Understanding Psychology and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

What is Psychology?

When it comes to the mind, people come across many definitions; it is the scientific study of mind and behavior. It covers various personality dimensions that show how people think and behave in certain ways. It also covers a vast range of topics that aim to understand how humans think, feel, interact, learn, and adapt to the environment. It further explores mental processes, emotions, cognition, and development. While there is a vast approach to the psychology of life, there is also a myth about this study.

Can Mental Health Professionals can read the Mind?

The misconception is mental health professionals can read people's minds but in reality, mental health professionals use scientific methods to study and understand human behavior. They utilize assessment and therapeutic techniques to help people facing challenges in their lives and improve their ability to cope with them.

 

What is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?

Have you ever thought about why people get stuck with something in their lives?
 
A mental health condition characterized by some forces and fixations that impact a person's daily life is simply called or known as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. People become fixated on certain thoughts and repeat them in their actions. These fixed thoughts frequently come to mind and cause anxiety and discomfort. These fixated thoughts can be about cleanliness e.g., to maintain cleanliness and, to some extent, if a person's focus remains on washing their hands and cleaning things again and again then they become disturbed by seeing any particle of dust on their things. Sometimes they keep their things in a specific order, and when they feel any irregularity, they become disturbed. The continuous fixation of these kinds of thoughts may lead to anxiety and discomfort. These types of actions can consume their valuable time and hinder their daily functioning.

Obsessive thoughts are always linked with compulsive behavior. Until the person doesn't complete the compulsive behavior, they remain disturbed and unable to focus on activities, especially in the work environment. People always occupied with unwanted thoughts, images, and urges to repeat the compulsive actions again and again. The delays in management occur with the increasing thoughts of being stigmatized, and, due to a fear of being stigmatized; people hesitate to go to mental health professionals.   

 
Impacts on Lives:
Obsessive-compulsive disorder has a strong impact on the lives of people.
 
Family Perspective: From a family perspective, it affects the relationship between family members when a sufferer takes a break to fulfill their repeated behaviors; it reduces the understanding of communication between them.
 
Professional Perspective: From a professional perspective it affects a person's quality and quantity of work. For instance, taking regular breaks to fulfill the compulsive behavior, e.g., washing hands again and again consumes time and restricts fulfilling the duty tasks.
 
Personal Life Perspective: By looking at personal perspectives, this condition restricts us from focusing on development and social life. The person cannot engage themselves in social gatherings due to keeping themselves too busy with repeated behaviors.

The discomfort due to obsessions and compulsions can lead to constant avoidance behavior, and isolation, and can have a bad impact on decision-making ability. These types of feelings can result in frustration.
 

Major Influences on One's Well-Being

It is necessary to learn about the risk factors as they impact the overall quality of life, e.g., personal, professional, and social life. People with this condition become unable to concentrate on their daily activities. They also face difficulty in occupational functioning, which also affects their health. By understanding its risk factors, people can manage the impacts on their lives.

Associated Health Conditions

There is comorbidity between this and other conditions such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, etc.
 

The effects of COVID-19 on obsessive-compulsive disorder

People's well-being has been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic since it exacerbates this disorder. The people who have the minimum level of resilience develop obsessive-compulsive disorder. Their attention stays regularly on washing their hands and sanitizing the objects again and again, and a fear of contracting a virus infection enhances the compulsive thoughts associated with this condition. This fear has become a reason for high levels of stress, especially in pre-existing people with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). Different effective factors, e.g., family support, peer support, a friendly work environment, and most specifically, early detection of these symptoms and timely control over them by diverting attention to engaging in more productive activities, can decrease the chance of developing this disorder. COVID-19 has closed the doors to social gatherings but there are still ways to engage themselves in the activities during quarantine.

How to cope with symptoms?

Although it is important to detect the symptoms at an early stage before they hinder daily functioning; now the focus should be on diminishing the symptoms by adopting a productive lifestyle, which can be achieved by engaging in productive activities, maintaining the daily routine, and always trying to keep a positive attitude. People with the severity of this disorder stay in constant distress and feel discomfort until they turn their compulsive actions into behavior. Sometimes people become afraid of the word coping, they feel hesitant to take a start, but it takes a bit of courage to start and try to cope with the issues they are facing. It will not consume a lot of time, it just needs a short time from a daily schedule, e.g., if you take only 15-20 minutes from your highly occupied routine for your well-being.

The role of meditation

Meditation is a kind of method for being relaxed. It releases stress and enhances mental health. It opens the doors to focus on your well-being and enhancing your resilience and coping abilities. Being relaxed and staying calm during this exercise also negates negative thinking and can lead to more positivity.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness has a very fundamental role in practicing meditation. It is a method of paying attention to the surroundings, being aware of them, and experiencing being in the present moment. Practicing mindfulness provides an opportunity to stay attentive to well-being, thought patterns, etc. It can help control the repetitive thoughts that are linked to obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Programs for Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction

These programs are based on multiple interventions associated with meditation to decrease the suffering of physical and other psychological disorders. These include in spreading awareness of mental processes, diminishing negative thoughts, and improving coping abilities. It helps in improving the person's personality by making them attentive to all aspects related to their personality. People become aware of the weak areas where they need improvement. Practicing any exercise makes the immune system strong and also has positive impacts on mental health.

Practicing Self-care

Giving time to yourself is the most important fact that enhances positivity and restricts negative thoughts. People with obsessive-compulsive disorder should have more focus on the activities that give them joy, e.g., engaging in social gatherings, journaling about enhancing mental well-being, walking in the morning, feeling the beauty of nature, etc.

 

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a mental health condition that requires full attention and management to diminish the negative impacts on a person's life. Some factors, e.g., family history, childhood traumas, home environment, and some personality traits, can contribute to this condition. It is the condition that may leads to constant stress, and discomfort, impacting a person's work, relationships, and personality. When combined, all the management approaches and family support can play a crucial role in diminishing obsessive thoughts and compulsive behavior. Educating family members about this condition and their involvement in helping the people can improve the outcome of management. Lifestyle modification, family and social support, and early management can play an essential role in managing this. The journey to well-being should be considered for mental health.