Finding the right treatment for your OCD

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, also referred to as OCD, is a chronic ailment that affects children and adults alike in varying degrees. It can cause one to feel overwhelmed with fear and, if left untreated, can become more difficult for a person to cope with. However, an OCD treatment can be found that will help a person cope effectively.

What are the symptoms of OCD?

OCD can affect each person in a different way and varies in its severity, which means treatment for OCD will differ from one individual to the next. Mainly, it causes a person to feel compelled to follow a particular thought or behaviour pattern. There are 4 main levels to OCD patterns:

• Obsession – This is where you may feel an overwhelming sense of fear that is constant, taking up the majority of your thoughts. An example would be having a fear of your home being broken into or a fear of becoming ill.

• Anxiety – Obsessions can develop into feelings of anxiety and distress that can be quite intense. You may find that you play out a variety of scenarios in your head, such as ways your home may be broken into or how you may contract an illness.

• Compulsion – Anxiety leads to a pattern of compulsive behaviour that you use as a way to lessen your feelings of distress and anxiety. Following the above examples, a person may develop a pattern of checking all of the doors and windows several times in their home to be sure they are locked before going to bed or leaving the house. Or they may feel a need to wash their hands every time they touch something deemed unsterile.

• Temporary relief – By acting out your compulsive behaviour patterns you can a sense of relief from your anxiety, but this is only temporary. You find that the obsessive thoughts return which lead to anxiety and starts the cycle all over again.

There are two parts to OCD symptoms; obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviour.

Obsessive thinking patterns - We all experience unwanted or unpleasant thoughts throughout our lives and most people are able to put these worries into context so that they can carry on with their day to day activities. It’s when those thoughts take over our everyday thought processes to the point where they interrupt our other thoughts that they are deemed obsessive.

Compulsive behaviour patterns - The second part of OCD are the compulsions that grow as a means of lessening or preventing those obsessive thoughts. These compulsions tend to either be not linked to the obsessive thought at all or create excessive behaviour, such as feeling a need to wash our hands 40 times a day because you are obsessed with becoming ill. Another common OCD behaviour is “neutralizing” an obsessive thought by repeating words, counting or having to have objects arranged in a specific pattern.

Detecting OCD in children

Children who suffer from OCD tend to have low self-esteem, find it hard to complete tasks and suffer from feelings of guilt and frustration. They may have trouble concentrating due to obsessive thinking that they are unable to stop. The most common obsession for children and teens with OCD can include:

• A fear of being contaminated or being afraid of dirt and germs

• Feeling compelled to have things in a certain order or symmetry

• A fear of harm or illness occurring to themselves or loved ones

• Being preoccupied by items around the house

• Thinking that is aggressive or sexual

Common compulsions that children and teens with OCD show include:

• Specific hygiene rituals like showering more often than normal or washing hands often

• Ritualistic repetition such as moving in a specific pattern through a room, feeling a need to repeat a step several times until it “feels right”

• Arranging items in a specific pattern or order

Studies have shown that OCD usually starts in childhood so it’s important to recognize the symptoms in order to find an OCD treatment that will help at an early stage.

Testing for OCD

Normally, testing for obsessive compulsive disorder was done by a doctor who would go through a series of questions with you. More recently OCD treatment centres have sprung up in many areas and there are online tests/questionnaires that one can take to determine if they have OCD and how severe it may be. Some of the questions you will be asked include:

• Do you experience thoughts that won’t go away or that cause you anxiety which you want to go away but find you are unable to stop them?

• Do you find that your daily activities take a long time to finish?

• Do you become upset or distressed when things are out of order or messy?

There are many more questions that will be asked to determine the severity of your OCD if you have it. It is down to how much your OCD symptoms are affecting your ability to function on a daily basis. There are 3 levels of OCD severity:

• Mild Functional Impairment – This is when your obsessive thinking and compulsive behaviour only affects a small part of your day, usually less than an hour

• Moderate Functional Impairment – This is when obsessive thinking and compulsive behaviour affects 1-3 hours of your daily activities

• Severe Functional Impairment – This is when your obsessive thinking and compulsive behaviour affects over 3 hours of your day to day activities

Treatment plan and guidelines for treating OCD

There are guidelines that your doctor will follow in order to offer you the best OCD treatment plan possible for your level of OCD. This will include discussing what help you can expect to receive, the treatments plans that are available to you, the use of services that can help you such as specialists in the mental health sector and how carers and loved ones can get support to help you.

As mentioned before, your treatment plan will depend on the level that your OCD symptoms are affecting your daily life and your ability to function. Treatments plans usually include medication to help control symptoms and behavioural therapy that can help change the thinking patterns that lead to anxiety.

OCD treatment without the use of medication

The main therapy used in an OCD treatment plan is called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT. This OCD treatment is generally used for the milder cases of OCD and works by helping you to recognize your triggers and how to change how you react to them. With moderate cases of OCD you may be offered a more intense CBT course along with an antidepressant, or SSRI.

OCD treatment using medication

If you are finding that CBT is not working for you, or you have a more moderate to severe case of OCD, you may be prescribed a medication to help ease symptoms as part of your OCD treatment plan. Once symptoms have eased you may find that CBT works a bit better which is why these two therapies are often used together.

The type of medication used are antidepressants, called SSRI’s, which work by increasing the serotonin levels of the brain. Some of these medications include fluoxetine, citalopram and paroxetine. It can take up to 12 weeks before you start to notice the benefits of these medications.

Finding help for OCD sufferers and those supporting them

Whether you are looking for help for yourself or for a loved one or friend, there are support options out there that can help you through. The most important step for OCD sufferers is to talk to someone. Once you are able to get it out in the open you won’t feel so alone. Family, doctors and support groups are all ways a person can find help for coping with OCD, or helping someone you love cope. Finding the right OCD treatment plan is also an important step that will help you to lead the normal life that you have been dreaming of.