Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a debilitating condition when a person suffers from anxiety. In simple words, the warning system of an individual’s brain is out of order. A person considers oneself being in danger while there is no objective threats. A person finds oneself preoccupied with disturbing thoughts, images, recollections. There exist diverse ways of treatment OCD. For example, pharmacological, psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, electroconvulsive, exposure therapy, complementary therapies. As last resort, in truly complicated cases, psychosurgery is used. The most widely spread types of obsessions are fear of contamination, putting things in order, perpetual sexual thoughts, doubts, aggressive impulses. While the most common types of compulsions are hoarding, cleaning and washing, counting, repeated asking for assurance, need for symmetry, repeated actions, making lists. These actions are carried out involuntarily,…show more content…
This treatment approach is based on operant conditioning, which has to replace compulsive behaviours with more appropriate ones using negative or positive reinforcement (Martin & Pear, 1978). Sometimes it can be reinforcement removal. The therapist and the patient make up a list of the symptoms ordered in hierarchy from least devastating to the most one. The client is exposed to the thoughts and behaviors which cause anxiety. However, the patient needs to endure without becoming engaged in the compulsion. For example, an individual who suffers from hoarding compulsion, is asked to sort his or her things. The next step is to get rid of some amount of the stuff. Or a person with fear of contamination is asked to touch several dirty objects without possibility to wash hands instantly. Thus, patients face their fears and deal with them. The feared objects are tolerated eventually which results into reducing anxiety and
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