Contrary to popular belief, Obsessive-Compulsive disorder isn’t just about obsessing over how clean your kitchen should be. The reality of a diagnosed OCD patient is that they find it difficult to live with themselves because their OCD interferes with their jobs and relationships.

Obsessive-Compulsive disorder, as the name suggests, comes from OBSESSIVE thoughts which result to COMPULSIVE or repetitive behavior. It isn’t like it takes over all the aspects of your life. In fact, it can have some sort of theme sometimes. For instance, a lot of people who suffer from OCD are scared of germs so they obsess over making their surroundings and self-clean.

Because it’s different for everyone, it might be difficult to pinpoint if you really have it or not unless you seek the help of a professional. But in order to shed some light on the situation, here are some signs of having OCD that you might want to take note of before our psych visit.

  • Feeling uneasy in situations of uncertainty
  • Being afraid to touch anything that you haven’t personally sanitized and cleaned them over and over again, including your own body and home
  • Intense levels of stress when things are organized the way you want them to be
  • Doing things over and over again to ensure that they’re done right such as turning off the switch or the stove and many more

Generally, OCD cannot be prevented. But, if it is diagnosed in the early stages, it can be treated.

Assessing Your Level of Anxiety Towards Different Situations

Make a list of things that you believe trigger your OCD. If you’re unsure, you may keep going back to reassessing yourself by looking at the signs of having OCD. And then pick which ones you think you can resist. Keep repeating this activity in order to make you stronger and soon, before you know it, you’ll have totally gotten rid of bad feelings towards these activities.

Although we understand that there are thoughts that you can’t help but visualize, it helps to know which ones you can fight so you can lessen your episodes. Because if you haven’t noticed yet, OCD episodes are exhausting.

Medication

Of course, this list will include good, old medicine. Although the speed of improvement and effectiveness varies from person to person, it’s still worth a try. A lot of psychiatrists will prescribe SSRIs which help in lessening the compulsions and obsessions and making them more manageable.

The goal of medication is to ensure that the quality of your life is better. Basically, this means that you can continue to have better relationships with people, you no longer need to switch from one job to another and you can actually make progress in your career.

Behavior Therapy

The basic premise of behavior therapy is that you practice resisting your compulsions based on the evaluation of your obsessive thoughts. Once you know that happens when you resist your compulsions, you know which ones you can really resist and those that will take more time or effort. So you do what is it that you don’t like doing until it becomes normal to you.

Simply put, you’re just going to face your fears, little by little, one step at a time, with the help of a professional.