Living With OCD – Symptoms Causes and Treatment

Living With OCD – Symptoms Causes and Treatment. But what is it and is there a way to get cured? Let’s read to find out.

What is OCD

The full form of OCD is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It is a is a mental illness that triggers people to have unnecessary thoughts (obsessions) and to duplicate specific behaviors (compulsions) over and over again. Please note that it is normal for people to have routines but if you overdo it, it can lead you to OCD.

Some researchers believe that OCD stems from behavior habits that you learn over time. Yet, no one has found a single, proven cause for OCD. Some studies show that it may have to do with chemicals in the brain that carry messages from one nerve cell to another.

There is also a chance for someone to develop this illness if he/she has parents or other family member with the disorder although researchers haven’t identified it yet.

Living with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and having to deal with your fearful thoughts can be extremely difficult. It can be tough for people with OCD to have to experience obsessive thoughts that are intrusive, scary, and difficult to manage. Mentally, OCD sufferers become handicapped.

Symptoms

There are many symptoms of OCD. These symptoms can manifest differently from person to person. In addition, some sufferers of obsessive compulsive personality disorder can experience an attack and it will go away while others face an attack several times a day. Common symptoms are rituals. OCD sufferers must do certain acts repeatedly and often to feel that they have stopped something horrible from occurring. In the minds of obsessive compulsive disorder sufferers their ability to recognize there is no current threat is blocked or prevented from reaching a conclusion other than one of devastation. A person that doesn’t suffer from this disorder is able to rationalize that he or she won’t be harmed if these rituals are not carried out.

Classic rituals may include washing hands repeatedly or pulling out one’s hair an OCD known as trichotillomania. Another ritual is not throwing anything away. These sufferers are known to have compulsive hoarding syndrome and their home becomes over run by years of collecting and never discarding anything and this includes trash. Their living conditions become unlivable for most of us but these OCD sufferers cannot see that these conditions present certain health risks. It is important to note that most people are afraid of something. Some people are afraid of heights, spiders, elevators and even bugs. However, these people can continue to live a normal and fulfilling life in spite of these fears. This is not the case for an OCD sufferer because their anxiety can be so severe that they are consumed by it.

Treatment

People who suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder often state that taking prescription medicine just masks the symptoms but doesn’t fix them. Opting for a natural do it yourself treatment eliminates these kinds of worries. The main benefit of this type of treatment is that it cures the problem and you get your life back. Well, here’s a short list of techniques that a person can use to help manage their OCD and their obsessive thoughts-

1. A person should keep a small notebook of positive statements that makes them feel good. Whenever they come across a positive and uplifting verse that makes them feel good, write it down in a small notebook. A person can then carry this notebook around in their pocket and whenever they feel anxious, they can read their notebook.
2. The first thing a person must do is not to dwell or focus on the fear provoking thought when it comes. The more a person tries to reason out the thought or focus on the fear behind the thought, the stronger the thought becomes. The next time you encounter an obsessive thought, get into the practice of not dwelling on it. It’s hard but have to do.
3. Sometimes, a person may encounter a lot of scary thoughts coming at them all at once. Instead of getting upset, remember that these thoughts are exaggerated and are not based on reality. From my interviews with various professionals, Ive learned that usually it is the fear behind the thoughts that gets us worked up. Ignore the fear behind these obsessive thoughts, regardless how the strong the fear may be. If you ignore the fear behind these thoughts, then the thoughts become easier to manage.
4. Another thing to remember is that no one can predict the future with 100 Percent certainty. Even if your fearful thoughts tell you otherwise, the fact is that there are circumstances and factors in every situation that can not be anticipated. We may be ninety-nine percent in predicting the future but all it takes is for that one percent to make the biggest difference.

There are many ways to deal with these kinds of thoughts. It is also important to seek professional help if someone has OCD. Thanks for reading. Hope this helped you to overcome it.