The question often arises as to whether people who have a mental health condition can be dangerous. It’s true?
This questioning occurs due to the lack of knowledge and stigma that still exists around mental health and generates fear. For this reason, and with the aim of beginning to eliminate discrimination against people with mental conditions, andIt is very valuable that we seek information to learn better about different mental health conditions. and, thus, begin to dispel the myths that still surround these people.
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Now, since we’ve made this clear, we can start talking about obsessive compulsive disorder or OCD. In general, OCD is a mental health condition in which people who experience it have a series of unwanted thoughts (obsessions), which in turn lead them to carry out specific behaviors (compulsions); These thoughts and behaviors can affect people’s daily performance and cause significant discomfort in them.
This condition usually begins in adolescence or youth, but in some cases it has been seen to begin earlier, from childhood. This disorder is chronicthat is to say, From the moment it develops, it accompanies the person throughout their life; besides, Over time it varies in terms of its intensity and the types of thoughts or behaviors that occur..
Now, returning to the question at the beginning, if a person with OCD can be dangerous, the answer is that OCDlike any other type of mental health condition,
There are some cases in which people’s obsessions have to do with hurting themselves and others, but this does not make them more likely to do harm, when compared to other people with the same condition.
What usually happens is that, Presenting these types of thoughts generates a lot of discomfort in people, because although their thoughts will not necessarily make them act aggressively, it does make them fear the possibility of hurting others. This will in turn increase compulsions and rituals all with the goal of ensuring that what they fear does not happen, for example removing all sharp objects from their kitchen.
People with harm-related OCD generally experience their obsessions and compulsions in two different ways:
- They worry excessively about accidentally harming themselves or someone else, for example, by leaving the stove on and accidentally starting a fire.
- They worry intensely about hurting themselves or others because of an impulse they cannot control.
In conclusion, It is a very unfortunate assumption to think that people with OCD can be dangerous or more likely to hurt others. The reality is that these people live with a series of thoughts that can be very worrying and even frighten themselves and others, but this is very far from being able to commit real acts of violence. On the contrary, they are people with a very strong interest in protecting themselves and the people around them.