Uticopa Blog

Notable celebrities with OCD

David Beckham - footballer
Samuel Johnson -  lexicographer
Howard Hughes - inventor, businessman, recluse

Typical symptoms

• Recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses or intrusive images that are irrational and not generally relating to real-life problems. They cause marked anxiety or distress.
• Attempts to ignore or suppress these symptoms or to neutralize them with some other thought or action.
• Recognition that the obsessional thoughts, impulses or images are a product of the sufferer's own mind and are not based in reality.
• Repetitive behaviour or mental acts that the person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession, or according to rules that must be applied rigidly.
• The behaviour is aimed at preventing or reducing distress or preventing some dreaded event or situation; however, this behaviour is often not actually connected to the issue, or it is excessive.
• Physical symptoms may include those brought on from anxieties and unwanted thoughts, as well as tics or symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease: rigidity, tremor, jerking arm movements, or involuntary movements of the limbs.
• Others: clearing of the throat; specific counting systems or counting of steps; doing repetitive actions, e.g. an obsession with numbers or types of numbers such as odd numbers.

Examples of obsessional behaviour

• Repeatedly checking that one's parked car has been locked before leaving it.
• Turning lights on and off a set number of times before exiting a room.
• Repeatedly washing hands at regular intervals throughout the day.
• Touching objects a certain number of times before leaving a room.
• Walking in a certain routine way.
• When a sufferer leaves the house he or she might tap the door knob nine times, for example, failing to do so making the sufferer distressed, panicked and even sometimes faint.

Causes

Both psychological and biological factors play a role. It is believed that there is some type of abnormality with the neurotransmitter serotonin, among other possible psychological or biological abnormalities; however, it is possible that this activity is the brain's response to OCD, and not its cause.

Realisation

At some point during the course of the disorder, the sufferer will realize that his/her obsessions or compulsions are unreasonable or excessive. Moreover, the obsessions or compulsions are time-consuming (taking up more than one hour per day), cause distress, or cause impairment in social, occupational, or school functioning. OCD often causes feelings similar to those of depression.

Reasons why

The typical OCD sufferer seeks relief from obsession-related anxiety. To others, the obsessional tasks may appear odd and unnecessary. But for the sufferer, such tasks can feel critically important, and must be performed in particular ways to ward off dire consequences and to stop even more stress from building up.

This obsessive behaviour can cause psychological distress, because the sufferer is very concerned about having ‘made mistakes' in the number of steps that they have taken, or the number of stairs on a staircase. For some people with OCD, these obsessive counting and re-counting tasks, along with the attendant anxiety and fear, can take hours of each day, which can make it hard for the person to fulfill work, family or social roles.

How to distinguish OCD from other disorders

OCD is different from such things as addiction to gambling and eating to excess. People with these disorders typically experience at least some pleasure from their activity. OCD sufferers do not actively want to perform their compulsive tasks, and experience no pleasure from doing so.

Things to watch out for

OCD, like many chronic stress disorders, can lead over time to clinical depression. The constant stress of the condition can cause sufferers to develop a deadening of spirit, a numbing frustration, or sense of hopelessness. The effects of OCD on day-to-day life, particularly its substantial consumption of time, can produce difficulties with work, finances and relationships.

Treatment options

There is no known cure for OCD as of yet, but there are a number of successful treatment options available.

Behavioural therapy (such as exposure and ritual prevention), involving gradually learning to tolerate the anxiety associated with not performing the ritual behaviour, cognitive therapy and anti-depressants are all first-line treatments for OCD. As a first step, sufferers should be directed to a mental health therapist.

Final word

David Beckham may be a superb role model for youngsters wanting to play football, but he is also an excellent example of how to channel a problem like OCD into a successful lifestyle.