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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Analysis

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It is estimated that around 25% of adults in the United States of America is living with a mental illness (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2011). Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is one of the many mental illnesses that are diagnosed worldwide. This disorder is a debilitating mental disorder that can become manageable with treatment (National Institute of Mental Health, 2016). To have a complete understanding of obsessive compulsive disorder it is important to review all aspects of this disorder.
Obsessive compulsive disorder is a chronic disorder that is characterized by uncontrollable, intrusive thoughts called obsessions and repetitive behaviors or mental acts which are called compulsions (National Institute of Mental …show more content…
This manual provides a basis for diagnosing different mental disorders according to the presence of certain symptoms (Halgin & Whitbourne, 2013). According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders there are certain diagnostic criteria that must be met in order to be diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder. The DSM states that obsessions are defined as intrusive or inappropriate impulses, thoughts, or images that cause anxiety in the individual. These obsessions are not the product of real life worries. The individual often tries to ignore these obsessions, or tries to counteract them with a thought or action. (American Psychiatric Association, …show more content…
In the seventeenth century, the symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder were explained as the symptoms of religious melancholy. In the nineteenth century neurasthenia, which was insufficient tone of the nervous system, was used to describe the symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder, as well as the symptoms of many other disorders. In the twentieth century, Sigmund Freud and Pierre Janet theorized their own reasons for the symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder. Janet thought that the patient with obsessive compulsive disorder had insufficient nervous energy to perform normal mental acts. Thus, the nervous energy was focused towards more primitive mental acts which were the obsessions and compulsions. Freud deduced that the symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder were due to the patient’s mind responding to the struggles of the id impulses and the demands of reality. The twenty-first century brought new research on obsessive compulsive disorder, which brought diagnosis and treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder to where it is today (Stanford Medicine, n.d.).
On a personal note, the reason for this topic is because the author of this paper was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder at the age of twenty-two. She had been experiencing fear of contamination, fear of losing things, an obsessive fear of social

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