Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a form of anxiety where you have distressing, repetitive thoughts which makes it harder to ignore them like fear of contamination, fear of hurting someone else, fear of your behavior, or the need for exactness. According to Irish Health 2-3% of the Irish have OCD. Sometimes it can be hard for those without this disorder to understand why those with OCD feel and do what they do. Here are explanations to what it is like to have OCD.
According to The Mighty, OCD is like having a bully stuck in your head that no one sees. This bully is like a puppeteer pulling your strings. When you think everything is fine, that puppeteer pulls you back and tells you to make sure everything is spotless, if your hands are washed, is everything unplugged, are the doors locked, etc. These obsessive thoughts tend to take over a large span of the day like a soundtrack playing 24 hours a day in your head. You feel forced to do an endless number of random, pointless activities that are exhausting and draining. It feels like there is honey all over you and the flies keep swarming around you. You keep trying to fend them off but they keep coming back. There is this constant nagging feeling like something is not right when everything can look fine in the eyes of other people. The only thing you take notice of is what is potentially dangerous, scary, and harmful.
OCD is all about being afraid of making a mistake, harming someone, disease, contamination, and anything dangerous, disgusting, and dirty. You feel like you should only be having good thoughts and that negative thoughts means there is something wrong with your thinking. You want to know for sure if the choices you make will cause you to act out, lose control, or cause you to be contaminated. You feel like if you have a bad thought, you will commit a bad action. You want control in your life and the only way you can accomplish that is if you make the negative thoughts go away. Many perform rituals whether it is constantly washing your hands, repeating “no,” praying, arranging things, walking a certain way, and having to go back and check. OCD is all about negative thoughts swimming in your head that affect the actions you take going forward to ensure control.
Smarmore Castle Private Clinic in County Louth, near Dublin was founded in 1988 as a residential rehabilitation hospital treating people suffering from drug and alcohol purposes. Smarmore Castle believes in helping patients lead a life of abstinence through 12 Step programs, detox and medical treatment, psychotherapy, and complementary therapies for mental illnesses. For more information, please call 041-214-5111. For those who live out of the country, the international number is 00353-41-214-5111.
