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It is natural to double-check on common things such as if the iron is unplugged or the door is locked or even any cold or odd thoughts but if you are suffering from OCD your obsessive thoughts and compulsive activities become so overwhelming that they disrupt your everyday life. OCD is an anxiety condition marked by uncontrolled, unwelcome thoughts and ritualized repeated activities. If you have OCD, you’re undoubtedly aware that your obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions are unreasonable, yet you still can’t seem to break free from them.
Obsessions are uncontrollable, spontaneous, thoughts or impulses that are generated in your mind again and again, although you can’t understand from where they emerge from, and neither they can be stopped, these thoughts become devastating and disturb you in your daily life activities.
Compulsions are certain repeated behaviors or rituals that you do to abate the obsessive ideas such as excessive cleaning of your hands even if they are clean. However, these repeated actions never relieve you out of your obsessions, and the intrusive thoughts usually come back stronger. And the repeated actions often end up creating more anxiety as they become more challenging and time-consuming. And this vicious cycle of OCD continues to disrupt your life.
OCD is not a curable illness, but there are treatments available to assist victims to live as normally as possible. The primary step is to consult a medical specialist or a doctor to check if the symptoms that you are facing are due to any physical illness through certain standard tests and if they are not, you will be referred to mental health physician or psychologist, they will help you to reduce the obsessions and compulsions as low as possible with help of therapy or medication or in some cases both.
The most common treatment for OCD is a sort of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) that includes exposure and response prevention (ERP).
This includes: working with your mental health professional to deteriorate your problems into their parts, such as your ideas, physical feelings, and actions; facing your fears and having obsessive thoughts without neutralizing them with compulsive behaviors; starting with situations that trigger the least anxiety before having to move on to more difficult thoughts.
People with mild OCD typically require around ten hours of therapy, with home exercises in between sessions. If your OCD is more extreme, you may require a longer treatment period.
If psychological counseling fails to help you overcome your OCD, or if your OCD is severe, you may require medication. Mostly antidepressants such as SSRIs (Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are prescribed to treat OCD. An SSRI works by raising levels of serotonin in your brain, which can improve your symptoms of OCD.
Depending on your age, health, and symptoms, your doctor may prescribe clomipramine (Anafranil), fluoxetine (Prozac), fluvoxamine (Luvox), paroxetine (Paxil), sertraline (Zoloft), or another antidepressant. And it can take a few weeks for the medication to work and can have certain side effects.
Possible side effects that SSRIs can cause are:
There’s also a slim possibility that SSRIs will make you suicidal or make you want to self-harm, if anything like that happens consult your mental health physician as soon as possible.
Although lifestyle modifications alone will not cure OCD, they can help to reduce symptoms and avoid flare-ups to some extent, however therapy or medication will still be necessary for effective treatment.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by uncontrolled thoughts (obsessions) and attempts to manage them via activities and routines (compulsions).
The dread of being publicly examined in a way that may result in humiliation or rejection is the hallmark of social anxiety disorder. SAD patients may be extremely introverted and avoid social situations. If you have social anxiety, social encounters, in general, may cause discomfort or panic attacks, or you may have a specific social circumstance that causes dread or worry, such as performing in front of an audience.
Individuals that are a victim of OCD might even be suffering from SAD and the other way around. Even though experts are unsure of the actual cause, we can see how closely the two disorders are related. In both cases, continuous concern triggers strong physiological and psychological responses, which lead to behaviors that make people feel better for a short time and are therefore sustained. One of the most typical actions in people with OCD and SAD is avoidance.
SSRI medication, cognitive-behavioral therapy, or a combination of the two can be used to treat OCD and SAD. Exposure therapy can be very beneficial for both disorders since becoming used to all of that anxiety sometimes necessitates placing oneself in the settings that produce it.
Triggers are unique to each person, just as OCD is. Thoughts, objects, and sensations are just a few examples of things that might be triggering to someone. Stress, trauma, and life changes may all exacerbate triggers, causing them to shift or worsen over time. When it comes to external variables like stress and trauma, it’s vital to remember that stress isn’t necessarily a trigger; rather, stress might bring up obsessions or call attention to a specific fixation.
Your reaction to your loved one’s OCD symptoms can have a significant influence on their recovery and attitude. Nasty comments or criticizing can exacerbate OCD, whereas a tranquil, encouraging environment can aid treatment success.
Living with a mental health disorder is quite complicated as it not only worsens your mental health but affects your social and physical life too, OCD cannot be fully cured but there are certain treatments and remedies mentioned above that can aid in reducing the intrusive obsessions and compulsions. The more early you diagnose your mental health issues the sooner you can treat them and ease your life further.
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