By Mitzi Fitzgerald
Everyone has a small ritual or kind of superstition they perform now and again. You may think this is something everyone does and that it is harmless. And it might be harmless; but if you begin to do this ritual over and over again, and it interferes with your work or enjoyment of life, you could be suffering form obsessive compulsive disorder. An OCD blog can help obsessive compulsive suffers see there is hope, that they will not be stuck with this pattern the rest of their life.
As said by scholars, there are two categories of obsessions: reactive and autogenous. Reactive obsessions come from external events. These obsessions typically about germs, contamination or accidents or the individual has a need to be perfect all the time. One example might be if someone sees a dent on their car, they may think they hit and killed a person.
According to several researchers, many obsessive compulsive disorders are hereditary. However, there is no gene found to pinpoint where obsessive compulsive disorder comes from. Some professional therapists who have worked with various types of patients claim obsessive compulsions come from an individuals need to control their environment. Reactive obsessions fall under the category of wanting to control something that is almost always uncontrollable.
The other type of obsessive compulsive disorder individuals might suffer from is what's known as Autogenous. Autogenous obsessions are an inner-thought based type of compulsion. An individual's thoughts are driving their need to make order out of things that have no order.
External events are what send a reactive obsessive compulsive individual into their obsessive state. The vast majority of reactive obsessive compulsive sufferers are dealing with accidents, contamination or some type of germs. An individual who is suffering from reactive obsessive compulsive disorder will react to disorder in a negative manor, trying their best to organize or order or otherwise control a situation.
Some of the most common obsessive compulsive disorders center on checking, hoarding and ordering. Ordering could also be part of exactness and symmetry when an obsessive compulsive person is trying to make order out of things such as can goods in the pantry or their clothes in the closet. An individual may feel the need to check the locks on the front door or check to be sure the oven is turned off. They will perform this checking ritual over and over and over again throughout the day, sometimes spending as much as 10 hours a day on their checking obsession. Even though they may be looking right at the oven knob in the off position, their brain will tell them to reach out and make sure it really is in the off position.
Many people who do not suffer from an obsessive compulsive disorder might not realize that hoarding is a form of this terrible mental illness. Hoarders do not choose to live the way they do; they cannot help their uncontrollable purchases, collecting and saving of every item they bring into their home. The items they collect and will not part with may seem useless or downright trash to others, but to the obsessive compulsive individual, the item is very important.
An OCD blog is a helpful tool for those individuals struggling with this devastating mental illness. A sense of normalcy is what everyone with obsessive compulsive disorder wants to achieve. Reading about other people's struggles and successes over this life altering illness can be a lifeline in their time of need.