Definition of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Dr. David Thomas.I'm a practicing psychotherapist with the Whitford Thomas group in Tampa, Florida here to discuss the definition of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, what I refer to as OCD. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a psychiatric disorder a chronic anxiety disorder and it is characterized by obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors. Some of the behaviors that often times you will see with individuals who are suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorders are the hand washing, the excessive cleaning, the checking, number of counting. It is interesting that over the number of years when I have found that most people who suffer from OCD tend to count with odd numbers not even numbers. I haven't really seen any research or literature why that is but that has certainly been my own experience over the years. For years individuals thought possibly Obsessive Compulsive Disorder was really a neurotic disorder, a disorder based upon some trauma or experiences early in life but I think most experts agree at this point that OCD Obsessive Compulsive Disorder really is a biological disorder through we inherit that disorder and often times you will see OCD is inherited through your family tree. Let's talk about OCD for a minute, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Often times we are talking about the obsessive thoughts and most of what I've seen with the obsessive, the OCD is that the obsessive thoughts tend to be of some component with harm or fear that something is not going to work out or something bad is going to happen. It can be a variety of different things from ego driven ideas to achievement driven ideas but it is kind of this idea that there is some bear in the woods out there, some saber toothed tiger and then what happens is a behavior is created to compensate or to try to protect one's self from that danger. That is why you get a lot of ritual behaviors that occur the kind of have to behaviors that if I don't do these behaviors then something bad is going to happen and so the behavior is primarily designed to calm the obsessive thoughts thus to minimize or reduce the anxiety. Unfortunately severe forms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can be fairly debilitating so certainly if you believe you suffer from any type of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder you want to at first minimally talk to your family physician but probably make an appointment with a psychiatrist which generally you can find a family psychiatrist and maybe be referred by your family physician. I hope this information has been helpful to you. From Tampa, Florida I'm Dr. David Thomas."