OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Behavior)
“OCD is a disorder that affects 1 in every 50 men and twice as many as that suffer from OCD in some point in their lives”. This blog on OCD is aiming to give others a brief introduction in OCD, its symptoms, its effects and some methods of combating OCD
SO WHAT IS OCD???
When a person has many doubts or worries in real life that become excessive. These worries are elevated to an extreme level where rituals are performed to take these feelings away. When a brain has a particular thought of process; a person can’t get rid of and can’t take the thought away.
It must be understood that it is not the person’s faults due to weak personality.
The complete reason for OCD is not fully understood; however research has looked into the issue of OCD and suggest there is a problem between the communication between the Orbital Cortex and the Basal Ganglia parts of the brain. Serotonin is the chemical messenger for the brain structures. People with OCD are believed to have lower levels of serotonin levels in the brain. If a normal working brain and its communication is represented as a loop, lower concentrations of serotonin disable the closing of the loop to perform functions normally and as a “flow”. This causes jumps in the brains thoughts and functions; the brain has to start the loop again. This is represented through the compulsions and obsessive thoughts.
WHAT ARE THE SYMTOMS???
The two main ones are obsessions and compulsions. These include hand washing, negative or unwanted thoughts and particular actions performed unwillingly. OCD affects ages usually from childhood to age 40.
Obsessions:
Ideas, thoughts or actions that are out of your control and you perform them unwillingly. Normally these thoughts (hand washing etc.) are excessively thought of.
Compulsions:
Compulsions are actions performed to have temporary relive of the obsessions; normally it makes the situation worse for the person making the obsession worse when the compulsion is completed
E.g.
A person has an intrusive thought and through this, they count numbers or walk unnecessarily to bring relieve from the thoughts, normally only making the thoughts worse; the person follows sort of fake rules in order to relieve them from the thoughts.
IT’S EFFECTS ON PEOPLE:
There are many effects on a person when suffering with OCD. Depression can be linked to older men that suffer with OCD. For everyone, it can make a person, very unhappy with themselves, “low”, like there is something wrong with there personality (its not there fault), and unsure about how to attack the situation.
METHODS TO COMBAT:
Although there are few that are fully cleared of OCD, there are methods, which will overcome OCD (long term scale).
1. increasing the levels of serotonin in the brain (will create the flowing loop again)
2. CBT (cognitive behavior therapy)
a. talking it over with people
b. fighting back by “not doing”- knowing the compulsions will go away
c. understanding nothing will happen
3. Good parenting is the KEY!
• It is said, that when a person suffering with OCD, the parts of the brain affect relate to a 2 year old and thus through this, is the reason why normal talking and common sense do not apply when trying to combat OCD by yourself. It is important to override the thoughts and take control of your thoughts, not letting the thoughts (2 year old) override you.
The biggest problem for people with OCD is the feeling that their thoughts will become a reality unless they perform there compulsions. It is quite distressful for people with OCD to fight back because that means (what they believe) their thoughts will continue and become a reality and through this, it will be because of them.
E.g. Intrusive Thoughts
If a person with OCD have an intrusive thought, they “must” perform compulsions to make it go away. Symptoms like not saying a sentence in case there thought will turn reality is an example. If they don’t do such a thing, then there thought will turn into a reality.
It must be known to “let go” and through this, the thoughts will get less intense. Just like a 2 year old, if they don’t get what they want, they stop nagging so much.
Questions to think about:
1. What are your opinions based on the facts above?
2. Do you think you are born with OCD or it can develop in people?
3. Do you think an environment would influence OCD development?
4. Is there anything you would like to share?
BIBLIOGRPAHY
1. About OCD (Internet) (2008) Available from: http://www.ocfoundation.org/what-is-ocd.html (Accessed 17 October, 2008)
2. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (Internet) (2008) Available from: http://ocdyouth.iop.kcl.ac.uk/ (Accessed 17 October, 2008)
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8 comments:
"When a person has many doubts or worries in real life that become excessive"
-Assuming we use that as a correct definition of OCD, I think it is then easily classed as a "nurture" disorder. While there may be a genetic predisposition towards it, as with many other mental disorders, I would say that there is no other possible evidence which suggests that this may be caused by nature.
-"People with OCD are believed to have lower levels of serotonin levels in the brain"
While one could possibly see this as an argument for OCD being nature, it does not necessarily prove anything. Having lower levels of serotonin does not necessarily cause OCD - there are two other possibilities:
1) Low levels of serotonin could be one factor of OCD - NOT the only one.
2) Having OCD causes lower levels of serotonin - the "correlation is not causation" theory.
"3. Good parenting is the KEY!"
Anything in which good parenting in the key implies implicitly that it is nurture-based. If upbringing is key to whether someone is brought up with good parents or not, then OCD has even less to do with nature.
There is not one reson that OCD is formed in certain people.
in the teext that has been posted it says that OCD is.. "When a person has many doubts or worries in real life that become excessive." People are not born with an excessive amount of stress, the stress must accumlitate.
Obsessions are ideas, images and impulses that run through the person's mind over and over again.
Obsessive thoughts make people who have OCD feel nervous and afraid. They try to get rid of these feelings by performing certain behaviors according to "rules" that they make up for themselves.
Resurches have said that those with OCD have a low amonut of seritonin, which means they were born with low seritonin, however, in order to have OCD I believe that a trigger must have been used for the OCD to come to life, such as excessive stress.
Yes, someone is born with low serotonim, however, that does not lead directly to OCD.
From this information, i believe that OCD is related to nurture as a trigger is needed for OCD to develop, just as bad experiences make OCD worse.
Ashleigh 10c
In my opinion : OCD is due to nurture. In OCD people have to perform a certain ritual in order to prevent intrusive thoughts. thoughts are mainly influenced by the environment the person inhabits. In the article it mentions the affect that the decrease of the brain chemical serotonin has, and how increasing the levels can help overcoming OCD. Although, this seems nature based, the nurturing of the surrounding environment can either increase or decrease the chance of the person naturally increasing and overcoming OCD. OCD affects personality as well, in the aspect of self-efficacy and self-efficacy can be mainly due to the nurturing a person receives. Even a person with the strongest biological composition of a high self esteem can be broken down due to the nurturing of the surrounding environment. Prevention of OCD can be due to the nurturing of the environment and the thoughts that the person processes.
Alka 10J
First of all I'd like to point out that the facts above are absolutely endless. That's my opinion. But really, OCD is a very interesting topic.
I think that you develop OCD, therefore supporting the nature side of our arguement. As it said in the Methods to Combat section, good parenting is the key to combatting it. I believe the environment the person is in could cause them to become OCD, and also the way they are brought up. If they live much of their life in a squeeky clean and ordered environment, they are more likely to want to keep all their environments. These compulsions could lead to lower levels of serotonin. Similarly if the person is brought up always being afraid of germs, constantly cleaning, reordering and washing.
heidi 10F
"...suffer from OCD in some point in their lives..."
so i take it from this it means that you can develope OCD at any point in your life time? which would probably mean that OCD is more nurture as people can develope it?
also it says "parenting is the key" so doesnt that also mean it it nurture? that if they dont get good parenting they are more likely to develope OCD?
however, it says that through research it "suggests there is a problem between the communication between the Orbital Cortex and the Basal Ganglia parts of the brain". so this could be eaily linked with nature as the person could have been born with this problem and no matter what type of parenting or no matter the events that happen in their life they would still have the disease.
yes, i think environmental factors could influence OCD as depending certain events maybe the person could develope OCD.
overall, i think that maybe OCD is mainly cause by nurture however i am sure nature is still a component.
cheers.
mardi ~10E~
i believe that nature is the cause for OCD. however, i believe that low levels of serotonin [nature] is needed to 'trigger' or 'react' with events in life [nurture]. a way of thinknig about this is looking at the difference between a perfectionist, and a perfectionist who is diagnosed with OCD. Nowadays, it is accepted to call a perfectionist, an OCD sufferer. however, the difference, i belive, between someone with ocd and a perfectionist is the levels of serotonin in the brain.
a perfectionist likes, or feels more comfortable with a more ordered life, but i believe for behaviour to be obsessive compulsive, one needs the low serotonin levels as a trigger. this suports the hteory that ocd is a nurture influenced, triggered by nature behavioural problem.
further still, i think that being a perfectionist, and also with the influence of other external factors can decrease serotonin levels. this stil proves that nurture is the main factor.
i hope that makes sense!!
Elisheba r
10e
It seems to be that OCD is nature and nurture, as the low serotonin would be more to do with the persons nature, and the parenting and upbringing is more to do with nurture. The rules, however, sound to be made up or created through the nurture, meaning that the nurture has more of an effect
Ben
10R
Well everyone (the first 5 people) have taken all my thoughts. But I reckon, while there would be some nature involved - as with all situations - OCD is mostly due to nurture. I fully agree with Mardi when she said that it would be nurture because people can develop it later on in their life, but couldnt they also be born with it and it has just never been triggered. The right trigger might just come later in life instead of earlier.
I think the environement and people around people would affect it because their beliefs could influence yours, etc...
Maddy E -- 10D
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