OCD is a neurological disorder with symptoms such as obsessive-compulsive thoughts and compulsive behaviors. Patients are anxious and distressed because they know that these obsessive-compulsive symptoms are irrational and unnecessary, but they cannot control or get rid of them.
OCD starts slowly with no apparent cause. The basic symptoms are obsessive-compulsive thoughts, compulsive intentions, and compulsive behaviors. They can be mainly one kind of symptoms or several kinds of symptoms. The content of the symptoms of individual patients is absurd and bizarre.
I. Obsessive-compulsive ideas
1, compulsive thoughts patients often repeatedly think of some words or phrases in the mind, and these words or sentences are often disgusted by the patient. For example, a person who loves his daughter and regards her as his life, repeatedly thinks of some words that molest his daughter in his head.
2, compulsive exhaustive thinking patients repeatedly think about some common things, concepts or phenomena, to get to the bottom of it, knowing that there is no realistic meaning, but can not control themselves. Such as repeatedly thinking “why 1 plus 1 equals two?” “Why do people eat instead of grass?” .
3, compulsive doubt patients doubt the reliability of what they have done, need to repeatedly check and check. For example, whether the car door is closed, whether the windows and doors of the house are closed, and the patient himself can realize that things have been done, but just not assured.
4, compulsive association patients appear in the mind of an idea or see a sentence, then involuntarily associated with another idea or words, and most of them are opposing nature, then called compulsive opposing thinking. For example, if you think of “friendly”, you will immediately associate it with hate, etc.
5, compulsive memories of the patient’s consciousness involuntarily repeatedly presented the experience, can not get rid of, feel distressed.
6. Patients with compulsive intention experience a strong internal urge to do something against their will, but generally do not do it, the patient knows that this urge is irrational and absurd, so they try to restrain it, but the internal urge can not get rid of. For example, if you see a hug when you see the opposite sex, etc.
Second, compulsive actions and behaviors
1. Compulsive checking is mostly a measure taken to reduce the anxiety caused by obsessive suspicion. Often manifested as repeatedly checking whether the car door, doors and windows, gas is closed, whether the electric plug is unplugged, whether the accounts are wrong, etc., and in serious cases, checking dozens of times is still uneasy.
2, forced washing mostly from the fear of contamination of this compulsive concept and repeated hand washing, laundry, etc.. Often spend a lot of energy and time, know that it is not necessary, but can not control.
3, compulsive ritual actions are usually developed gradually to counteract the anxiety caused by some compulsive ideas. For example, a student began to appear compulsive ideas will shake his head to fight, it is effective, but not for long, shaking his head can not resist the compulsive ideas, so add a hand tapping the action of the table, this method began to be effective, but the effectiveness gradually declined, so the patient added a foot stomping action to strengthen the role of the fight. Over time, the patient developed a complex ritualistic procedure: shaking the head a few times, then tapping the table a few times, and then stamping the foot.
4, obsessive-compulsive questioning OCD patients often do not believe in themselves, in order to eliminate the anxiety brought about by doubt or exhaustion, often repeatedly ask others (especially family members), in order to obtain explanations and reassurance.
5. Obsessive-compulsive slowness is clinically rare. These patients may deny having any compulsive ideas, and the slow motivation is to try to make everything they do perfect. Since the goal is to be perfect, precise, and right, it often fails, thus increasing the time.
III. Attention
1. The patient claims that the obsessive-compulsive symptoms originate within himself and are not imposed by others or outside influences.
2. The compulsive symptoms recur, the patient sees no meaning and feels unpleasant, even painful, and therefore tries to resist, but it does not work. Impaired social functioning. Meet the criteria of symptoms for at least 3 months.
3.Exclude organic brain diseases, especially compulsive symptoms secondary to basal ganglia lesions.
4. In some chronic cases, after failed attempts to get rid of obsessive-compulsive symptoms, it is easy to develop behavioral patterns that are adapted to the pathological experience, and the request for treatment is not necessarily urgent at this time. Clinically need to be distinguished from schizophrenia: schizophrenia can appear obsessive-compulsive symptoms, but often not distressed by obsessive-compulsive symptoms, no active desire to restrain or get rid of them, no treatment requirements, and the content of the symptoms are more absurd and bizarre, no self-awareness of the symptoms. Of course, the most important feature is that schizophrenic patients also have other symptoms of schizophrenia. A small number of patients with OCD may have symptoms of a bizarre nature, which can easily lead to clinical misdiagnosis. However, no matter how bizarre the content of the patient’s obsessive-compulsive ideas or how peculiar the compulsive behavior, the patient still maintains the ability to test reality.