Tips on How to deal with obsessive compulsive disorder

Hello friends. I am Dr Rahul Chandok. I am a senior consultant psychiatrist with the Fortis group of hospitals. And I am having my own practice at my clinic, My home clinic in Faridabad.

Coming to today’s topic which is understanding OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. OCD, also known as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is affecting about 2% of the population at some point of time in their life which makes it 1 in 40 persons is going to have it. It is 2 to 3 times more common than other chronic psychiatric disorder like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. So every person has a brain and I believe the brain thinks. When it comes to OCD we have to understand that the thinking becomes affected. When the thinking is normal, it is under the person’s control and is as per his or her will. But when the brain gets under stress there is a neurochemical called serotonin which becomes less. And because of that the thinking becomes automatic. Thoughts come on their own, that are uncontrollable, unwilling, they are excessive. Person gets them repetitively. And they are negative. The person also understands they are baseless. But because of the fear which arises out of that, the person becomes excessively anxious. And to reduce this anxiety of fear the person does certain acts which suppose the person gets a doubt then the person does checking, suppose the person has a thought that might be the hands are dirty or the person is not clean enough. Or the germs will affect him or her. The person repetitively does washing. If the person is not able to do any activity to reduce anxiety, then the person starts avoiding things. And if the person is not able to do any of these the person gets angry. If all these persists for a period of time, then the person might go into depression.

The message which I would like to extend is that OCD is definitely treatable. You have to understand how and what is happening. We have to correct the level of serotonin which is possible through the use of medication which are definitely in today’s times are much better what we had earlier.

Side effects are very less and the results are pretty quick. And yes we definitely use therapy work to make the person understand or to fight OCD or what to do with the thoughts. The trick is that we have to learn to ignore these thoughts because at some of their lives every person gets negative thoughts but they are able to ignore them But a person with OCD is stuck so OCD is definitely treatable take help of the doctor or psychiatrist. Don’t be afraid of the medication and learn how to tackle it.

You can either contact me for treatment at my various work places or at my clinic. Or you can contact me through Lybrate for its management. Thank you.