In my quest to catch my elusive sleep last night, I chanced upon a documentary show on Bio channel titled Obsessed. It featured two individuals who are battling a mental condition called Obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD.
The first case was a married woman in her early 30s. She has been suffering from OCD since 5 years old. The problem according to her has stemmed, when she was abused on a school bus at that age. She felt dirty in the inside and she channelled her hunger to clean her innerself by obsessing with having clean surroundings. The OCD got worse when contracted MRSA or the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) bacteria putting her quest for perpetual cleanliness into a great hype.
She caves into her obsession making her compulsive and cleaning every inch of her household. She wakes up so early cleaning up everything in their home repetitively. She straightens out the fringes on her carpet rug using a fork and cleans every corner of their furniture pieces using Q-Tips. Although she feels tired and she knows that everything is already clean and in order, she just cannot fight the urge forcing her to stay up until wee hours in the morning scrubbing everything she sees and thinks dirty.
While in Florida, a 26-year old man is also suffering from OCD obsessed in checking and ensuring that every faucet, door, stove and electric appliance is properly shut down. He uses a checklist doing the routine of checking every piece of it not one, not twice but at least four times before tucking himself at night. However, the obsession does not end when he hits the bed, he still tosses and turns in bed being bugged by the thought that he might have forgotten to shut down something completely. The obsession stems from his childhood experience when he left the faucet at home open and left. He was traumatized by the thought that their house flooded. Although no one blamed him for the accident, the event kept traumatizing him until today. He has lost a good music deal while in Switzerland due to his OCD when he kept on checking the hotel door’s every so often that the band was not able to finish recording.
It was really painful watching them struggle to fight their obsessions. The woman’s relationship with her family has been greatly affected. She cannot even sit down with them at the dinner table as she tries to finish scrubbing the sink. She really felt exhausted but her obsession keeps on pulsating in her mind. She even had to ask her kids to clean objects and places again and again even if they were not dirty at all.
On the other hand, the man’s partner does not get good night sleep as she gets awakened by the man’s constant trip to the kitchen and living room to check on doors, plugs and switches.
According to medicine.net
An obsession is defined as a thought, impulse, or image that either recurs or persists and causes severe anxiety. These thoughts are irresistible to the OCD sufferer despite the person’s realizing that these thoughts are irrational. Examples of obsessions include worries about germs/cleanliness or about safety or order. A compulsion is a ritual/behavior that the individual with OCD engages in repeatedly, either because of their obsessions or according to a rigid set of rules.
Being physically exhausted thinking and doing things repeatedly, affecting their relationship with their significant others and their performance of activities of daily living, they have agreed to undergo intervention therapy that involves OCD therapists. They were asked to face their fears by exposing them to the things that increases their anxiety.
The woman was brought out to a public toilet where she was asked to touch the toilet seat for 15 seconds and she was not allowed to wash her hand for 5 minutes. Her anxiety grew as she rated upto 8 out of 10. She survived the day but she was really in tears. After 8 weeks of continuous therapy sessions, she was asked to do a, yet, major challenge. She was asked to go out in an amusement park and spend the whole day with the family. At first, she was jittery, but as she tried on conquering her obsession, it turned out well. She had a blast and she was really up on her feet to overcome the major challenges her disorders is going to put on the table.
On the other hand, the man was exposed to things that make him jitter. The OCD therapist opened the faucet and let the water fall in the sink and he opened the gas stove while they are sitting in the living room. After a few attempts the man succeeded in overcoming his obsession to come into the kitchen and switch all the things off.
The next step was keeping all the same stuff open all throughout the night as the man was trying to sleep in his room with his partner at night. The first few nights were a struggle as night vision camera placed in his room and kitchen showed that he kept tossing and turningfighting his obsession but in the end he caved in. It took him a while to control his anxiety.
After 3 weeks of intervention and close monitoring, his OCD therapist has decided to take the exposure to its highest limit. He kept the faucet in the patient’s house open and they went out with his family to see him play his music. He succeeded.
The treatment, according to the OCD therapists, is a life long process and the person affected needs a strong support system to win the battle.
I am now hooked on the show as I want to explore the different sides of OCD.
