The Painful World of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Only a few decades ago, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder was unheard of.  Anyone displaying the kind of symptoms we see today in a sufferer of this distressing disorder would be labelled as simply ‘weird’ or freaky’.  Elderly baby boomers would not have heard of ‘OCD’ as we know it during their youth, nor would they have known anyone suffering with the symptoms, probably because someone in the grip of OCD would have been wise enough to hide their symptoms.

What are the symptoms, exactly?

Psychological articles show us that OCD presents through strange rituals practised by the sufferer to cope with feelings that they are threatened in some way.  This threat might be in the form of fear that their family will abandon them; fear that their partner will leave; fear that their children love someone else more than them; irrational pessimism that they are going to come to some harm at the hands of even people they love: baby boomers suffering with OCD might have a tendency to arrange ornaments on a shelf exactly the same distance apart.

Other rituals might involve checking that doors and windows are locked before leaving the house, six; seven; eight; up to thirty or even forty or so times, never satisfied that they have properly locked each area of the house until someone finally ‘rescues’ them by assuring them everything is securely locked and safe.  Oddly, this reassurance is usually accepted, no matter who is doing the assuring, and the sufferer seems almost relieved to be able to walk away from the task they are obsessed with, probably exhausted and happy to hand the responsibility of the locked windows and doors to another person.

OCD might also compel someone to dust or polish each area of their house six or seven times, each time with a different cloth, and in sequence.  The sequence must not be interrupted – if it is, the person has to start all over again with the first cloth, then the second, and so on…

Psychological articles tell us that frequent and ritualistic hand washing and the need to count possessions are also symptoms of OCD and many sufferers spend days on end, re-washing laundry in an endless quest to re-clean and re-stack perfectly clean and neatly piled clothes and bed linen. For baby boomers with OCD, cupboards must be stacked just so; closets must have hangers facing the right direction and all hangers must be color-co-ordinated with the items in the closet.  Curiously, washing must be pegged with color-matched plastic pegs and the washing spaced correctly…

What happens if the ritual is upset?

OCD sufferers are invariably quite happy to re-start a ritual; therefore the possibility of being interrupted is not so upsetting as one might think, although there are exceptions.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is socially embarrassing so often sufferers will keep their problem secret, enabling the condition to worsen considerably before professional help is finally sought.

The causes of OCD are suspected to be hereditary via the maternal link, or the result of a lack of Serotonin in the brain.  Other theories explore the possibility of natural physical changes causing an imbalance that triggers the condition but no actual cause is verified.

For baby boomers who suspect they have some or all of the symptoms of OCD, counselling may be sought to combat the symptoms or at least to reduce them.  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy might also be a solution to treating the disorder by introducing alternative ideas and thought processes.