• washing and cleaning, including handwashing

• monitoring the body for symptoms

• repeating routine activities, such as getting up from a chair

• mental compulsions, such as repeatedly reviewing an event

Behavioral causes

One theory suggests that a person with OCD learns to avoid fear associated with certain situations or objects by performing rituals to reduce the perceived risk.

The initial fear may begin around a period of intense stress, such as a traumatic event or significant loss.

Once the person associates an object or circumstance with this feeling of fear, they begin to avoid that object or situation in a way that comes to characterize OCD.

This may be more common among people with a genetic predisposition for the disorder.

Cognitive causes

Another theory is that OCD starts when people misinterpret their own thoughts.

Most people have unwelcome or intrusive thoughts at times, but for people with OCD, the importance of these thoughts becomes more intense or extreme.

Take the example of a person caring for an infant while under intense pressure and having intrusive thoughts of accidentally harming the baby.

A person might usually disregard these thoughts, but if the thoughts persist, they may take on unwarranted significance.

A person with OCD may become convinced that the action in the thought is likely to happen. In response, they take excessive, continual action to prevent the threat or danger.

Environmental causes

Stressful life events may trigger OCD in people with a predisposition, genetic or otherwise.

Many people have reported that the symptoms appeared within 6 months of events such as:

• childbirth

• complications during pregnancy or delivery

• a severe conflict

• a serious illness

• a traumatic brain injury

Diagnosis

Doctors look for specific criteria when diagnosing OCD, including:

• the presence of obsessions, compulsions, or both

• obsessions and compulsions that are time-consuming or cause significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important settings

• OCD symptoms that do not result from the use of a substance or medication

• OCD symptoms that cannot be better explained by another health issue

• Treatment

• There are effective treatments for OCD. The right approach depends on the person’s set of symptoms and the extent that they affec the person’s life and well-being. Some effective optionsTrusted Source include:

• Cognitive behavioral therapy

• This type of psychotherapy, sometimes called CBT, can help a person change the way that they think, feel, and behave.

Medications

A number of drugsTrusted Source can help treat OCD, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors SSRIs which are a type of antidepressant.

Some examples include:

• escitalopram

• fluvoxamine

• paroxetine

• fluoxetine

These are the following major school of thoughts in the field of psychology:

1. Structuralism.

2. Functionalism.

3. Behaviorism.

4. Cognitive Psychology.

5. Gestalt Psychology.

6. Psychoanalysis.

7. Humanism.

Similarities AND Differences

1. Each school of thought is used as a guiding theory. Each school of thought have a particular model.

2. Some psychologists are inclined and stick to a certain school of thought. Some psychologists are apt and cohere to decline a particular school of thought.

3. Structuralism is based on breaking down of mental processes into basic components. According to gestalt psychology the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

4. Humanistic psychology is based on free will, self-actualization and personal approach. Psychoanalysis is based on three components: id, ego and super ego.

5. Behaviorism is explained as environmental factors influencing the behavior. Functionalism deals with the study of mental experiences of consciousness.

Humanistic school of thought:

Humanistic Psychologists believed that researchers were only focusing in scientific studies, experimentation in laboratories and neglected to learn about feelings, emotions, thinking, ambitions and goals of individuals. Humanistic psychologist were anxious about the sophisticated broadening of humans in zone of tenderness, warmth, fondness, self-esteem, morale and persons abilities to act on his own values and interests. Abraham Maslow is contemplated as the founder of humanistic approach as he introduced the Hierarchy of needs which is also known as Pyramid of needs. The structure of Maslow Hierarchy of needs is given below:

• Physiological needs.

• Safety needs.

• Love and belonging.

• Esteem needs.

• Self-actualization.

Examples of Humanistic school of thought in everyday life are given below:

1. It helps to focus on the strengths instead of weaknesses.

2. It helps in building of self-esteem.

3. Soul searching.

4. Better parenting.

5. Long term goals.

6. Improved self-awareness.

7. Creativity.

8. Values.

9. Problem solving.

10. Gives importance to human relationships and Interactions.

11. Substitute ways to approach towards life.

12. Self-help.

13. Family therapies.

14. Respect co-workers.

15. Improves empathy.

16. Sensitivity training.

If sensitivity training is given in a workplace as a result of respecting your co-worker which makes the workplace environment better and workers will do their job more effectively.

Democracy is also an example of humanistic perspective in which the citizens have their personal choices.

Better parenting is done with humanistic school of thought by teaching their children to respect everyone and discuss their feelings and emotions openly.