Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a disorder that leads to repetitive behaviours induced by unwanted and excessive thoughts or ideas. People with OCD are bothered by their triggers to an extent that it goes out of their control.
"My friends usually call me a freak as I have the habit of spraying disinfectant on every surface before sitting or even touching. At my office, I spray disinfectant on my table, water bottle or anything else especially when someone touches them. Whenever I receive any parcel, I change my clothes. All these habits amplified during the time of COVID as I became more conscious", said Palak
But what isn't OCD?
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder does not include the desire to collect items. Similarly, OCD is not characterised by compulsive lying, betting or other behaviours which indicate problems with impulse control.
What is OCD
Compulsions are mostly time-consuming which can sometimes hinder your daily activities. Some common types of OCD are: checking on things repeatedly, obsession with certain patterns, positioning and placement in a particular way, fear of contamination, etc. An example could be someone with OCD of cleanliness and personal hygiene who’d wash their hands repeatedly until they don’t feel clean enough. The World Health Organization ranks OCD as one of the most handicapping conditions in terms of lost income and reduced quality of life. According to the International OCD Foundation, OCD is an anxiety disorder in which people are stuck in an orbit of obsession.
According to a study of the University of Waterloo, “People with OCD have generally been shown in research to have this inflated feeling of responsibility... They often feel that they are going to be responsible for something bad that will happen or that if they fail to do something, they will be responsible for that harm too."
Though there is no definite cure for OCD, it can get better with stress management and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT).
