Analysis of a Cleaning/Contamination Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Case This case paper is about Lucinda, a 20-year old single female, who suffers from the Cleaning/Contamination Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) condition since she was very young. She is characterized by intrusive thoughts, images, and/or impulses that cause distress (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors that are performed to neutralize these intrusions (Coles, Schofield & Pietrefesa, 2006), i.e. her repetitive cleaning and washing behaviors. Her anxiety became so excessive that it interfered with her daily life. She perceived that some undesirable object(s), in this case the germs, were still on the things that she will come in contact with, even after she had repeatedly washing and/or cleaning them. Her anxiety further degraded both her social and occupational functioning, which resulted in considerable impacts to herself, her friends and family. In additions, her anxiety also caused her not be able to function to her fullest potential academically and to socialize with her friends and family as much as she wanted to. Lucinda is currently pursuing her degree in business at a local university. She has been attending the university for the past two-and-a-half years, and yet she is still at her sophomore year. She has earned just 26 credit hours towards her business degree. While attending the school, she also works part-time at the help-desk in one of the university labs. Lucinda lives in a small apartment off-campus. She has been frequently late for classes and missed multiple class periods each semester. She has been experiencing a lot of stress trying to keep up with her class work and considering dropping 1 to 2 courses this semester. ... ... middle of paper ... ...rse childhood experience and obsessive-compulsive symptoms and beliefs: The role of anxiety, depression, and experiential avoidance. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 23, 1037-1046. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2009.07.004 Coles, M. E., Schofield, C. A., & Pietrefesa, A. S. (2006). Behavioral inhibition and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Anxiety Disorders, 20, 1118-1132. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2006.03.003 Jakubovski, E., Diniz, J. B., Valerio, C., Fossaluza, V., Belotto-Silva, C., Gorenstein, C., …Shavitt, R. G. (2013). Clinical predictors of long-term outcome in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Depression and Anxiety, 30, 763-772. doi 10.1002/da.22013 Wahl, K., Salkovskis, P. M., & Cotter, I. (2008). ‘I wash until it feels right’ the phenomenology of stopping criteria in obsessive-compulsive washing. Anxiety Disorder, 22, 143-161. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2007.02.009
Obsessive-Compulsive disorder (OCD) - is characterized by persistent, uncontrollable and unwanted feelings or thoughts (obsessions) and routines or rituals (compulsions) in which individuals engage to try to prevent or rid themselves of these thoughts. In example of common compulsions include washing hands or cleaning repeatedly for fear of germs.
Van Noppen, B., & Steketee, G. (2009). Testing a conceptual model of patient and family predictors of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. Behaviour Research And Therapy, 47(1), 18-25. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2008.10.005
Conceição do Rosario-Campos, M., Leckman, J. F., Mercadante, M. T., Shavitt, R. G., Prado, H. S., Sada, P., Zamignani, D. & Miguel, E. C. (2001). Adults with early-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 1899-1903.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a disease that afflicts up to six million Americans, however all its characteristics are yet to be fully understood. Its causes, triggers, attributes, and variations are still unknown although effective medicines exist to treat the symptoms. OCD is a very peculiar disease as Rapoport discusses it comes in many different forms and have different symptoms yet have many similarities. One sure aspect is that it appears, or at least its symptoms do, out of the blue and is triggered either by stressful experiences or, most of the time, just appears out of nowhere. One example is a boy who's father was hard on him for being affected by the worlds "modern ways", the boy at a high school party tries LSD ( a hallucinatory drug), after that thoughts of whether his mind was dangerously affected by the drug. What seemed like completely appropriate worrying and anxiety turned into attacks of anxiety, he couldn't shake the thoughts that something was wrong with his mind. Essentially he had "his mind on his mind" constantly and that haunted his days his thought were as follows: " did the lsd do anything to my mind? The thought never went away ; instead it got more and more complicated. There must be something wrong with my mind if i am spending so much time worrying about it. Is there something wrong with my mind? Was this from the lsd? Will it ever get better?" (The boy who, J. L. Rapoport 125,126) Dr. Rapoport promptly put him on Anafranil (an anti-depressant, used for OCD, not marketed in the U.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is placed on the lowest level of spectrum of the effects of personality disorders and mental illnesses. Obsessive-compulsive disorder, OCD, is a...
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a disorder which causes people to develop an anxiety when certain obsessions or compulsions are not fulfilled. OCD can affect both children and adults with more than half of all adults with OCD stating that they experienced signs as a child. People living with OCD display many obvious signs such as opening and closing a door fifty times because they have to do it “just right”. Others exhibit extreme cleanliness and will wash their hands or take showers as often as they can because they constantly feel dirty. OCD devastates people’s social lives as they are fixated and obsessed with perfection that can take forever to achieve. However people living with OCD are often found to have an above average intelligence and typically excel at school due to their detail oriented mindset, cautious planning and patience. OCD can be caused by many different factors such as genetics or the ever changing world a...
Some symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) include fear of germs, perfectionism, and rituals. When someone has OCD, they are afraid of germs and might constantly be washing their hands or cleaning their room. Someone who suffers from OCD needs everything to be perfect and they might organize their closet by color and size. Their rituals calm their anxiety. Certain rituals are things such as checking the stove a certain number of times to make sure it is off, or tapping their finger a number of times just because it makes them feel better.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder has many common symptoms and experiences that along with it, but it is not completely cut-and-dry for every individual. The authors of these essays have gone through many hard times and want others to be informed about their disorder. Through their personal stories, I hope we have all learned a little more about what life with OCD is all about.
The Boy who couldn’t stop Washing written by DR. Judith Rapoport, published by Penguin books in 1989, containing 292 pages, deals with obsessive compulsive disorder. Dr. Rapoport is a psychiatrist who specializes in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). In this, book she reveals new drug treatments, new methods in diagnosis and behaviorist therapies. This is done through the study of her patients and their disorders. Rapoport has revealed this secret disease and hopes to bring and understanding about it to all that may suffer from it and to anyone who may want to be informed. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about OCD. It may help those who face this disease everyday of their lives, and make them realize they are not alone. Also will aid in those who do not know much about this disease and give them and understanding and be aware that it surrounds us.
Compulsions are the behaviors that relieve the person of anxiety temporarily. If the obsession is perfect hygiene, the compulsion could be washing hands constantly. Compulsions can also be checking on something over and over again, including repeating phrases to calm themselves down. Basically, they are...
There are several things that are included in OCD, including its symptoms, treatments and its involvement with the brain. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder recognize their symptoms to be ego-dystonic which are thoughts one would not usually have and not within one’s control but is still a product of one’s mind. The two common symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder are obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions take the form of persistent and uncontrollable thoughts, images, impulses, worries, fears or doubts. An anonymous writer wrote about his/her images, “These images included hitting, stabbing, poisoning and shooting people, even the people I loved the most…” However, compulsions are either repetitive physical behaviors or mental thought rituals that are performed over and over again to help relieve a person’s anxiety. Over time compulsions can become more elaborate and time- consuming. Shirley Brinkerhoff mentions in her book Amanda, a high school girl facing OCD, said, “Then I started having to count my steps. Like, 387 steps to the bus stop, and if missed...
Obsessive-compulsive disorder has been classified as a type of anxiety disorder under DSM-5, in which there is a presence of obsessions, compulsions or both. Obsessions are defined as “intrusive and mostly nonsensical thoughts, images, or urges that the individual tries to resist or eliminate,” while compulsion are the thought or actions that accompany these obsessions to try to suppress and provide relief. (TEXTBOOK) The obsessions are categorized into four major types, and each is linked with a certain pattern of compulsive behaviors.
Bob Wiley displays many different characteristics and symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Obsessions are “persistent thoughts, ideas, impulses, or images that seem to invade the person’s consciences”, while compulsions are “repetitive and rigid behaviors or mental acts that people feel they must perform in order to prevent or reduce anxiety” (Comer, 2015). Bob is very concerned and worried about germs. He uses a kleenex whenever he needs to open a door. He informs Dr. Marvin, that “I worry about diseases so i have trouble touching things”.
A clean home is something that should come easy for anyone. Most people would consider anyone with a dirty and cluttered home to be lazy or filthy, but many are unaware of the psychological disorder Hoarding, which affects about 5% of the population, both men and women (Neziroglu, n.d.). Hoarding is the act of one having difficulties separating from their belongings. Although many confuse hoarding with collecting, there is a significant difference from the two. Those who collect, gather a specific product as a hobby or a profession, but those with a Hoarding disorder keep items without a notable worth and it accumulates in areas that were previously used for living. It is believed that hoarding is caused by a deficiency with a person’s information processing or led by a cognitive disorder, or a disturbing emotional shock (“The Hoarding Project”, 2016
After only being at The University of Akron for three weeks, I dropped two classes. Shortly after dropping those classes, I received an email from my advisor asking to schedule an appointment. While in my academic advisors office, she proceeded to tell me that most students who drop two or more classes tend to not graduate. These words frightened me and even made me regret the decision to attend college as a whole. I sat there and thought about how disappointed my family would be and wondered if I would be successful in college. Since then, I have learned that there is a lot more to being successful