Ocd Psychology: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Essay Example
Ocd Psychology: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Essay Example

Ocd Psychology: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Essay Example

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  • Pages: 4 (1000 words)
  • Published: December 2, 2017
  • Type: Case Study
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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, commonly referred to as OCD, is one of the most prevalent personality disorders, affecting more than 2% of the population. The disorder is notable for its preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal control at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency.

Patterns of OCD develop during early adulthood, and are categorized as either mild or extreme. There are several distinct symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.Patients with OCD attempt to sustain mental control by painstakingly abiding by rules, procedures, and schedules, and working with trivial details and lists, to an extent that the purpose of the activity is obscured or lost.

These self-imposed high standards and repeated checking for errors can lead to distress and dysfunction in the individuals, who are often oblivious at the impatience of others at their seemingly trivial behavio

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r. Individuals with the disorder also tend to value work and productivity over leisure time and social activities.The feel very uncomfortable taking time off or participating in leisure activities, and tend to bring along things to work on in order to feel like they are not wasting time.

However, time they do tend to spend away from work or with friends usually involves some sort of organized activity, such as sports. They also may be excessively inflexible or fussy about morality, ethics, or values. They may force both themselves and those around them to follow rigid moral principles or strict standards of performance, being extremely self-critical about their own mistakes.They rely on deference to rules and authority without room for extenuating circumstances.

Individuals with this disorder may not be able to discard meaningless or otherwise worthless objects on mere principal. They worry being wasteful because

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they feel that at some point or time, they may find use or need for the object. They also feel this way about money, often living well below a standard of living that they can afford in order to save money to provide for a future catastrophe.Spouses and roommates may complain about the amount of space dedicated to these seemingly meaningless objects, and the individuals may become upset of these objects are attempted to be purged. Individuals may also be reluctant to delegate tasks or work with others. They may stubbornly or unreasonably insist on doing or forcing others to do things their own way.

They may give detailed instructions on how something should be done, and may be surprised and irritated at other suggestions. They may reject help even if under stress because they may believe others will not be able to do it right.This rigidity and stubbornness overall encapsulates the disorder, which limits the individual from doing things a different way or understanding different viewpoints. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder are two separate disorders, though an individual can experience both.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is characterized by more material attention to details and structure; for example, excessive hoarding of objects without regard to the objects value or worth (i. e. collecting old newspapers for no reason but to have them).Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder may be confused with other personality disorders because they have several common features. For example, narcissistic personality disorder also entails a commitment to perfectionism and a belief that others will not be able to perform a task. However, those individuals with NPD believe that they achieve perfection whereas those with OCPD are usually self-critical.

Individuals

with NPD also lack generosity but tend to indulge themselves, whereas OCPD will adapt stingy spending habits for both others and themselves.OCPD can also be characterized by apparent formality and social detachment just as Schizoid Personality Disorder can be. However, in OCPD stems from discomfort with emotions rather than a fundamental inability to be intimate. Finally, it must be distinguished from symptoms that may develop in association with chronic substance abuse, personality change or general medical condition. In the Lady Macbeth case study, a young girl realized that she began to do strange things for reasons unbeknownst to her. She had a feeling of impending disaster if she failed to complete tasks revolving around excessive cleanliness and sets of three.

Eventually, she resorted to trying to shake germs out of her clothes and rub her hands in rubbing alcohol constantly, spending six hours getting ready before school. She was afraid that if she didn’t stay clean or abide by her sets of three, something bad would happen to her family, specifically her grandmother. Although she improved significantly by suppressing many of her symptoms, she still needs to do certain things such as editing papers in repetitions of three. The young girl vividly described her experience of OCD. This form of OCD both caused her stress and interfered with her functionality.

The ideas intruded into her consciousness, causing her to react emotionally to her fears despite knowing they were irrational and that her counter-measures were unnecessary and excessive. Her acts of washing her hands to the point of bleeding and counting off multiples of three to counteract words that correlated to non-cleanliness highlight her unreasonable behaviors.

In the Fearful

Girl case study, a woman referred to as SS suffered from a variety of symptoms, such as morbid fears of future events, obsessions, compulsions, and difficulties in personal relations.This case study is important because she possessed both the obsessive and compulsive traits while not being able to recognize her fears and irrational or inappropriate, unlike Lady Macbeth, who was aware that she was not acting normally. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder can ultimately affect people in two different ways, by means of dysfunctional productive abilities.

Both can ultimately limit people’s social interactions and interpersonal relationships by causing the person to be stubborn in their ideas and limit their versatility. Despite this, the individual traits can be beneficial at less extreme levels.For example, the traits of perfection and hard work ethic are often apparent in prized workers. However, when these traits are inflexible, non-adapting, and persistent, they can ultimately cause functional impairment or a lack of efficient working capabilities.

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