Do you have an uncontrollable urge to arrange things everywhere or can’t tolerate dirty things? If yes, you might be suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which is a mental health condition that causes frequent unwanted thoughts or urges that trigger repetitive actions to manage them. Most people are not even aware of this condition unless it affects their personal and social lives. While it is not curable, early diagnosis and treatment allow you to manage this condition better and improve your life quality. Learn how to recognize OCD symptoms and seek professional help in this article. Visit the best Mental Health Clinic in Brooklyn at Doral Health & Wellness or log on to www.doralhw.org

When to seek professional help for OCD?

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can cause a variety of symptoms which become a routine ritual for people. That’s why many people don’t even recognize that their patterns of doing things are a mental problem unless they start affecting their personal and private lives.

If you notice any of the patterns or you’re diagnosed with OCD, then you should seek professional help. With proper treatment, you can manage your OCD symptoms. You should also talk with your doctor if any OCD medication causes any unpleasant side effects.

Diagnosis

To diagnose OCD, the doctor may perform a physical exam and perform a blood test to rule out the underlying cause that might cause your symptoms. They will talk about your feelings, thoughts, and habits.

There’s no specific medical test for OCD, however, your doctor may diagnose your OCD by giving you a questionnaire about your symptoms, and medical and mental health history. They may talk with your family and friends as well. This questionnaire is based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-V) to diagnose OCD.

Its criteria include:

• If you have obsessions, compulsions, or both that you can’t
• Obsessions and compulsions take up a lot of your time (like 1 hour each day).
• You want to carry out a compulsion in response to obsession to get temporary relief from the stress caused by the obsession.
• Things like drug abuse, alcohol, medications, or other medical conditions aren’t causing the symptoms.
• You don’t have any other mental health condition such as generalized anxiety disorder, eating disorder, or body image disorder that causes your symptoms.
• Symptoms interfere with your everyday work, social life, or other parts of life.
• There’s no other physical or psychological explanation for your symptoms.

Diagnosing OCD in children can be challenging because most children often don’t understand the difference between obsession- compulsions and normal thoughts. So, if you and your child’s teacher notice unusual behavior, then you should think it is something like ADHD, but there are significant differences in the symptoms. A thorough exam by a mental health specialist can lead to a correct diagnosis.

Treatment options

OCD has no cure but with treatment you can manage its symptoms and improve your life quality. Common treatment options for OCD, include:

1. Psychotherapy:

It is also known as talk therapy, which is a form of treatment that aims to help you identify and change unhealthy emotions, thoughts, and behaviors with positive ones or manage them well. You need to work with your mental health counselor or psychologist to get this therapy. Several different types of psychotherapy are used to treat OCD. Here are the most common ones:

• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): In this therapy, a therapist will examine your thoughts and emotions. After several sessions, your therapist puts you in a situation designed to create anxiety or set off compulsions to see how you replace your thoughts and try healthier ways to cope.
• Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT): This helps you learn to accept your obsessive thoughts as normal thoughts so that you can remove them at will. The therapist will teach how to live a meaningful life with OCD symptoms.
• Exposure and response prevention (ERP): This therapy is a type of CBT that is used to expose you to your feared situations or images and how you resist the urge to the same behavior you do in a compulsion. For example, your therapist may ask you not to arrange things in the right order. This helps you stay in a fear-inducing situation without thinking anything negative so that you can control your anxious thoughts and understand those are just thoughts not necessarily reality.

Mindfulness techniques such as meditation, yoga, deep breathing, and relaxation are also helpful with symptoms.

2. OCD medication:

Medications such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), selective SRIs (SSRIs), and tricyclic antidepressants may be used to treat OCD. Doctors generally prescribe higher doses of SSRIs to treat OCD compared to anxiety or depression to manage obsessions and compulsions. The most common ones are:

• Fluoxetine
• Citalopram
• Escitalopram
• Fluvoxamine
• Paroxetine
• Sertraline

If medications relieve your symptoms, you may need to take them for a year or two, or the rest of your life. Make sure your doctor knows every other medication you take like supplements, to avoid dangerous interactions.

In case psychotherapy and medicines can’t manage your OCD, symptoms doctors may offer other options to treat OCD, including:

1. Neuromodulation:

These devices can change the electrical activity of certain areas of your brain. The most common of these devices are:

• Deep brain stimulation: This is approved for OCD adults who don’t respond to traditional treatment. It involves implanting electrodes into certain parts of the brain. The electrodes produce electrical impulses that help you control impulses. It is very rarely used.
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS): These devices use magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain to manage OCD symptoms. During a TMS session, an electromagnetic coil is put on your scalp near your forehead. The coil delivers a magnetic pulse to stimulate the nerves of your brain.

Make sure you talk about DBS or TMS with your doctor to understand its benefits and risks.

2. Surgery:

This is only recommended for people whose OCD symptoms are debilitating. Doctors use several procedures to destroy brain cells in certain regions that are connected to OCD.

3. Intensive outpatient and residential treatment programs:

These are full treatment programs to relieve stress through ERP therapy principles to help people with OCD who struggle to function properly because of the severity of the condition. These programs can last for a few weeks.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic mental health condition that causes unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors to manage those thoughts (compulsions). However, like other mental health conditions, you can manage OCD with treatment. Common treatments for OCD include medications and psychotherapy or a combination of both. Make sure you follow your treatment properly and improve your life quality despite having OCD.

If you need help with OCD, visit our mental health clinic in Brooklyn to get professional medical help. Call us to book your appointment now!!!!

Book your appointment with the best mental health professionals in Brooklyn where doctors and staff ensure you get the best results. Call us on +1-347-384-5690 to get a consultation. If you need help learning coping methods, register your information and make direct contact with our doctors and psychiatrists to learn those methods, log on to www.doralhw.org. Visit us at 1797 Pitkin Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11212.