Describe obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), people are plagued by unwanted thoughts, called obsessions, or feel that they must carry out behaviors, termed compulsions, that they feel driven to perform.

An obsession is a persistent, unwanted thought or idea that keeps recurring. For example, a man may go on vacation and wonder the whole time whether he locked his house, or a woman may hear the same tune running through her head over and over. In each case, the thought or idea is unwanted and difficult to put out of mind. Of course, many people suffer from mild obsessions from time to time, but usually such thoughts persist only for a short period. For people with serious obsessions, however, the thoughts persist for days or months and may consist of bizarre, troubling images.

As part of an OCD, people may also experience compulsions. Compulsions are irresistible urges to repeatedly carry out some behavior that seems strange and unreasonable even to them. Whatever the compulsive behavior is, people experience extreme anxiety if they cannot do it, even if it is something they want to stop. The acts may be relatively trivial, such as repeatedly checking the stove to make sure all the burners are turned off, or more unusual, such as washing one's hands so much that they bleed. Although carrying out compulsive rituals may lead to some immediate reduction of anxiety, in the long run the anxiety returns. In fact, people with severe cases lead lives filled with unrelenting tension.