What is OCD?

OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a neurobehavioral disorder that fills their mind with unwanted, uncontrollable and repetitive thoughts. Those thoughts keep them engaged in the same task over and over again.

Although OCD was once called an anxiety disorder, it is now considered a separate condition. But distinguishing between anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorders is somewhat controversial. Because many patients with OCD also suffer from terrible anxiety and some other suffer from generalized anxiety disorder. Also, OCD is linked to various other mental disorders.

Healthy people usually have low levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Such a person releases more of this hormone when there is a stressful situation. In OCD patients, these normal cortisol levels are slightly higher, but there is no corresponding cortisol change during a crisis.

Symptoms of OCD

Checking

OCD patients suffer from an irrational feeling that they are responsible for the troubles and disasters that they may cause to themselves or someone close to them through their careless, irresponsible, imperfect actions. For this reason, they get used to repeatedly checking their actions.

These people check again and again in the most unnecessary way whether the doors and windows are locked, whether the stove and iron are off, the electric kettle is off, etc. Their thinking is that someone close to them can be harmed by some of their actions. Therefore, they always try to ensure the safety of their lives and the lives of their loved ones by avoiding the slightest mistake that may happen on their hands.

On the one hand, OCD may seem like a good thing when you look at people who forget everything. Let me tell you some examples, there are some children who forget their water bottle, lunch box and even essential books and pens when they go to school.

Also, how many people go to work in the morning without locking the door and come back to lock the door? Even the most important files in the office are sometimes forgotten at home. There are some people who forget to wear their clothes and travel in the same clothes they wore at home. Also, when you forget to turn off the stove, the iron, the electric kettle when you go out of the house, how many such accidents have been reported?

In comparison to such causes, the repetitive checking habits caused by OCD may seem important. But OCD patients suffer more from this cause than you might think. Guilty and irresponsible thoughts in their minds in this regard create a lot of pressure on them.

Washing and Cleaning

Another wonderful symptom that OCD patients show is that they try to stay clean all the time. It’s not as beautiful as it seems, even though it’s called ‘wonderful’.

The reason for this is a set of irrational thoughts built by them and unique to them. They think that by being unclean, various diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, etc. may be more likely to occur to themselves or to those around them, therefore, they should always try to stay very clean.

They think that by being unclean, various diseases caused by dirt, germs, viruses, bacteria, etc. may be more likely to occur to themselves or to the people around them, therefore, they should always try to stay very clean.

You can imagine how good that is. For example, in the past due to Corona, almost every person used to clean their hands with sanitizer. Also, when coming back from a trip, he removed the mask, cleaned his clothes well, and made sure he cleaned himself well before joining his family. At this time, OCD patients said, ‘that’s what I said from the beginning, that we are harmed by things that are not visible to the eye’.

So in such cases, this thought of these people cannot be considered completely irrational and baseless. But there is a problem here. No matter how much they clean, no matter how clean they are, people with OCD think they are dirty. Otherwise, it is still not completely cleaned.

Order

The next symptom is that everything must be arranged in a certain perfect order. They need to see that the books on the table, the laptop, the phone, even the water bottle are in a definite linear order. It’s like that everywhere, if something is turned sideways, they straighten it.

They think that everything should be in order. So for this reason, sometimes they don’t like other people to come and move the things that they have put in order.

Scrupulosity

People with OCD tend to be more religious, moral, and virtuous than others. They often think and worry about the sinful, guilty thoughts and hypocritical thoughts that arise. They constantly think about mistakes and omissions. Because of this, they believe that they should be more involved in religious teachings and live in a very moral and virtuous manner. But repeating certain religious rituals is something they do out of devotion, not OCD.

Hoarding

Sometimes even what others throw away as useless, these people take back and keep safe. These people think that even those throw away things can be very useful for them in the near future. So even some useless things are collected by them.

Causes of OCD

Family Matters

One indication is that OCD is more common among identical than fraternal twins. Although OCD appears to run in families, the mechanisms by which it occurs are not yet fully understood.

Although genetics obviously plays a major role, geneticists do not say that it is caused by any specific gene. Instead, they have identified that several genes will work together for this. NRXN1 and HTR2A genes and CTTNBP2 and REEP3 genes have been identified to be involved.

Neurotransmitter Factors

The most widely held biological theory of OCD is that it is related to the abnormal function of serotonin, an important chemical messenger in the brain. Serotonin plays a role in many biological processes, including sleep, appetite, body temperature, pain, mood, aggression, and impulse control. Serotonin dysregulation has also been implicated in other mental illnesses, including depression, eating disorders, schizophrenia and self-mutilation.

Glutamate is another neurotransmitter like serotonin. This, too, plays an important role in brain function. So changes in neurotransmitters like this can cause OCD.

Other Physiological Factors

Research has found that certain autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatic fever, childhood streptococcal infections, lupus, and Sydenham’s chorea, may also be associated with some cases of OCD.