Obsessive-compulsive Behaviors Essay -- essays research papers

Obsessive-Compulsive Behaviors "Compulsive" and "obsessive" have become everyday words. "I'm compulsive" is how some people describe their need for neatness, punctuality, and shoes lined up in the closets. "He's so compulsive is shorthand for calling someone uptight, controlling, and not much fun. "She's obsessed with him" is a way of saying your friend is hopelessly lovesick. That is not how these words are used to describe Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder or OCD, a strange and fascinating sickness of ritual and doubts run wild. OCD can begin suddenly and is usually seen as a problem as soon as it starts. Compulsives (a term for patients who mostly ritualize) and obsessives (those who think of something over and over again) rarely have rituals or thoughts about nuetral questions or behaviors. What are their rituals about? There are several possible ways to list symptoms of OCD. All sources agree that the most common preoccupations are dirt (washing, germs, touching), checking for safety or closed spaces (closets, doors, drawers, appliances, light switches), and thoughts, often thoughts about unacceptable violent, sexual, or crude behavior. When the thoughts and rituals of OCD are intense, the victim's work and home life disintigrate. Obsessions are persistant, senseless, worrisome, and often times, embarrassing, or frightening thoughts that repeat over and over in the mind in an endless loop. The automatic nature of these recurant thoughts makes them difficult for the person to ignore or restrain successfully. The essence of a Compulsive Personality Disorder is normally found in a restricted person, who is a perfectionist to a degree that demands that others to submit to hisher way of doing things. A compulsive personality is also often indecisive and excessively devoted to work to the exclusion of pleasure. When pleasure is considered, it is something to be planned and worked for. Pleasurable activities are usually postponed and sometimes never even enjoyed. With severe compulsions, endless rituals dominate each day. Compulsions are incredibly repetitive and seemingly purposeful acts that result from the obsessions. The person performs certain acts according to certain rules or in a stereotypi... ...ty to discard worn out or worthless objects." (A.P.A.,'80) So much is asked about where our everyday lives stop and OCD begins. The basis of Obsessive -Compulsive Disorder is still unknown. The evidence for a biological cause is compelling but unfortunately it is still necessary to speak of the biology of behavior in vague terms. The effect of a drug, and the normality of many of the families with an OCD kid makes the importance of "poor upbringing" as a cause of OCD uncertain to say the least. This is a disease that may be thought of as doubts gone wild. Patients doubt their very own senses. They cannot believe any reasurance of everyday life. Reassurance does not work. The notion that there is a biological basis for a sense of "knowing" has interesting philosophical implications. We are normally convinced that what we see and feel is truely there. If this is a "doubting disease," and if a chemical controls this sense of doubt, then is our usual, normal belief in what our everyday senses and common sense tell us similarly determined by our brain chemistry?