What is OCD? How Intrusive Thoughts Can Derail Your Life
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a widely prevalent condition, but not enough people understand what it truly is. You might hear it used in your family or social circles when somebody is enthusiastic about washing their hands or someone is very specific when organizing their bedroom. However, OCD is much more than your average pickiness about how things look or are. OCD is a deeply emotional disorder which can lead to someone derailing their own life to achieve a sense of relief. To understand its self-sabotaging nature, we need to look at what the DSM-5 says about OCD first.
What are Obsessions?
An obsession, in its most basic form, is a pattern of thoughts, urges, or images. An obsessive thought is an inkling that can never seem to leave your mind. An urge is something you always come back to, a driving force pulling you to do something, change something. Images are pictures that keep reemerging in your mind, driving your attention to its unpleasantness.
The most common OCD obsession is contamination, making sure that something is absolutely, perfectly clean with no bacteria or microorganisms at all. Fears are often a source of obsession, such as the fear of hurting others, making a mistake, or losing control. As you can see, these are not just signs of someone’s finicky want for organization. These thoughts, images, and urges are intrusive, unwanted, and cause anxiety or distress.
These thoughts are often impossible to ignore, which meets another criteria for the DSM-5 diagnosis. This is why you try to distract yourself, but it doesn’t seem to make the obsessions go away. In this case, your brain naturally tends to devise ways to eliminate those thoughts through action. This is where compulsions become a self-destructive answer.
What are Compulsions?
Compulsions are the actions taken to be rid of obsessions. These are repetitive physical or mental tasks done to alleviate the distress of obsessions, but they have to happen according to a strict set of rules. Compulsions are also negatively reinforcing, meaning the brain can only find solace once something external has been addressed through action. Once that bad feeling is gone, the brain reinforces the idea that you can only feel better when your task is complete.
Compulsions directly counter the obsessions you experience. For example, an obsession over contamination leads to compulsions such as excessive hand-washing and sanitizing. Obsessions over mistakes leads to compulsions of repetitive counting and checking. Similarly, obsessions over losing control often lead to compulsions of seeking reassurance. All of these are relieving in the moment, but they do not stop the obsessions from coming back.
The defining quality of compulsions is that they are clearly excessive and time-consuming. Rinsing your plate for one minute is not compulsive and wanting to make sure you don’t get sick isn’t obsessive. However, the DSM-5 states that the compulsions must take an hour or more of your time a day. This means that your obsessions and compulsions would be taking a toll on your social life, work life, or home life. Often, they do, and it can sap the fun from just about anything.
The Real Pain of Obsessions
OCD obsessions are not passions or preferences. They are haunting and coercive thoughts that drive you further from your life. They are intrusive and unrelenting, meaning they will not leave you alone no matter where you are. Obsessions cause mental anguish wherever you go.
They Consume Your Mind
In your relationships, you can easily be pulled away and absent, physically or mentally. At work, you can feel immediately exhausted every day due to the tasks that need to be completed. At home, you can’t rest or spend time with your kids if it isn’t clean and ready for visitors. Obsessions follow you wherever you go, and they can take away the value from everything you do.
The Real Pain of Compulsions
OCD compulsions are the self-sabotaging machine that won’t stop. Compulsions bind your heart and mind to your obsessions. Obsessions hold your mental health hostage, while your compulsions are what you do to set them free. However, you don’t become free, you buy yourself more time.
They Damage Relationships
In relationships, compulsions go away, around, or through the people you love. Avoidance is one compulsion, where you don’t need to worry about hurting others if you’re alone. Another is reassurance, becoming frustrated or despondent purely based on how someone else responds to you. Unfortunately, frustration arrives when someone stands between your obsession and a successful compulsion. This is when friends and family are hurt, shoved aside, or treated poorly altogether. Few things damage a relationship more than going through people to appease your obsessions.
They Haunt You at Home
If compulsions can disrupt your social life, it can sap the joy from your home life. It can transform home, from a free and safe space, to a constant checklist to be checked and perfect. If you can’t do hobbies, if you can’t rest, if you can’t spend genuine time with loved ones until a compulsion is done, then you aren’t really home. Most animals need a safe space to call home, and there are consequences to nearly every part of your life if you don’t have one.
They Trade Joy for Success
Occupation is where compulsions can thrive. Your checklist is your job description. You do your duties successfully; you have an immediate feedback system that wards off the obsessions. However, no matter how much you achieve, there is still more work to be done. Not every task can be completed by the end of the day. Thus, you have to leave, go home, and not obsess over what you did not complete. In response, a common mental task to achieve some form of pseudo-productivity is rumination. This means using your brain to count, recount, or work on an idea that will continue your productivity.
The End Result of Untreated OCD
There are a few common outcomes for unrestrained and cycling OCD. One, is that work might be very productive, and so is home. However, work is unsustainable as you are constantly exhausted and home is empty, critical, or cold. Relationships often go to the wayside, as loneliness is the common method of escaping interpersonal obsessions. OCD, untreated, drains all joy from work, all happiness from home, and all connection with others. In the end, yes, you might be productive, but what’s the point? Well, to find out what that point is, I would encourage seeking therapy.
What Should You Do With OCD?
OCD is not simple. It is not something superficial or an easy fix. OCD is often entrenched in difficult childhood or adolescent experiences, at home, work, or at school. Even then, several other psychological factors are at play, such as beliefs and family systems. Thus, if you suspect you or someone you love may have OCD, I would encourage seeking therapeutic services. There are thousands of psychotherapists out there trained to treat OCD. Many of them use a specific form of treatment called exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP). I understand therapy is daunting, but so is watching the quality of your life disappear because of intrusive thoughts and panicked efforts to silence them.
