Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
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At PCP – The Perry Clayman Project, we treat many mental health disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD can cause many challenges in an individual’s daily life. It disrupts an individual’s mental health, which affects their personal and professional life. Regardless of where a person is in their lives, getting help for OCD in connection with treatment for co-existing addiction challenges helps them to build a life with improved mental and physical health.
What Is OCD?
OCD is a mental health disorder that is long-lasting. It is a disorder in which a person experiences obsessive thoughts, repetitive behaviours, or both. OCD is a mental health disorder that can cause significant disturbances in an individual’s life, which can, fortunately, be improved by treatment.
While the causes of OCD are unknown, certain risk factors play a role in the likelihood of an individual developing this specific mental health disorder. One risk factor is a family member, more specifically a first-degree relative like a parent or sibling, having OCD. Temperament can also play a role; individuals who experience more negative emotions, anxiety, or depression in childhood are more likely to show symptoms of OCD in adulthood. Finally, childhood trauma is also associated with obsessive and compulsive symptoms.
Symptoms
Every individual’s specific symptoms and severity of symptoms are unique to them. However, symptoms are commonly time-consuming and disruptive in their lives. The symptoms of OCD are a combination of obsessions and compulsions. It is important to note that not all repeated thoughts or behaviours are obsessions and compulsions. The obsessions and compulsions due to OCD are not controllable even when an individual knows they are beyond need, take up an hour or more of a person’s day, and do not provide pleasure but instead help them decrease anxiety for a short period.
Obsessions are thoughts, urges, or images that are repetitive, intrusive, and unwanted. Common obsessions include:
- Fear of contamination, germs, dirtiness
- Aggressive thoughts toward others or the self
- Fear or misplacing or forgetting something
- A need to have things perfectly symmetrical
- Thoughts of how things need to be in order to be in order
- Unwanted taboo thoughts
Compulsions are behaviours that a person feels compelled to do. They are not simple desires; instead, they are behaviours that an individual feels a need to complete. Compulsions vary for each individual. However, common compulsions include:
- Ordering or organising things in a specific way
- Repeatedly checking things like door locks or the stove being turned off
- Excessive hand washing or cleaning
- Repeating words internally or externally
- Counting
Beyond obsessions and compulsions, some individuals with OCD also develop certain physical symptoms. These include tics or repetitive behaviours such as making a certain sound or movement.
Prevalence: OCD
While the severity of OCD varies for each individual, about 1.2% of individuals in the United States are diagnosed. This is similar to international diagnosis, which ranges from 1.1% to 1.8%. Both men and women develop OCD. However, women have a slightly higher prevalence, but men are more likely to develop it in childhood.
OCD Onset
Individuals can develop OCD at any time in their lives. However, the most common time of onset is between late childhood and early adulthood. This means that diagnosis most commonly occurs in young adulthood, as this is when symptoms have been consistent enough to make a diagnosis.
Symptoms of OCD can vary over time, and due to the onset timing common in early adulthood, this can make it difficult to know the exact onset. Factors such as stress often make symptoms significantly worse. Therefore, over time, parents and individuals can see that while stress comes and goes, the symptoms of OCD do not disappear but only ebb and flow depending on circumstances.
Treatment at PCP – The Perry Clayman Project
While OCD does not have a cure, treatment is effective in helping individuals to be more functional and decrease the disruptions caused by OCD symptoms in their lives. At PCP – The Perry Clayman Project, we treat OCD with an individualised treatment plan. This plan often includes psychotherapy or talk therapy. Talk therapy serves as a way for individuals to understand the impact of OCD in their lives. In addition, psychotherapy helps clients develop skills that they can use when faced with obsessive-compulsive symptoms. These skills help them to be more functional on a daily basis.
Along with psychotherapy, many medications also help to quell the symptoms of OCD. While there is a variety of effective medications that can help, antidepressants are commonly prescribed at a higher dose to those with OCD.
Due to OCD symptoms greatly impacting individuals’ lives, many people find themselves looking for a way to dull them. This often leads individuals to use drugs or alcohol regularly, which results in addiction. As a result, treatment for OCD at PCP – The Perry Clayman Project generally includes addiction treatment. This treatment varies for each person. However, it can include detox, psychotherapy, and more. Treatment for addiction helps clients so learn how to manage symptoms of OCD without using drugs or alcohol. In addition, it provides clients with physical and emotional support in order to transition out of regular use of substances.
OCD is a mental health disorder that commonly occurs with addiction and creates many challenges in a person’s daily life. If you are interested in learning more about how we at PCP – The Perry Clayman Project help individuals with OCD and addiction, call us today at 08000 380 480 to find out more about our treatment options.