Sometimes we see a person’s repetitive behavior and thinking as “strange”, but we do not know the possible origin. Here we explain a disorder that encompasses two key components to understand what may be happening.
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) It is a basic disorder of the that is, it can include an important component of anxiety, which isand generated from obsessive thoughts; However, for a few years now, OCD has been considered a separate diagnostic category because it has very particular characteristics.
It has two fundamental components, on the one hand it is obsession and on the other hand compulsion. When we talk about the obsession we refer directly to the thoughtthen it is a ruminative thought in the face of some situation or characteristic that may happen.
For example, a person with obsessive thoughts can think all the time about whether they turned off the gas, the doors of the house or whether they washed their hands and will always link everything to the catastrophe, that the worst is going to happen.
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On the other hand, compulsion is the behavioral component where the person, from the behavior, will try to reduce the discomfortthen a patient with obsessive thoughts about germs or contamination will generate compulsive behaviors of washing their hands 20 times or disinfecting their feet 40 times when they get home.
Obsession and compulsion will be linked all the time, one from thought and the other from behavior.
The symptoms of OCD are linked to ruminative thinking that does not disappear and compulsive behavior that begins to be a limitation for the person. Throughout our lives we have all had obsessive thoughts or compulsive behaviors.
Where does it become a psychiatric disorder or review with the specialist?
When the person spends at least an hour in compulsive behavior or obsessive thinking. If I, for example, spend an hour of the day thinking about: “I didn’t turn off the gas, my family died because I didn’t turn off the gas,” I am generating a limitation, which is different from if I go on the bus and I think: “I don’t remember if I turned off the gas,” because it’s part of being human, of having obsessive thoughts.
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What causes obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)?
Talking about a single cause is a bit ambitious and irresponsible, not that there is a specific cause. As in all psychiatric disorders, we can say that it is multicausal in terms of there being a genetic component. In fact, there are several studies that demonstrate this; the genetic line is one of the highest causes.
It can also be due to a stressful event that the person experiences (), another study shows that there are cases of women who, upon leaving their pregnancy, generate obsessive thoughts about caring for the baby and, if the thoughts are not adequately treated, they end up becoming a disorder or a situation caused by a I forget that the gas valve was not really turned off and a fire was caused because of that.