Example research essay topic: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder People With Ocd - 1,450 words

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I. Definition of obsessive compulsive disorder We all have quirks that take up small bits of the day. Very often, people wrestling with an obsessive compulsive disorder invest hours of their day avoiding these concerns. People with an obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have an intolerance and rejection of a mental experience that generates a tremendous amount of agitation and anxiety over losing control of ones mind. It seems as if that one aspect of OCD is and overactive conscience (Article on Scrupulosity). The definition of obsessive compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by repetitive, irrational, intrusive thoughts, impulses or images and irresistible impulses to engage repeatedly in some acts Individuals with an obsessive compulsive disorder do not want or enjoy the obsessive thoughts or time-consuming compulsions.

They think of them as excessive and feel as if they interfere with daily functions. The reason for this caution and avoidance of details is simple: many people with OCD are troubled by very explicit, offensive, and socially horrifying, The most common and well-studied branch of OCD involves the OC where the undoing response generally involves some overt behavior. The presence of dirt evokes a sense of threat and an incredible inspiration to reduce contamination. Most commonly the escape ritual involves a cleaning response. The next common form of OCD involves checking. The overwhelming impulse to recheck remains until the person experiences a reduction in tension despite the realizations that the item is secure.

A less common form of OCD includes hoarding, which is the excessive saving of typically worthless items. Ordering is a sub catagory where persons feel compelled to place items in a designated spot or order. This person fears a sense of being overwhelmed and impending anarchy if items are not placed exactly as they are arbitrarily determined. Another form of OCD is perfectionism, in which persons feel compelled to habitually check for potential mistakes or errors that might reveal their own faults or might jeopardize the persons stature at work.

The next branch discussed will be the purely obsession OC. The objective in this classification involves the escape or avoidance throughout excessive mental behavior of noxious and unwanted thoughts. Persons with the Pure-O classification also can experience what seems to them to be threatening ideation involving the potential that they might do harm to others or that merely the idea of having the threatening thought suggests something evil or depraved about their identify, capability of self worth. Superstitiousness might take a great significance in OCD. The last branch involves a somewhat more complex and difficult to that form OCD, and that is responsibility OC (hyperscupulosity).

Here, the persons concern is not for themselves, but directed toward the well-being of others. Typically, significant others are thought of as the predominant focus on which to prevent harm from coming. More obscure forms of OCD involve body dys morphia. Body dys morphia is a condition where a person becomes excessively focused on some body part, which they perceive to be grossly distorted. Another sub-classification of OCD involves an olfactory obsession in which persons are entrenched in the idea that some part of their body is emitting a noxious aroma. This form of OCD involves a preoccupation with the potential of having some physical malady, typically cancer or some life threatening disease.

This condition in referred to as hypochondriasis (Weinberg). Those with OCD can have either obsessions or compulsions or both. About twenty percent have wither obsessions or compulsions. The other eighty percent have both. Obsessions are unwanted thoughts that are recurrent and persistent impulses, or images that cause extreme anxiety or distress. They are not simply excessive worries about real-life problems.

Of course, we all have comforting little rituals. Obsessions may start as early as ages 3 or 4 and the conditions are more common in boys than in girls until mid-adolescence. True obsessions are far, more common in children than ever imagined in the past: at least half of adults with OCD report onset of symptoms during childhood, and many more during adolescence. Obsession is a term that is misunderstood very often. An example of this would be that, my brother is obsessed with his new shoes. Obsessions intrude into consciousness despite efforts to avoid these thoughts.

Some typical obsessions include: fear of something wrong with ones body Fear one has not done something just right excessive concern about germs, contamination, or dirty substances fear of things not being lined up right or turned off While these are some of the more common obsessions, there are many more, and it is not uncommon to discover clients who are having a variety of different obsessions which gravely interfere with their ability to concentrate on anything else (Schwartz). Compulsions are behaviors employed, over and over to try to get rid of the obsessive thoughts by some ritual, repetitive action. These are often carried to considerable extremes. Children with OCD do not announce they have obsessions or compulsions; rather, they throw tizzy fits. Adults with OCD may have difficulty getting to work on time due to having to return home to check the phone cord alignment. Some typical obsessions include: Excessive washing of hands or other body parts inseistnece on unusual attention to details of hair, clothing, checking, re-checking, going back to check again, then again These are some of the common compulsions.

Excessive washing is a compulsion that attempts to ward off the fear of contamination. Checking and re-checking is a compulsion that OCD sufferers develop to try to put to rest their anxiety something is not turned off, lined up right, straight, or that they might have done something wrong, hurt someone, etc. (Weinberg). Social workers, counselors, psychologist have said that there is not a determined cause for OCD. There are many different reasons for having OCD.

IT could be linked as a genetic disorder. This is also called neurological misfiring, a sort of hiccup, in the caudate nucleus buried deep within the basal ganglia, the primitive brain that serves as a sort of relay station between our senses, motor functions I the cortex. OCD may also involve elevated levels of activity in the frontal lobes and parts of the basal ganglia. This increased activity may account for the repetitive obsessions ore merely reflect them; the frontal lobes are involved in planning and thinking, an important component of obsessive compulsive People with OCD are so well aware that their ideas and behaviors are so odd, they often go to considerable lengths to conceal these symptoms.

Almost all adolescence and adults with OCD are terribly afraid of being labeled crazy, and this is the case since their self-perception of the thoughts and behaviors linked with OCD seem so very bizarre to them. Even relatively young children are often secretive about their obsessions, and as they grow older try to conceal their compulsions from their family, friends, and fellow school children. There are two specific tactics clinicians should consider using to help clients be more comfortable in revealing these symptoms: 1) use of an OCD-specific initial evaluation / intake questionnaire. 2) a casual, relaxed form of communication in which the clinician mentions how new research has discovered many features about the biological basis for OCD, and how many people are now begin helped over obsessions and compulsions by use of newer medication and / or behavioral treatment (Schwartz). No expert in this field has yet to fully understand why perfectly nice, harmless and socially well-adjusted people develop such horrifying obsessions. They do know the content is completely disconnected from experience and conscious, routine behavior, it is in effect a wild and crazy bit of the id, the most basic element of the personality; it is the source of the instincts and operates on the pleasure principle, popping into conflict with the ego, the element of the mind that operates according to the reality principle and serves to satisfy the id and the superego (Science News). However, people with OCD bear no personal responsibility for the content of these obsessions, and digging into them deeply and drawing conclusions about them is a tactic that scares countless OCD clients away from any willingness to participate in further treatment of any kind (Forde).

Bibliography: Works Cited Article on Scrupulosity. Margo, Writing on Scrupulosity 1: 1. Forde, David R. , Ph. D. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in the Community: An epidemiological Survey with Clinical Reappraisal.

Am J. Psychiatry 8 Aug. 1997: 154: 8 Science News. Gene may Further Obsessions, Compulsions. 3 May 1997: 151. Schwartz, Jeffrey M. , MD Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive Compulsive Behavior. New York: Harper Collins, 1996. Weinberg, George.

Compulsions and the Fear that drives them: Invincible Masters. New York: Grove Press, 1993.

Research essay sample on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder People With Ocd