What is OCD and how to control your obsessive thoughts and behaviors?

OCD(Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) is one of the most common types of anxiety disorder in which people have uncontrollable and recurring unwanted thoughts, ideas or obsessions and behaviours or compulsions that they feel urge to repeat again and again. It's normal to check things repeatedly or worry about the germs contamination sometimes but in OCD your unwanted and recurring thoughts(obsessions) make you feel driven to do something repetitively(compulsion) which affects your daily activities and social interaction. It's truly can unsettle your life. 

Some of you might not recognize your obsessive thoughts and behaviours but some might recognize that your thoughts and behaviours are irrational- but even so, you feel unable to resist them. Your obsessive thoughts become so powerful that leads to doing things repeatedly or compulsion. You want to stop these irrational thoughts and behaviours so badly but you can't. You feel like you are stuck by these thoughts. Then ultimately you started to avoid the situation that makes you more anxious or that triggers your OCD. 

Some common obsessive thoughts in OCD are; fear of being contaminated by germs, repeatedly doubting yourself like if you have close the door or not, if you have turned off the stove or not, fear of harming others or yourself, orderliness and symmetry- if the things are in proper order or symmetrical or not, superstitious beliefs, sexual imagery- images or thoughts involving intrusive or violent sexual practices.

Common obsessive behaviours in OCD are; repetitively washing hands, rearranging things in perfect alignment, repeating words or phrases, counting, tapping excessive checking things repeatedly such as locks, switches and others.

There's no cure of OCD till now. But there are some things you can do to control your obsessive thoughts and behaviours such as medication, behaviour therapy like exposure and response prevention, thought stoppage, and relaxation techniques. You can do some things by yourself to control your obsession and compulsion. Many of you might only focus on stopping the obsessive behaviour but- Have you ever thought what may be the source of that behaviour? Yes, identifying the underlying source of that behaviour helps you to understand more about your OCD and helps you to resist the obsessive compulsion. You can identify the triggers of your OCD and keep track of that triggers. For example: If you have compulsive behaviour of repetitively checking that doors are locked their love is turned off; then from next time keep a record of that things, pay more attention while doing while checking the doors or stove or tell yourself that "The stove is now turned off". It will make you realize that it's just an obsessive thought.

To control your obsessive thoughts and behaviours you have to understand that OCD is an anxiety disorder in which our mind and body work together to form irrational thoughts, feelings or beliefs which feel like true thoughts or feelings. You are not your thoughts. The brain coordinates your thoughts and in OCD you have the thought or you do such thing which doesn't even have the meaning or are senseless. You avoid the situation that triggers your OCD resulting in avoiding your work, social interaction or other important activities. But avoiding these things make it worse or make you more anxious. So, stop avoiding it instead, learn to resist it. Observe your obsessive thoughts when they arrive but don't give them meaning.  

Using your disorder as an advantage. It's called secondary gain. Secondary gain is the advantage that occurs to real illness. Think about your disorder, Who would you be without your OCD? Is there a secondary gain by having OCD?. Question yourself by these questions. Yes, you might want to get rid of OCD but constantly thinking about it make it way worse.

Don't let others hold you back. Your family, relatives or friends who don't know about OCD might think that it's just a thought or behaviour which you can easily stop if you want and give you further advice. OCD makes you doubt everything, leading to losing your self-esteem and confidence. You have to keep a record of your obsessive thoughts and behaviour and challenge them. Just because you have bad obsessive thoughts doesn't make you a bad person or just doing irrational obsessive behaviour doesn't make you the one.

At last, the most important thing that helps to ease your OCD is to get help from the right therapist. The therapist helps you to understand the underlying sources, release unconscious habits, change the self-limiting behaviour that you may have developed and helped you to get the right therapy.

Learn how to cope with anxiety disorders?

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                                                     Hope it helps you understand about the OCD.