Symptoms of OCD and Effective Treatment Methods

A number of phrases have crept into our daily vernacular that confuse overzealous cleanliness with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This is because most people have a faulty understanding of the disorder.

People keep a pristinely clean house and nonchalantly blame it on OCD, even though cleaning your house from the floorboards to the ceiling doesn’t necessarily mean you suffer from this condition.

The American Psychiatric Association defines OCD as the presence of obsessions, compulsions, or both, so there’s a lot more to OCD than decluttering your desk daily or detesting germs.

What Does OCD Look Like?

For those with obsessive-compulsive disorder, intrusive thoughts populate the mind and can cause anxiety or irrational behavior. Not all OCD behaviors are noticeable from the outside. The obsessive thought process is the invisible part of obsessive-compulsive disorder that society can’t see.

What is Obsession?

Obsessive behavior can manifest itself as thoughts that include wanting to harm someone, fear of your children becoming contaminated by germs, making mistakes at work, or other fears and desires that plague your mind.

The DSM-5 defines one symptom of obsession as “recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges, or impulses that are experienced, at some time during the disturbance, as intrusive and unwanted, and that in most individuals cause marked anxiety or distress.”

Often it’s easier to understand the tics of compulsions, but tricky to wrap your mind around the dark thoughts that occur for those with obsession symptoms. So, for example, checking the locks on a door repeatedly is easier for society to understand than, say, the fear of murdering your mother.

Obsessive and compulsive behavior often coincide, but that’s not always the case. Some people never act on the thoughts that bombard their head. Instead, they battle their morbid thoughts with a positive counter thought to neutralize the escalation occurring in their mind.

The DSM-5 describes this obsessive behavior as attempting “to ignore or suppress such thoughts, urges, or images, or to neutralize them with some other thought or action.”

The thoughts can reach a level of aggressiveness and intensity to the point that it paralyzes you, making you unable to function. The thoughts are generally unwanted and the person who is impacted realizes that.

You may not want to touch a door handle because germs will contaminate you. If you get contaminated you could suffer from a sickness. These thoughts, revolving around potential contamination, haunt you throughout the day.

Consider another example: a person without OCD might have the thought, “Oh, did I leave the door unlocked?” However, a person with obsessive behavior might think, “Did I leave the door unlocked? What if someone has been checking my house every day and waiting to break in? What if they steal all my belongings while I’m at work? What if someone remains hidden in my house and when I get home he attacks me? Maybe I should call the police now?”

These thoughts spiral out of control and the many terrors of life consume a person with OCD. Everyday activities can create minefields in their mind.

Common Character Traits of an Individual with OCD

People with obsessive character have been described as obstinate, orderly, punctual, meticulous, frugal, inflexible, inclined to intellectualism, and persistent even in the face of insurmountable obstacles. They’re driven by an internal, often unattainable, standard of excellence.

They battle with indecisiveness regularly. Because the fear of making a wrong decision is paralyzing, they often waver between thinking through every possibility and eventually refusing to make a decision. Can you relate?

Because they can’t live up to their own standards, people with obsession struggle with shame. They usually try to cope with it by boxing up their unwanted thoughts through rationalization, moralization, compartmentalization, and intellectualization.

Because there’s a constant battle to cover up their emotions, people with obsession falter when trying to express their feelings in a healthy way. It doesn’t help when people who are not informed about the symptoms of OCD confuse the person’s irrational thoughts with them being a danger to themselves or others.

That’s rarely the case when it comes to OCD. People who have the desire to harm someone show little remorse, whereas people with obsessive thoughts are distressed by the terrifying thoughts they have.  The person with obsessive behavior is trying to dissect their thoughts in order to understand them and then resist them. It can feel like an uphill battle most days.

What is Compulsion?

Obsessive thoughts can fuel compulsive behaviors. Celebrity, Howie Mandel, has openly confessed to his fans his fear of germs. In an ABC News segment, he shares how audience members are alerted before interacting with Mandel that they can’t shake his hand, but they can give him a fist bump.

As a kid, tying his shoes terrified him because of the possibility of residual dirt. As a parent, when the bottom of his daughter’s shoe accidentally brushed against his pant leg he demanded they turn the car around so he could change his pants. His struggle with OCD would be completely debilitating if he hadn’t found a therapist and medication to help manage his symptoms.

People with compulsion rush headlong into an activity instead of contemplating every possible outcome like obsessive people are inclined to do. A person with compulsive behaviors might hurry into shopping, eating, exercise, decontaminating themselves, or engaging in spur-of-the-moment sexual activity.

They are known to practice unconventional rituals in order to “control” their anxiety. This could look like stepping on every crack on the sidewalk during their morning route to work or turning the locks three times before leaving the house. There’s a range of complex compulsive behaviors that people experience on a personal level.

Can a Christian Counselor Help Someone With Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?

If invading, unwelcoming thoughts follow you and compulsive behaviors are your “normal”, consider reaching out to a professional Christian counselor who can help you. OCD is a mental disorder that can be carefully treated with different therapy methods. When OCD begins to creep in, you can practice strategies to keep it at bay.

As with anything in life, each individual must discover their personal way to approach their own OCD. It’s not always a one-size-fits-all solution. A counselor will dig down to the root of what causes the overwhelming thoughts and help sufferers learn to manage them and apply the truth of God’s word to OCD situations. Research-based treatment and God’s healing power can lift the oppression of unwanted thoughts and compulsions to help you find freedom.