Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Essay -- Mental Health Disorders

Approximately five million people in the U.S., or about one in every 50 Americans, suffer from OCD. That’s about 2%, a substantial number of sufferers. It affects men, women, and children, as well as people of all races, religions, and socioeconomic backgrounds.OCD is an anxiety disorder characterized by symptoms that can include powerful, unwanted, or recurrent thoughts and/or compulsive, repetitive behaviors. Some of the most common obsessions are:Fear of contamination Fear of causing harm to another Fear of making a mistake Fear of behaving in a socially unacceptable manner Need for symmetry or exactness Excessive doubt Some of the most common compulsions may include:Cleaning/Washing Checking Arranging/Organizing Collecting/Hoarding Counting/Repeating Obsessions are unwanted, recurrent and unpleasant thoughts that cause anxiety. Compulsions are repetitive, ritualistic behaviors that the person feels driven to perform to decrease anxiety. At least 80 percent of patients with OCD have both obsessions and compulsions. OCD appears to be caused by increased activity in the orbital frontal cortex and caudate nucleus of the brain. OCD may also involve abnormal functioning of the neurotransmitter seratonin in the brain. Stress does not cause OCD; however, a stressful event can trigger the disorder. There are no hard facts to tell how OCD is obtained. OCD is thought to be a genetic disorder. This idea has plenty of evidence and is believed by most doctors. The chemical imbalance in the Brain is an imbalance of Seratonin and Dompamine. 80 percent of the people with OCD have another disorder called Tourettes Syndrome (TS). This syndrome is caused by the imbalance of Dompamine in the Brain. This causes the person to have muscular and/or verbal spasm which are called tics. Some people who are familiar with TS may think of people shaking wildly of cursing a lot, but that is only in a severe case. These are a couple of examples, or case studies, that I got off the internet.I. DickUp until this year, Dick had done fairly well in school, played basketball, held down a part time job cleaning a fish plant, and spent most weekends with his girl friend. Over the last year, he has had to let most of this go. His girlfriend found someone who had more time, he quit his job, and he stopped going to basketball. He could barely get his schoolwork done. Why? It took... ...ment is a treatment in which the person is exposed to there obsession and go without fulfilling their compulsions. This kind of like "facing your fear".In treating OCD with medications there are many medicines that are prescribed, here are five of the most common: Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Luvox, and Anafranil. These medicines do not always work, but 60-80% of the time they do. Also these medicines do not just work right away. They have to take time to balance in the body. This usually takes about 6-8 weeks. A person is usually on one of these medicines for 12-18 months, but can be more or less. Support groups are few, yet one that I found on the Internet, called â€Å"Emotions Annoymymous† seemed to help alot of people, since this disease isn’t well known by the general public, it is misunderstood, and the words â€Å"obsessive-compulsive† are used out of place far too frequently.My OpinionI think that OCD Is a common disorder that is underestimated and there are not enough people that are educated about it. The more people know about something, the less they are afraid of it. There are five million people that have it, I think more people should know about it, one in fifty people has it.