OCD And Exposure Therapy - An Honors Project
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
An Honors Project By SoftAlpaca10
*Trigger Warning - Information in this post could potentially be triggering to readers. Please be cautious.*
What Is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?
Psychologydictionary.org defines OCD as an anxiety disorder marked by repetitive obsessions, compulsions, or both which are time-consuming, inflict substantial distress, or impede the person's performance. The obsessions and compulsions are considered to be extreme or unacceptable.
OCD tends to push a person to engage in actions or thoughts that are unwanted.
Symptoms
OCD is short for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. As the name suggests there are two sets of symptoms, obsessive symptoms and compulsive symptoms.
The obsessive side of OCD creates obsessions of constant thoughts, urges, and rituals
Obsessive Symptoms include the following -
- Fear of contamination
- Needing things to be in order and symmetrical
- Aggressive or horrific thoughts about harm
- Unwanted thoughts that invade the mind
The compulsive side to OCD creates compulsions of behaviors, mental acts, and the need for temporary relief.
Compulsive Symptoms include the following -
- Washing/Cleaning
- Checking things over
- Counting
- Orderliness
- Following routines that you have set
- Wanting/demanding reassurance
Causes
While OCD does not have a clear cause, the most proven theories are the following:
Biology : Change in bodys chemistry and brain functions can lead to OCD.
Genetics : Currently there are scientific strides to find the specific genes that are a component to OCD, though they are clear that genes do have some impact on OCD.
Environment : Your surrounding, how you grow up, and diseases in your surrounding area can all affect the chance of OCD.
Risk factors
There are some risk factors that can increase the likelihood of developing, and or triggering OCD, these risk factors include:
Family History : If you have a family member / blood relative you have an increased risk of having OCD.
Stressful Life Events : Traumatic experiences and stressful events increase your risk to have OCD triggered.
Other Mental Health Disorders : Anxiety disorders, depression, and substance abuse are some of the proven mental health disorders that increase your chances of having OCD.
Are there different types of OCD?
Common Misconception - There is only one type of OCD
Reality - There are multiple categories/types of OCD
The common categories are the following...
Contamination OCD: The individual has the fear and need to prevent contaminants, whether they be from the household or the outside environment. Includes the fear of germs and blood-borne illnesses.
Scrupulosity OCD: The individual engages in rituals, repetitive actions, that surround around the idea of prayer, morals, and beliefs.
Checking OCD: The individual falls into the habit of checking things repetitively, such as locks and household appliances in order to keep themselves, others, or their surroundings safe.
Symptomatic OCD: The individual has intrusive thought surrounding by the belief of having/contracting an illness. The individual begins to engage in compulsions due to the fear of a disease.
Perfectionism OCD: The individual makes sure everything is done correctly and completed, often seen through rereading assignments, rewriting documents, and checking over for correctness.
Sexual intrusive thoughts: The individual has intrusive thoughts that are unwanted and considered to be sexual in nature. The individual attempt to perform rituals in order to get these thoughts to be alleviated.
Harming intrusive thoughts: The individual has intrusive thoughts that are considered to be harmful in nature. The individual is often faced with compulsions to get rid of objects in the house that can be harmful so the can avoid the possibility of harm.
Now that we have a general understanding of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder we can learn about a technique to cope with OCD and help progress forward.
What is exposure therapy?
Exposure therapy is a form and technique of cognitive behavioral therapy.
A treatment option for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is exposure therapy.
Exposure treatments work with the natural process called habituation. *Habituation occurs when a person stops responding or paying attention to a stimulus, such as a thought, object, place, person or action, with repeated exposure.*
How does exposure therapy work?
Exposure therapy can help decrease the compulsive behaviors and obsessive thoughts.
During exposure therapy the participant learns to confront their obsessions, compulsions, images, thoughts, situations, and objects, that can create an anxious feeling, with the hope to help the person eventually avoid the compulsions they feel.
*Exposure therapy is NOT a cure for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder*
What other things do people do to reduce their symptoms of OCD?
Professional Help
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
*Can be through group therapy, teletherapy, and traditional therapy.
- Medications
*Medically prescribed medication, self medicating is often harmful and is not as helpful.
- Support Groups
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Effective Ways At Home
- Less caffeine intake
*Caffeine is a stress inducing chemical found in a lot of liquids we tend to drink daily, such as pop/soda and coffee.
- Eat Regularly
*Eating regularly can help seeing as low blood sugar increase your levels of stress and anxiety.
- Yoga
*A natural and effective activity that directly affects the brain which can help with mind altering disorders, such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
*There are many other home remedies and professional ways to go about relieving symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, but they may not all work for everyone. Relief is not immediate, courage and dedication is an important part for reduction of symptoms.*
Facts about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
- About 1/3 to 1/2 of all those who are affected by OCD had OCD in childhood, whether they recognized it or not.
- According to experts, about less than 10% of those with OCD currently receive treatment to help alleviate the symptoms.
- Anyone can be diagnosed with OCD, no matter the age, gender, or ethnicity of the person.
- People with relatives who priorly or currently deal with OCD are 5 times more likely to have OCD.
Sites To Check Out -
Informative Sites On OCD -
https://kids.iocdf.org/for-kids/
Facts About OCD -
https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-obsessive-compulsive-disorders-ocd
OCD Support Groups -
https://iocdf.org/ocd-finding-help/supportgroups/online-and-phone-ocd-support-groups/
Sources Used -
https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/exposure-therapy
https://www.verywellmind.com/exposure-therapy-for-ocd-2510616
http://beyondocd.org/ocd-facts
https://psychcentral.com/disorders/ocd/
https://www.healthyplace.com/ocd-related-disorders/ocd/ocd-statistics-and-facts
https://www.bcm.edu/news/psychiatry-and-behavior/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-misconceptions
Questions -
1) How would you define OCD and how it affects people?
2) How can exposure therapy be beneficial to those dealing with OCD?
3) What do you think makes OCD difficult to deal with right away?
I personally have had exposure therapy for my OCD and even though I was skeptical of it at first, it made things SO much better. My symptoms didn't go away, but it's a lot easier to cope with them now. If you can find a good therapist that specializes in it, I think it's hugely helpful and also not as scary as it sounds.
@Pleiades20
I'm glad to hear that you had a good experience with exposure therapy! It sounds like ultimately you had a great attitude about it and welcomed it. <3
@SoftAlpaca10
Thank you for this amazing post! You've clearly put a lot of hardwork and in-depth research into this project. It is extremely informative and I've learnt a lot :)
Tagging the Anxiety Community to have a look - please be mindful of the trigger warning at the top of the thread ❤️
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@SoftAlpaca10
My type of OCD is mostly intrusive thoughts related. rather than orderliness or having to have things be perfect. When I get a terrible or bothersome intrusive thought (thinking of a terrible disease or a distressful situation for instance), my deal is that I have the absolute need to touch something (a wall most of the time) or repeat actions (like going through a door again) so that the thought doesn't somehow manifest into my real life. What would you categorize this form of OCD as?
I've never been diagnosed (can't afford it) properly, but I do want to learn how to manage. Exposure therapy sounds iffy to me since most of my problem is intrusive thought related (who can really control thoughts?), but I'm not totally against it.
@mimameid
What you have described could potentially fit into a few categories, but since I am not a medical professional I am unable to actually distinguish which you have.
For intrusive thoughts exposure therapy could help because when people tend to have these thoughts there is typically an underlying believe that if I don't do this then this bad thing will happen and if once we were to not follow through with the action that will "prevent" this fear/possibility and see how it plays out, that would be considered exposure.
@SoftAlpaca10
Fine. Forget I asked then.
So it works by the therapist encouraging me to not do anything about a terrible thought I'm having? I think I've actually heard of it before, but applied to more generalized anxiety.
Hello
not feeling to good today