Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Hello, I am Dr Sudeshna Biswas, senior consultant Neuro Psychiatrist attached with Fortis C Doc Hospital, Nehru Place and I have my own clinic at Siya Park. Today,w e are going to discuss a very common disorder, called OCD.

What is OCD?

OCD is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Two terms we get from this name which is Obsessive and Compulsive. So let us first know;

What is Obsession?

Obsession is persistent intrusive recurrent thoughts.

And what is compulsion?

Compulsion is an action which one does to reduce the anxiety related to this obsession.

Now, when do we call that someone has OCD?

When these symptoms of OCD occurs many times in a day or takes a lot of time and is very distressing, then the person should think that he/ she is suffering from OCD. If we talk about the age groups, it is prevalent in all age groups. Males and females are equally having this disorder. So symptoms should be known to detect the OCD.

So, the symptoms we are going to discuss under the sub headings of the OCDs. These are the types of OCDs.

• The most common type of OCD is OCD of contamination followed by washing. Under this, a person starts thinking that all the things around them are dirty and they keep on cleaning the things again and again till the time they get sure that it is cleaned.
• The second most common type of OCD is Obsession of Doubt where a person starts doubting themselves that they have not done the work properly. So he would keep checking the things whether he had done it or not. Like he might check the locks, might check the gas stoves, might check the cylinders, emails, SMS etc.
• The third type of OCD is Obsession of Thoughts. This is one of the obsessions with which we get a lot of patients. Suddenly the thought starts coming to their mind that they can harm someone or thought that someone might do something to them or something bad may happen to them. Some sexual thoughts may come to their mind which is very distressing, sexual thoughts regarding their friends, their relatives or even God or Goddess for which they feel guilty.
• Another type of OCD is Somatic Obsession. In Somatic obsession, people start thinking that something bad is happening in their body and keep on thinking about plenty of disorders which might have happened. They might keep on checking their pulse again and again, considering that their pulse is getting high
• Next type is called Symmetrical Obsession where the person starts keeping the things in very symmetrical order.
• Few more types of Obsession are there like someone might have an obsession of religiosity. In this, people start becoming very religious.
• Some more type of OCD can be where a person might question again and again the same question, or they might tell the same thing, again and again, thinking that the other person is not understanding their point of view. So, this is the Obsession of Questioning.
• The obsession of numbers where a person is obsessed with some particular number. Suppose a person is obsessed with the number 3.4 or 5. So, the person starts doing all the activities according to that number.
• One more thing which is there is hair pulling and nail-biting which can be the part of OCD.

So, these are the symptoms of OCD. 

Now coming to the treatment of OCD.

The treatment of OCD is divided into 2 types.

1) Medicinal

2) Therapy-      Therapy can be of few types which can be a behavioural therapy. Other types of therapies can be a group therapy, Cognitive behavioural therapy.

So at the end, I just want to tell you that please detect the symptoms as early as possible and you should detect the same in the people around you. And you should reach the professional in your nearby areas.

If you need my help, please reach to me directly by contacting me and seek up an appointment or you can contact the app Lybrate and take up an appointment.

Thank you very much.