What is OCD?

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a broken alarm system that can sound both frequently and intensely. Those with OCD frequently experience thoughts or feelings that something in their lives needs attending to and that ignoring the target of their obsessive thoughts may lead to a terrible result.

Even though one may rationally know that the alarm is nonsensical, the challenge is that it feels completely real. The broken alarm often comes along with a “gut feeling” that there is danger and if nothing is done about it one’s life will be ruined forever. (This is why the phrase “trust your gut/intuition” can be a terribly toxic phrase for anyone with OCD). As the name of the diagnosis suggests, someone with OCD responds to this threat with obsessions and compulsions. 

Obsessions

Naturally, someone with OCD experiences an urge to deal with this supposed threat. While the “threat” varies from person to person, one axiom is that a person with OCD has difficulty tolerating the uncertainty that this threat will manifest, and therefore obsessively worries about this topic. 

Compulsions

In addition to constantly attending to this topic, a person with OCD also try to get rid of the uncertainty by engaging in what are called “compulsions”. A compulsion is any action or thought that is done intentionally to try to figure out or fix the threat that the broken alarm system is warning about.

Is it Working?

The problem is this “solution” not only doesn’t work but instead makes things worse! Like paying attention to a child throwing a temper tantrum, the more one pays attention to or tries to fix the “problem”, the worse the experience gets and the more likely it is to repeat (if that metaphor doesn’t work for you, think of scratching a mosquito bite or pouring gasoline on fire. I’ve got a million more).

By responding to this broken alarm, the brain gets that signal that the alarm was useful and should be sent again. Therefore, therapy for OCD centers around learning how to abstain from reinforcing that signal so that it has less control over our lives.