OCD support in a group setting can be very helpful, even if you're satisfactorily managing your obsessive- compulsive disorder symptoms with medication and therapy. Your OCD thoughts and behaviors can worsen if you feel alone and isolated. It's important to build and maintain a strong support network to empower you and build confidence. An OCD support group can serve as an important reminder that you're not alone in this struggle.

OCD Support: Sometimes Family Isn't Enough

You may already have a loving and supportive family, but it's important to build a network outside your family unit as well. Further, unless your family members also have OCD, they can't fully relate to your daily challenges with the illness. You can connect with other people who have OCD by joining an OCD support group. In this setting, you'll have a safe venue to share your own experiences with the disorder and hear about the experiences of others who face similar issues.

OCD Support For Family Members

If you live with someone who has OCD, it's likely that you need OCD support as much as your mentally ill loved one. OCD support can help you cope with the challenges of living with a person who has obsessive-compulsive disorder. Living with a child, spouse, or another family member with OCD can cause you to feel isolated and resentful over time. It's important that both you and your mentally ill family member get support.

As a family member living with an OCD patient, it's critical that you maintain a connection with your social circle and continue to engage in favorite activities. A group that offers OCD support can help you re-establish your personal life and learn how to deal with your OCD loved one in healthier ways.

Reach Out for OCD Support

You need to make the first move and reach out to get the OCD support you need. Consider looking for OCD support groups in your community. Check out the handy tool for finding an OCD support group in your area provided by the OCD International Foundation. This tool can help both OCD sufferers and their loved ones find appropriate support groups. Just type in your address for a listing of support groups in your area.

Online OCD Support Groups

You can also participate in one of the many online groups offering OCD support:

OCD Tribe – help for OCD people and their family members

Visit the International OCD Foundation's Online and Phone OCD Support Groups page for location-specific groups and other types of OCD support.

Therapist Recommended OCD Support Group

Ask the therapist or doctor who treats your OCD to recommend a nearby OCD support group. He or she should have a number of resources available to choose from. Your primary care physician may know of a community support group for OCD as well.

For those who care for someone with OCD, you can ask your loved one's therapist or your personal doctor about any family OCD support groups in the community. Participating in a group especially for family members of OCD patients can alleviate feelings of isolation and powerlessness. As you share your stories about the challenges you face and listen to those of others, you become connected and empowered.

Alternatively, you may feel that you and other family members actually need to have a few sessions with a therapist. He or she can give you the OCD support necessary to reduce pressure and stress in the household environment.

The therapist can teach you how your responses to OCD behaviors impact the person with the disorder. Sometimes family members inadvertently reinforce compulsive behaviors and become enablers. Other times they may lash out in anger at the ill loved one, causing shame and hurt, which only adds fuel to the OCD cycle. Once you learn which responses and behaviors exacerbate the problem, the therapist can give you new ways to respond that empower the whole family.

For both OCD sufferers and their family members, education about OCD is key to effectively managing symptoms and understanding the disorder. As an OCD sufferer, knowledge about your disorder will equip you with important tools for self-management of your obsessions and compulsions. As a family member of someone with OCD, education empowers you to move past resentment and anger and truly make a difference. The person with obsessive-compulsive disorder will likely experience significant improvement when the family unit functions better.

Whether you have OCD or you love someone who does, take time out for yourself whenever possible and continue participating in favorite hobbies and social activities. You might want to seek out workshops on stress management and healthy living as well. When you've had time for yourself, you're better equipped to cope with the issues that arise from dealing with OCD in healthy ways.

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Obsessive-compulsive disorder in DSM 5 has undergone a significant change since DSM 4. The board of trustees of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) approved updates, revisions, and changes to OCD in March 2013. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, abbreviated DSM-5 or DSM-V, is the reference manual used by mental health professionals to diagnose mental disorders like obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. This recent DSM 5 update represents the most significant update to the manual in almost 20 years.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder DSM 5

The updated obsessive-compulsive disorder section in DSM 5 includes a number of disorders, formerly not in the DSM or classified under other diagnoses, now grouped as related conditions under the OCD umbrella. With some controversy, obsessive-compulsive disorder was removed from the anxiety disorders section and given its own chapter.

The term, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), refers to a disorder of the brain that affects behavior. People suffering from OCD experience severe anxiety. OCD involves obsessions and compulsions that require a considerable amount of time, getting in the way of social activities and personal values.

The DSM-5 groups OCD, body dysmorphic disorder, and trichotillomania (hair pulling disorder) together and adds new diagnoses for hoarding disorder and excoriation (skin picking) disorder. The APA believes that grouping this obsessive-compulsive disorder information together will aid clinicians in proper diagnosis and successful treatment of these conditions.

Read the brief below that broadly explains the changes in obsessive-compulsive disorder in DSM 5:

• OCD removed from the anxiety section of the DSM and given a chapter of its own called Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders.
• Moved body dysmorphic disorder and trichotillomania (hair pulling disorder), which were scattered in other areas of the DSM to the OCD chapter.
• Included the new disorders, hoarding and excoriation, previously listed only as possible symptoms of OCD or other disorders.
• Replaced the word "impulse" with the word "urge" to capture the nature of obsessions more accurately.
• Replaced the word "inappropriate" with the word "unwanted" when describing OCD obsessions due to concerns that the meaning of the word "inappropriate" can vary widely with culture, gender, age, and other factors.
• Removed a few criteria from DSM-IV definition of OCD, most notably the criteria requiring that individuals realize that their obsessions and compulsions are unreasonable or excessive.

The APA board of trustees and others involved in the updating process believe that these changes will improve the accuracy of diagnosis and, thus, increase the effectiveness of treatments.

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Obsessive-compulsive disorders now have their own chapter in the DSM-V. Prior to the update, OCD fell under anxiety disorders and the other related disorders were scattered in various places in the DSM. Obsessive-compulsive disorder information, diagnostic criteria, and related disorders now appear together, making proper diagnosis and treatment easier.

Types of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Aside from primary OCD, there are six other types of obsessive-compulsive disorders included in the DSM-V. Primary OCD is characterized by obsessive thoughts that may involve a fear of contamination from germs or dangerous chemical substances, fear of accidentally harming others, urge to harm a loved one, unwanted sexual or religious thoughts, preoccupation with symmetry and neatness. People with OCD try to vanquish the disturbing, repetitive thoughts with ritualistic compulsive behaviors, such as excessive hand washing, counting, ordering, checking and re-checking locks and other household appliances, repetitive activities, and silent mental rituals such as repeating nonsense words.

The other types of obsessive-compulsive disorders include:

• Body Dysmorphic Disorder – characterized by repetitive physical or mental acts due to fixation with a perceived defect in physical appearance. People with BDD repeatedly check and focus on their bodies and the way they look. They may cover up the area they perceive as flawed or leave home less often than usual to keep others from seeing the defect. They may also undergo repeated and unnecessary plastic surgery. People with BDD may truly believe they have the perceived defect even when no defect is present or may have some level of insight that their preoccupation and subsequent behaviors are excessive.
• Hoarding Disorder – characterized by intense difficulty discarding or parting with personal items, regardless of actual monetary value, because of a belief that they must save them. The thought of parting with these items causes severe distress. This results in the accumulation of a massive number of possessions that literally fill up living space of the home and prevent normal use of the living space.
• Trichotillomania (Hair Pulling Disorder) – characterized by repeatedly pulling out of hair that results in noticeable hair loss. People with HPD experience increased anxiety prior to pulling or when attempting to stop pulling, but feel relief when hair pulling. People with hair pulling disorder feel considerable distress about their compulsion. Frequently, these people inspect the hair root, chew on or eat hair, twirl the hair, or pull the hair between teeth.
• Excoriation (Skin Picking) Disorder – newly added to the DSM-V, excoriation disorder is characterized by a preoccupation with picking at skin that results in lesions and infections. People with excoriation disorder experience severe distress due to their compulsive picking, but feel powerless to break the obsessive cycle that leads to picking.
• Substance/Medication-Induced Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorder – This designation recognizes that substances, medications, and some medical conditions can cause symptoms similar to those associated with primary OCD and related disorders.
• Other Specified and Unspecified Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders – this category can include obsessive jealousy characterized by excessive focus on a partner's faithfulness, and body-focused repetitive disorders (other than hair pulling or skin picking) like nail biting or lip and cheek chewing. These criteria must be persistent and present even after repeated attempts to stop the behavior.

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Symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder can vary depending on the individual. Some people with OCD (OCD definition) may realize that their obsessions and compulsions are excessive and senseless. Others may have absolutely no insight into the excessive nature of their thoughts and actions. Still others lie somewhere in-between.

Signs and Symptoms of OCD

The typical signs and symptoms of OCD are not difficult to spot if you pay attention. Although some people with OCD may attempt to hide their irrational, excessive behaviors, those with the disorder often display these symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder:

• Repeated intrusive and obsessive thoughts or images about a variety of things: fear of contamination by germs or dirt; fear of intruders; preoccupation with violent acts; unwanted sexual images and acts; unwanted religious thoughts (Scrupulosity: Religious Obsessions and Compulsions); preoccupation with neatness; thinking of certain sounds, images, words, or numbers.
• Perform the same ritual repeatedly such as hand washing; locking and unlocking doors; opening and closing cabinets and drawers; hoarding useless possessions; counting; repeating the same steps; excessive cleaning and tidying; constant need for approval; silently repeating nonsense words; skin picking; hoarding; hair pulling.
• The person does not derive pleasure from performing the rituals but does experience a brief respite from anxiety caused by the OCD intrusive thoughts.
• The OCD intrusive thoughts and behaviors take up at least one hour per day, causing stress and interfering with daily life and social activities.

Living with Symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Imagine that you keep having a persistent thought that you're at risk for contracting a deadly disease. The only thing that gives you momentary relief from these intrusive thoughts and the anxiety they produce is washing your hands. You wash your hands, but only minutes after you've sat back down on the sofa to relax, the thoughts return and you feel the strong urge to wash your hands again. You end up repeating this so many times that evening that you missed your favorite television series and a phone call from work. Finally, you fall into bed, exhausted. Only, the thoughts return in the morning. You call into work because the thought of making the 30-minute drive to the office without being able to wash your hands brings on debilitating anxiety. OCD can take over your life and rob you of precious activities and events. (more on effects of OCD)

This scenario represents just a general description of the signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder. If you have repetitive thoughts or images that cause you to experience great anxiety and if you feel an urge to repeat ritualistic behaviors, consult a mental health professional. A qualified mental health expert will listen to your concerns and give you additional obsessive-compulsive disorder help and information.

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Obsessions and compulsions associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can make life very difficult. People with OCD obsessions and compulsions spend significant amounts of time dealing with their condition and the anxiety it causes. This may cause them to miss out on favorite social activities or even lose their jobs. Often, they've tried repeatedly to decrease or stop their OCD behaviors without success.

Obsessions and Compulsions – What's the Difference?

Obsessions and compulsions are two different parts of the condition called OCD. The term, OCD obsessions, refers to persistent and repetitive ideas, thoughts, or images that occur involuntarily. These intrusive thoughts frequently arise while thinking about or engaging in other activities. Typically, they don't make any sense but cause you to feel an urgency to take certain actions. Not taking action results in intense anxiety, increasing the urge to act out ritualistic behaviors.

OCD compulsions are the repetitive behaviors that your obsessive thoughts urge you to perform. You continually repeat the behaviors because doing so briefly alleviates the anxiety caused by your obsessive thoughts. You can voluntarily stop the compulsive behavior, but tension and anxiety will increase until you resume the behavior.

Examples of OCD Obsessions and Compulsions

People who experience OCD obsessions and compulsions may or may not perceive their obsessions as abnormal. For the person with OCD, his or her thoughts tend to focus on particular behaviors, such as washing, counting, or checking. Typically, the obsession is coupled with what experts refer to as a "magical thought". For example, you may have an obsessive thought that you must touch your elbow to the doorknob five times to avoid something bad happening, such as an illness or tragic accident. The compulsion refers to your need to actually touch your elbow to the doorknob five times. If you don't, your anxiety level will become severe because of your fear of the bad event (i.e. the illness or accident), compelling you to perform the behavior.

Other examples of obsessions and compulsions include feeling an intense need to check if you hurt someone when driving, even though there's no evidence that you did. You return to the spot where you feel the accident may have occurred to check for an injured person. Likewise, even if you know on some level that you turned off the water sprinklers outside, you may still feel compelled to check. (While there is no cure for OCD, effective treatment for OCD obsessions and compulsions does exist.)

List of Obsessions and Compulsions

Examples of Obsessions

• Doubt that you turned off the oven or locked the door
• Fear that you hurt someone in traffic
• Intense distress if objects aren't lined up or in arranged in an orderly way
• Urge to shout obscenities in inappropriate situations
• Replaying of pornographic or other unwanted images in your mind
• Fear of contamination by germs, dirt, or harmful substance
• Fear of discarding personal possessions

Examples of Compulsions

• Repeatedly checking that you turned off the oven or locked the door
• Retracing your driving route to make sure you didn't hurt anyone along the way
• Arranging all of your magazines or silverware to face the same way and match up exactly
• Counting in certain patterns to ward off the occurrence of a bad event
• Repeatedly washing your hands to remove all possibility of contamination
• Hoarding all sorts of personal possessions regardless of worth
• Hair pulling or skin picking

This list represents only a small sampling of the obsessions and compulsions that may occur in people with OCD. As with almost any mental disorder, there is a significant gap between those with mild and severe OCD. Those severely affected with OCD are utterly debilitated by their condition, but mild sufferers of OCD often lead successful, yet stilted lives.

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People with OCD have obsessive thoughts or images that bother them. (What is OCD?) These obsessive, intrusive thoughts, a key characteristic of the OCD diagnosis, could center on fear of making mistakes, contamination, illness, preoccupation with religion or sex, fear of unwanted urges and desires, or just about anything that you perceive as dangerous, unclean, or disgusting.

What Are Obsessive Thoughts?

What are the obsessive thoughts that people with OCD have? It's impossible to list all the possible obsessive-compulsive thoughts people could have, but here are a few examples:

• I touched the bathroom door and now I have germs on me.
• I left the stove on when I left.
• I forgot to lock the front door.
• I left the dryer running and now my house will burn down.
• I committed a sinful act and God will punish me.
• If I don't touch the doorknob three times when I leave, my husband will die in an accident.
• I keep having a violent fantasy about hurting my boss and I'm afraid I'll act on it.
• If all my canned goods don't face the same way, something bad will happen.

Relief for Obsessive, Intrusive Thoughts

Many people with OCD perform ritualistic behaviors, or compulsions, in an attempt to stop the bothersome, repetitive, intrusive thoughts and the intense anxiety they cause. Those with "pure OCD" keep all their obsessive thoughts and compulsions entirely to themselves. The compulsive behaviors they perform to alleviate the distress resulting from the thoughts occur silently in their minds, such as repeating nonsense words in a certain order over and over or counting in a pattern.

If you have recurring thoughts like this, you may think:

• Have I lost my mind?
• How can I make them stop?
• What do these thoughts mean?
• They must mean something important about me.

Depending on the severity of your OCD intrusive thoughts, you may need to seek OCD help sooner than later, but you haven't lost your mind. According to Robert L. Lehey, Ph.D., and columnist for Psychology Today, thoughts are not the same thing as reality and everyone has crazy or disgusting thoughts at one time or another. He also says that thought suppression will not work to banish the obsessive thoughts associated with OCD.

Obsessive Thoughts and Anxiety

Anxiety represents a key symptom arising from obsessive thoughts that just won't go away. These thoughts keep intruding upon your mind, even when you're thinking about something else. You try to block them out, but they don't stop. The fear that something bad will happen mounts, causing severe anxiety. At this point, you may start acting out a ritual behavior that your thoughts tell you will stop the bad thing from happening. (more on OCD and anxiety)

Imagine that you keep having this recurring thought that you have a brain tumor. You've been to the doctor, had an MRI and other tests, and your head checks out just fine. But you're still convinced that you have a tumor because the thought keeps recurring, telling you that you do and that the doctor has made a mistake. This causes intense anxiety. So you research brain tumors at the library, in health magazines, on the Internet, spending hours looking up every shred of information you can find on brain tumors.

If you repeatedly have unwanted thoughts, you should seek the help of a mental health professional. He or she can help you understand your obsessive thoughts and provide you with a strategy, which includes OCD therapy, that can help you break the cycle of OCD intrusive thoughts.

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What is Scrupulosity?

The term, scrupulosity, refers to a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that involves religious obsessions, but it is not a separate type of OCD like hoarding disorder or excoriation (skin-picking disorder). Scrupulous individuals have an overwhelming concern that certain things they do or say violate religious or moral doctrine. They spend an inordinate amount of time each day thinking and worrying about whether they've committed a sin or violated moral rules.

People who attend church on a regular basis, pray daily (even several times a day), and are very involved in their religious communities aren't typically sufferers of scrupulosity. Scrupulous behavior typically exceeds or disregards actual religious law and focuses entirely on a single inconsequential area of religious practice, often completely ignoring other areas. Those suffering from religious scrupulosity usually exhibit behavior that does not align with the rest of his or her faith community.

Scrupulosity Symptoms

Scrupulosity symptoms vary with the individual, but all have to with fear of sinning or breaking some sort of moral or religious rules and consequently suffering some sort of punishment. Common obsessions that occur with OCD scrupulosity include excessive preoccupations with:

• Going to Hell
• Moral behavior
• Sinfulness
• Blasphemy
• Death
• Purity
• Loss of control over urges

In addition to preoccupation with religious or moral concerns, people suffering from scrupulosity perform mental or physical rituals in an attempt to make up for their perceived failings. Those who engage in only mental compulsions have the pure OCD form of scrupulosity.

Common physical compulsions include:

• Excessive visits to church for confession
• Unnecessary acts of self-sacrifice
• Repetitive purifying and cleansing behaviors (i.e. hand washing, scrubbing floors)
• Seeking constant reassurance from loved ones and pastors or priests of his or her goodness
• Avoiding religious services or other events where they believe they may commit a public sin or moral error and cause something bad to happen

Common mental compulsions include:

• Excessive prayer, often requiring that they repeat the prayer over again until they do it perfectly
• Repeating verses or passages of scripture silently in the mind
• Constantly making pacts with God
• Repetitive thinking about sacred images or pictures

Scrupulosity affects individuals from a broad variety of religious backgrounds, not just those of one particular faith. Experts suspect many highly respected religious leaders have struggled with scrupulosity, including St. Veronica Giullani, St. Ignatius Loyola, Martin Luther, St. Alphonsus Liguori, and John Bunyan.

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What Causes Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

Experts still aren't clear on obsessive-compulsive disorder causes, but research suggests both genetic, physiological, and environmental factors may all have a role as causes of OCD. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a life-long mental health condition in which the person suffers from obsessive thoughts and acts out with repetitive compulsive behaviors. Depending on the severity of the condition, individuals with various types of OCD, including pure OCD, may live fairly successful lives or become debilitated by their obsessions and compulsions.

Is OCD Genetic? Is OCD Hereditary?

Is OCD genetic? Is OCD hereditary? Can it be passed from family member to family member? Many people with OCD or who know someone suffering from it ask these questions. Although experts have not found a specific gene, research indicates that obsessive-compulsive disorder runs in families, pointing to the likelihood that genetics do play a role in its development. In fact, people who have a parent or sibling that has OCD have a considerably higher risk of developing the disorder.

Ongoing studies point to a genetic defect in the way the front area of the brain communicates with deeper areas. These deeper structures use serotonin, a chemical messenger. Images of the brain in some people with OCD show that these defective communication circuits work more normally with serotonin-based medications or cognitive behavior therapy.

Other Suspected Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Causes

In addition to the OCD hereditary component, some of the other suspected obsessive-compulsive disorder causes include:

• Biological – Some research indicates that OCD may develop due to non-genetically related changes in the body's chemistry and brain functions.
• Environmental – One factor in OCD development may involve experiences and attitudes learned in a family setting. These experiences and learned attitudes may cause faulty thought patterns.
• Insufficient serotonin – Insufficient levels of the brain chemical messenger, serotonin, may play a role in OCD. These people do not have defective brain structures but have too little serotonin for some reason.
• Emotional trauma – Some researchers believe that severe emotional upheaval, such as bereavement or suffering abuse may contribute to the development of OCD, especially in predisposed individuals.
• Infection – Some evidence suggests that children and young teens developed OCD after suffering from severe streptococcal bacterial infection. Scientists theorize that the body's own antibodies react with the brain, triggering, but not directly causing OCD in predisposed children. (More about OCD in children)

Researchers continue to look into obsessive-compulsive disorder causes in an effort to better understand how to effectively treat and, possibly, prevent the condition.

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Effects of OCD Devastating

The effects of OCD can wreak havoc on an individual's life. The obsessions and compulsions can burn up many hours in a person's day, which interferes with family life and social activities. Obviously, this can also have an adverse effect on success at school and work. It's important to remember that getting OCD therapy from a mental health professional can alleviate many of the effects of OCD. OCD will not resolve on its own. You must seek help.

Living with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

People living with obsessive-compulsive disorder experience a number of detrimental effects due to their condition. Some of the possible outcomes of living with OCD and pure OCD include:

• Thinking you're crazy – when you keep having obsessive thoughts that intrude on your everyday life, coupled with strong urges to perform certain behaviors and rituals, you may begin to think you're crazy if you don't understand the condition. A therapist can provide treatment for these problems and get your brain working more normally.
• Isolation – Isolation represents one of the effects of OCD on relationships. The person with OCD is under an immense amount of pressure to complete their rituals. The time spent performing these compulsive behaviors is also exhausting. Both the pressure and exhaustion make it difficult to interact with others in social situations, leading to isolation and loneliness. Isolation worsens when the individual avoids leaving home because some public situations may trigger the need to do rituals.
• Depression and low self-esteem – the longer you suffer from the effects of OCD without help, the more you'll feel powerless and out of control. Feeling this way leads to depression and a degraded self- esteem.
• Anger – it's common for the person suffering from OCD and his or her family members and loved ones to experience some form of anger due to the disorder. Some family members may blame the person with OCD for his behaviors as if they were a choice. This represents one of the most adverse OCD effects on the family because it puts the blame on the mentally ill person.
• Resentment – family members often have resentment toward the OCD sufferer because they feel they must isolate themselves from friends to avoid embarrassment because of their child's or spouse's compulsive behavior. This need to hide the illness fosters the resentment.
• Co-opting family members – family members, living with someone with OCD, can become involved in enabling his or her compulsions, allowing the victim to remain in ill. In these cases, the enabling family members also need therapy along with the OCD patient. Therapy can help the enabling family member to shift his mindset from resentment and anger to understanding and support.

Physical Effects of OCD

The long-term physical effects of OCD can negatively impact a person's health. Individuals living with OCD experience incredible pressure as they feel an intense urge to perform their rituals and perform them properly. Long-term, this pressure and the exhaustion due to working the rituals for hours each day can lead to heart disease and ulcers. Those whose ritual involves hand washing 100 times per day or more can develop serious skin lesions and infections. Other people may wash their hair so fervently and often that they end up with lesions on their scalp that could become infected.

How to Live with OCD

Some of the best advice on how to live with OCD urges people to educate themselves about their condition. As with any chronic illness, becoming an expert about your disorder will help you to cope with it more effectively. Read up on obsessive-compulsive disorder information and how others have learned to cope.

• Learn triggers that worsen your symptoms – you've got to identify specific triggers that set off the obsessive thoughts before you can come up with effective coping strategies.
• Everyday life stress frequently triggers OCD symptoms – people with OCD have a lower tolerance for everyday stress than others. Avoid allowing yourself to become overly stressed with the pressures of everyday life.
• Get enough sleep – stress effects sleep-deprived people more than it does those who've had enough relaxing time and sleep.
• Eat a nutritionally sound diet – eat food that's rich in nutrients and low in preservatives and additives. Come up with a menu plan that includes an array of fresh foods you enjoy and that you can prepare with ease. Keep healthy snacks on hand like a snack bag of almonds or pistachios.
• Break big problems down into small chunks – even the most carefree, easy going person can become stressed and overwhelmed when trying to tackle a large problem all at once, even more so for those living with OCD. Break a daunting problem down into manageable chunks. If you have a huge work project, take one small part and do it while putting the rest aside. Then move onto the next small portion.
• Deal with issues immediately – If you're having an issue that's causing you to OCD symptoms, deal with the issue immediately and directly. If you're having a disagreement with someone, calmly and deliberately talk it out until it's resolved. If you've put off an important task or assignment, stop procrastinating and get it done. Once you do this, the stressor is neutralized.
• Address emotions – Sometimes emotional situations can trigger OCD symptoms. Addressing your emotions mindfully can alleviate OCD symptoms. If you're feeling afraid about an upcoming meeting, go over your preparations to remind yourself that you're ready. If you made a mistake and it's upsetting you, sit down and make a list of the positive things you learned from the mistake. Talk to a friend if you feel sad, depressed, or angry about something for which you can't find a resolution. Invite your friend to go somewhere or do somewhere with you to remove yourself from the situation.

People with typical OCD and pure OCD can live successful, happy lives. Your mental health professional can determine the level and type of treatment you need. He or she can give you strategies and other tools to help you cope with the effects of OCD when on your own. Using the tools and strategies consistently can help you maintain your composure, make living with OCD easier and greatly improve quality of life.

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OCD treatment typically includes psychotherapy, medication, or both. Proper treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder works and can help people with OCD live productive, successful lives. But there are obstacles to OCD treatment that many people have to overcome before they receive effective help. (Is there a cure for OCD?)

Obstacles to OCD Treatment

According to the International OCD Foundation, it takes an average of 14 to 17 years from the date OCD symptoms first begin for people to find the right OCD treatment. Common obstacles to treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder include:

• Hiding symptoms – when people choose to hide their OCD due to embarrassment or stigma, it delays their getting help. Some may not seek help until years after symptoms begin, making treatment more difficult.
• Insufficient public awareness – only recently has the term "OCD" (definition of OCD) become widely used and known. If people aren't aware their condition has a name and a treatment, they may not seek help.
• Lack of properly trained mental health professionals – people who visit improperly trained mental health professionals may receive an incorrect diagnosis and end up seeing a number of doctors or undergoing the wrong treatment before finally getting the right OCD treatment.
• No local therapists who treat OCD – people often cannot find a therapist near where they live.
• Unable to afford treatment – many people without health insurance or who live in poverty simply cannot afford treatment and do not know about special programs that they can use.

Treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

The first step in treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder is to find a qualified mental health professional with experience in treating the disorder. Ask your doctor for a referral or call your county psychological association (psychologist) or county medical society (psychiatrist) and ask for a referral to someone who has training and experience in OCD treatment. Once you've found a qualified therapist who you feel good about, you're on your way to getting the help you need and getting your life back. (More on OCD Help and OCD Self-Help)

Common treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder include one of the following or a combination of both:

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) – CBT is a type of psychotherapy that works especially well in treating OCD. CBT teaches the patient different ways of thinking, behaving, and coping with situations that trigger obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors.

The type of CBT that therapists have found most effective for treating OCD is called Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). The term exposure in ERP refers to the practice of facing the repetitive thoughts, images, and urges that cause the severe anxiety associated with OCD. The response-prevention part of ERP involves choosing not to perform a compulsive ritual after exposure to a trigger. Doctors refer to the resulting drop in anxiety levels that occurs from consistently working the ERP model as habituation.

Medications for OCD Treatment – Medicine represents an effective method for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder. Patients must take medicines regularly and according to doctor's orders for them to work. About half of people with OCD stop taking their medications voluntarily and against doctor's orders because of side effects or other reasons.

Most medications that work effectively in treating obsessive-compulsive disorder are antidepressants. Many people with OCD also suffer from depression (OCD and depression), so physicians can treat both conditions with the same medication. Not all antidepressant drugs help OCD. Imipramine (Tofranil®) and amitriptyline (Elavil®) work to alleviate depression, but do nothing to improve OCD.

Mediations that work well as treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder are:

• Fluvoxamine (Luvox®)
• Sertraline (Zoloft®)
• Citalopram (Celexa®)
• Escitalopram (Lexapro®)
• Fluoxetine (Prozac®)
• Paroxetine (Paxil®)
• Clomipramine (Anafranil®)
• Venlafaxine (Effexor®)

The above medications have proven effective in studies. Some physicians report that duloxetine (Cymbalta®) has helped OCD patients whose disorder did not respond to other drugs.

Combination OCD Treatment – About 70 percent of OCD and pure OCD patients will respond to either medication therapy or CBT/ERP. For most people with OCD, treatment should involve a combination therapy approach that includes medication along with cognitive behavioral therapy using the ERP method.

The most important step to getting better is finding a therapist who knows how to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder effectively. Check with your family doctor and call your county psychological association and county medical society for referrals to an OCD treatment specialist.

Other OCD Treatment Options

In some cases, medications and psychotherapy don't work to control OCD symptoms. Other OCD treatment options include:

• In-patient hospitalization
• Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
• Gamma knife - transcranial magnetic stimulation
• Deep brain stimulation – requires implantation of electrodes in the brain
• Brain surgery

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