people with diagnosed OCD, please answer me this...?

Question

What things do ya'll have to do? I've heard of twisting doorknobs or washing your hands a million times, but any wacky ones? Is it just about hygenical issues or is it like other things?

Oh yea, and if your a little nervous to share them with the worldwide yahoo groups, then feel free to keep them to yourselves. Its just a question, and I'm a teenager asking to try and figure out if one of my friends has it or not.

Answer 1

My dad diagnosed me (he's a doctor), and I dont take any meds they just tell all my teachers. I have problems with things that arent symmetrical or in line, I can't stand still and a twitch (just twiddling my fingers or bouncing my knee). Alot of problems with OCD are also Germaphobia (a fear of filth or dirt), and cases of ADD or ADHD. I do wash my hands alot and check everything in my room to make sure its set right. OCD means you have to do a normal actions repeatedly, and cant function or feel dissatisfied until you do it alot.

Answer 2

I have mild OCD and it's not really hygienic about the washing hands, not for me anyway, it's that I can't stand to have ANYTHING on them. If they are slightly sticky, lint, anything at all, I have to wash them. I also have the asymmetrical thing, I like things balanced and even... um...I count things randomly, like stop signs, or white house, nothing in particular, just at random. It doesn't have to be hygienic, it can be anything that you can't stand to be a certain way or everything feels wrong, or something for reasons you don't understand you have to do a certain number of times. Like I smoke and when I pack my cigarettes I have to pack them 3 times 7 times. Like 7 times, turn them around, 7 times, turn them around 7 times. I know, it's weird and I've tried not doing it, but then I feel off somehow. I can't stand dirty doors, I have to clean them. (This one gets annoying) Can't really think of anything else in particular, though I know there are many of them. Umm... stamps have to be perfectly placed on an envelope. Different things like that, anything done excessively, repeatedly or something that just HAS to be done a certain way can be expressions of OCD. Hope this helped!

Answer 3

It can be about other things.

I'm only very mildly O/C. It bugs me if things are asymmetrical (I HATE the one-shoulder tops that were in style for a while). If there is a stack of papers, I prefer them to be neatly stacked (you know, where you tap it on the bottom and sides instead of having them kind of off).

Answer 4

OCD is manifested in a variety of forms.
Community studies have placed the prevalence between 1 and 3%, although the prevalence of clinically recognized OCD is much lower, suggesting that many individuals with the disorder are unaccounted for clinically.[1] The fact that many individuals do not seek treatment may be due in part to stigma associated with OCD.
The typical OCD sufferer performs tasks (or compulsions) to seek relief from obsession-related anxiety. To others, these 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 the stress from building up. Examples of these tasks: 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.


Rearranging matters rigidly may be a sign of OCD
Symptoms may include some, all, or perhaps none of the following:
Repeated hand-washing.
Repeated clearing of the throat, although nothing may need to be cleared.
Specific counting systems — e.g. counting in groups of four, arranging objects in groups of three, grouping objects in odd/even numbered groups, etc.
One serious symptom which stems from this is "counting" your steps, e.g. you must take twelve steps to the car in the morning.
Perfectly aligning objects at complete, absolute right angles, or aligning objects perfectly parallel etc. This symptom is shared with OCPD and can be confused with this condition unless it is realized that in OCPD it is not stress-related.
Having to "cancel out" bad thoughts with good thoughts. Examples of bad thoughts are:
Imagining harming a child and having to imagine a child playing happily to cancel it out.
Sexual obsessions or unwanted sexual thoughts. Two classic examples are fear of being homosexual or fear of being a pedophile. In both cases, sufferers will obsess over whether or not they are genuinely aroused by the thoughts.
A fear of contamination (see Mysophobia); some sufferers may fear the presence of human body secretions such as saliva, sweat, tears, or mucus, or excretions such as urine or feces. Some OCD sufferers even fear that the soap they're using is contaminated. [2]
A need for both sides of the body to feel even (or uneven). A person with OCD might walk down a sidewalk and step on a crack with the ball of their left foot, then feel the need to step on another crack with the ball of their right foot. If one hand gets wet, the sufferer may feel very uncomfortable if the other is not. These symptoms are also experienced in a reversed manner. Some sufferers would rather things to be uneven, favoring the preferred side of the body.
There are many other possible symptoms, and one need not display those above to suffer from OCD. Formal diagnosis is performed by a mental health professional. Furthermore, possessing the symptoms above is not an absolute sign of OCD.
Most OCD sufferers are aware that such thoughts and behavior are not rational, but feel bound to comply with them to fend off feelings of panic or dread. Because sufferers are consciously aware of this irrationality but feel helpless to push it away, untreated OCD is often regarded as one of the most vexing and frustrating of the major anxiety disorders. Due to their insight into the abnormal nature of their compulsions, most OCD sufferers will meticulously hide their behaviours from others in order to avoid negative attention. This, combined with the fact that with some sufferers the compulsions are purely mental, means the disease is often nicknamed "the secret illness".
In an attempt to further relate the immense distress that those afflicted with this condition must bear, Barlow and Durand (2006) use the following example. They implore readers not to think of pink elephants. Their point lies in the assumption that most people will immediately create an image of a pink elephant in their minds, even though told not to do so. The more one attempts to stop thinking of these colorful animals, the more one will continue to generate these mental images. This phenomenon is termed the "Thought Avoidance Paradox”, and it plagues those with OCD on a daily basis, for no matter how hard one tries to get these disturbing images and thoughts out of one's mind, feelings of distress and anxiety inevitably prevail. Although everyone may experience unpleasant thoughts at one time or another, these are usually warranted concerns that are short-lived and fade after an adequate time period has lapsed. However, this is not the case for OCD sufferers. (K. Carter, PSYC 210 lecture, February 14, 2006).
People who suffer from the separate condition obsessive compulsive personality disorder are not aware of anything abnormal about themselves; they will readily explain why their actions are rational, and it is usually impossible to convince them otherwise. People who suffer from OCPD tend to derive pleasure from their obsessions or compulsions, while those with OCD do not feel pleasure but are ridden with anxiety. OCD is ego dystonic, meaning that the disorder is incompatible with the sufferer's self-concept. Because disorders that are ego dystonic go against an individual's perception of his/herself, they tend to cause much distress. OCPD, on the other hand, is ego syntonic — marked by the individual's acceptance that the characteristics displayed as a result of this disorder are compatible with his/her self-image. Ego syntonic disorders understandably cause no distress (K. Carter, PSYC 210 lecture, April 11, 2006). This is a significant difference between these disorders.
Equally frequently, these rationalizations do not apply to the overall behavior, but to each instance individually; for example, a person compulsively checking their front door may argue that the time taken and stress caused by one more check of the front door is considerably less than the time and stress associated with being robbed, and thus the check is the better option. In practice, after that check, the individual is still not sure, and it is still better in terms of time and stress to do one more check, and this reasoning can continue as long as necessary.
Some OCD sufferers exhibit what is known as overvalued ideas. In such cases, the person with OCD will truly be uncertain whether the fears that cause them to perform their compulsions are irrational or not. After some (possibly long) discussion, it is possible to convince the individual that their fears may be unfounded. It may be extra difficult to do ERP therapy on such patients, because they may be, at least initially, unwilling to cooperate. For this reason OCD has often been likened to a disease of pathological doubt, in which the sufferer, while not usually deluional, is often unable to fully realise what sorts of dreaded events are reasonably possible and which aren't.
OCD is different from behaviors such as gambling addiction and overeating. 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.
OCD is placed in the anxiety class of mental illness, but like many chronic stress disorders it can lead to clinical depression over time. The constant stress of the condition can cause sufferers to develop a deadening of spirit, a numbing frustration, or sense of hopelessness. OCD's effects on day-to-day life — particularly its substantial consumption of time — can produce difficulties with work, finances and relationships.
There is no known cure for OCD as of yet, but there are a number of successful treatment options available

Here's a site for a handy on-line test
http://www.mytherapy.com/features/