Fear of contracting illness through germs is a common characteristic of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Excessive showering, bathing, toothbrushing, grooming, toilering, cleaning clothes and personal items, and avoiding "contaminated" objects and places, are other examples of compulsive habits of people with OCD.
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Today, Kant works as a clinical research assistant at the Massachusetts General Hospital Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Clinic & Research Unit. He frequently speaks about his battle with OCD at conferences and academic institutions across the country and he contributes to Organized Chaos, the Obsessive-Compulsive Foundation's website for teens and young adults.
Everything must be equal
For some of us, the difficulty ensues when the line is just left of center.
If the front door is not precisely flush against the frame, Kate McCormick, of Chicago, will recognize the flaw. A junior at Texas Christian University, McCormick was diagnosed with OCD when she was 12. From a picture on the wall to the arrangement of a room, everything needed to be symmetrical for her to be at ease. When her obsession overtook her life, McCormick turned to Hale of the Kansas City Center for Anxiety Treatment for guidance and learned to manage her OCD.
Walking into a room can still be difficult for McCormick because most doors never perfectly align with their frame.These imperfections eat at McCormick,but she has learned to control her impulse to obsess.
"In the past, I couldn't do anything until I figured out how to fix the door." McCormick says. "Sometimes I could simply lift or push the door back into place, but other times it would have taken much more to really fix the door."
At her own house, McCormick would take the time to correct the imperfection, getting help from her parents, but the true agony came when a friend's door wasn't ideally situated on the frame.
"If it was a quick fix, I would adjust my friend's door casually," she says, "but if it was really messed up, I'd find an excuse to leave and obsess about it in private."
At her worst, symmetry ruled McCormick's mind—everything needed to be balanced. She could never lean down to touch a table with just one hand. McCormick would methodically reach both hands out, and at precisely the same time, make contact with the flat surface below making certain the pressure was equal on each hand.
This symmetrical obsession was only half the battle for McCormick. She, like other people with OCD, had to learn to manage her compulsions. When she felt the need to slodge a thought, McCormick would find herself humming the same monotonous four-beat tune over and over until she felt comfortable. Some of the most common compulsions people with OCD face are excessive cleanliness, checking, repeating, counting and arranging.
Repetitious rituals
For some of us, peace can be found in the daily grind.
Every time Joel Thomas takes a shower he must repeat the same routine—wash hair, condition hair, wash body, wash conditioner out—or his day just isn't the same.
"Structure and organization make my life easier;" Thomas, Overland Park senior, says "Things just feel right when they are in order."
I have the same problem. If I get distracted thinking while taking a shower; I must repeat my process until I'm satisfied I've completed every step. This annoying practice has led to three separate shampoo applications during one trip to the shower on several occasions.
To most people, it makes no sense. How do I forget if I washed my hair? Well, I really don't forget washing my hair, but if there is even the slightest hint of doubt in my mind, I must repeat the process. Otherwise, my day just isn't quite right. In many ways, it is certainty that we crave.
People with OCD are aware of their
thoughts and behaviors, but the reassurance the rituals provide help ease their mind, says Bloch of the Life Enrichment Center.
The road to remission
For all of us who battle OCD, there is a light at the end of the tunnel—it's just some days it looks a little off center and needs to be wiped off.
Though there is no cure for OCD, it can be managed and overcome. The goal we all have is to find our way to remission. Like a person who has overcome alcoholism, we are always in a state of recovery—never fully healed.
The common treatment for OCD today is medication, cognitive-behavioral therapy or both, says Hale of the Kansas City Center for Anxiety Treatment. The first line of treatment for OCD is exposure-and-response therapy. It is most effective in results because it can take place outside of the therapist's office while guiding the patient through behavioral modifications, Hale says. If a patient is too paranoid to drive for fear of causing a 20-car pileup, the therapist will counsel the patient inside a car.Taking baby steps and easing into the process, the first few sessions might be conducted with the parking brake on, but slowly the patient begins to understand how exaggerated the fear is, and within weeks the patient is driving on his own. In Hale's experiences, she usually sees 70 to 90 percent symptom improvement in her patients, sometimes in just three to four weeks.
"In some ways, it is a little bit selfish because we can see people get better quickly." Hale says. "I find it very empowering to do this kind of work."
Drug treatment is another option for OCD patients. This was the choice my therapist made when I was diagnosed. The majority of drugs that help OCD are classified as antidepressants. Usually depression results from the disability OCD creates. Using medications such as Paxil,
Prozac or Zoloft, doctors can treat both the OCD and depression.
Zoloft helped reduce my obsessions and compulsions, but I didn't like the way it made me feel, so I stopped taking it after a few weeks. I assumed I would revert back to my old habits, but so far I haven't—at least not to the same extent. I have been in good remittance for a little over five years. I know there is a good chance my symptoms will come back, but I'm ready to fight them because I am more conscious of what it means to conquer my obsession about obsessing.
QUICK FACTS ABOUT OCD
1. In the United States, one in 50 adults have OCD.
2. In OCD, the brain gets stuck on a particular thought or urge and just can't let go.
3. OCD starts at any time from preschool age to adulthood (usually by 40).
4. One-third to one-half of adults report that their OCD started during childhood.
5. On average, people with OCD see three to four doctors and spend nine years seeking treatment before they receive a correct diagnosis.
6. Studies have found it takes an average of 17 years from the time OCD begins for people to obtain appropriate treatment.
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