8. characteristics of OCD

Question 1

BEHAVIOURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF OCD
The behavioural component of OCD is compulsive behaviour. There are two elements to compulsive behaviours.

Answer 1

COMPULSIONS ARE REPETITIVE
COMPULSIONS REDUCE ANXIETY
AVOIDANCE

Question 2

COMPULSIONS ARE REPETITIVE

Answer 2

Typically, people with OCD feel compelled to repeat a behaviour. A common example is handwashing. Other common compulsive repetitions include counting, praying, and tidying/ordering groups of objects such as CD collections (for those who have them) or containers in a food cupboard.

Question 3

COMPULSIONS REDUCE ANXIETY

Answer 3

Around 10% of people with OCD show compulsive behaviour alone - they have no obsessions, just a general sense of irrational anxiety. However, for the vast majority, compulsive behaviours are performed in an attempt to manage the anxiety produced by obsessions. For example, compulsive handwashing is carried out as a response to an obsessive fear of germs. Compulsive checking, for example that a door is locked or a gas appliance is switched off, is in response to the obsessive thought that it might have been left unsecured.

Question 4

AVOIDANCE

Answer 4

The behaviour of people with OCD may also be characterised by their avoidance as they attempt to reduce anxiety by keeping away from situations that trigger it.
People with OCD tend to try to manage their OCD by avoiding situations that trigger anxiety. For example, people who wash compulsively may avoid coming into contact with germs. However, this avoidance can lead people to avoid very ordinary situations, such as emptying their rubbish bins, and this can in itself interfere with leading a regular life.

Question 5

EMOTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF OCD

Answer 5

ANXIETY AND DISTRESS
ACCOMPANYING DEPRESSION
GUILT AND DISGUST

Question 6

ANXIETY AND DISTRESS

Answer 6

OCD is regarded as a particularly unpleasant emotional experience because of the powerful anxiety that accompanies both obsessions and compulsions. Obsessive thoughts are unpleasant and frightening, and the anxiety that goes with these can be overwhelming. The urge to repeat a behaviour (a compulsion) creates anxiety.

Question 6

ACCOMPANYING DEPRESSION

Answer 6

OCD is often accompanied by depression, so anxiety can be accompanied by low mood and lack of enjoyment in activities.

Question 7

COGNITIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF OCD
The cognitive approach is concerned with the ways in which people process information. People with OCD are usually plagued with obsessive thoughts, but they also adopt cognitive strategies to deal with these.

Answer 7

OBSESSIVE THOUGHTS
COGNITIVE COPING STRATEGIES
INSIGHT INTO EXCESSIVE ANXIETY

Question 7

GUILT AND DISGUST

Answer 7

As well as anxiety and depression, OCD sometimes involves other negative emotions such as irrational guilt, for example over minor moral issues, or disgust, which may be directed against something external like dirt or at the self.

Question 8

OBSESSIVE THOUGHTS

Answer 8

For around 90% of people with OCD the major cognitive feature of their condition is obsessive thoughts, i.e. thoughts that recur over and over again. These vary considerably from person to person but are always unpleasant. Examples of recurring thoughts are worries of being contaminated by dirt and germs, or certainty that a door has been left unlocked and that intruders will enter through it, or impulses to hurt someone.

Question 9

COGNITIVE COPING STRATEGIES

Answer 9

Obsessions are the major cognitive aspect of OCD, but people also respond by adopting cognitive coping strategies to deal with the obsessions. For example, a religious person tormented by obsessive guilt may respond by praying or meditating. This may help manage anxiety but can make the person appear abnormal to others and can distract them from everyday tasks.

Question 10

INSIGHT INTO EXCESSIVE ANXIETY

Answer 10

People with OCD are aware that their obsessions and compulsions are not rational.
In fact, this is necessary for a diagnosis of OCD. If someone really believed their obsessive thoughts were based on reality that would be a symptom of a quite different form of mental disorder. However, in spite of this insight, people with OCD experience catastrophic thoughts about the worst-case scenarios that might result if their anxieties were justified. They also tend to be hypervigilant.