Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - A Psychiatrist knows better!

• A wardrobe full of white clothes - All of them kept sparkling white and neatly pressed!
• All clothes are clean, devoid of every last bit of dust or stain, folded neatly, and well in place to find them when you need!
• Clean hands, disinfected from all the bacteria, all day!
• Everything in the room is symmetrically arranged at all times of the day and rearranged every time a little change happens in the order.
• The Coffee should,taste this way, be served this way, at this time of the day and have this shade of brown!
• Everything should be in perfect order and consistency in keeping tidy is an absolute must!

Now all these, at the outset are perfectly acceptable practises, habits and interests to have. Aren’t they??

What if I tell you, that these habits and many more like these become rulers of our psychic at times, deteriorating our quality of life, slowly and steadily in a big way!!! In short, they become Obsessions!

Each of us may have one or more practises that we absolutely cannot allow deviation. The thought/sight of deviation becomes a compelling need to act upon or ‘correct' immediately. ‘Compulsive' need that makes people drop all priorities and attend to this one thing in particular, which often does not figure in the bigger priority list of the day.

Over the years of complete acknowledgement and the rarely-objected-to or un-objected freedom to be able to feed the obsession, it becomes a ‘Disorder' on its own. 

The Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) of things, practises, interests, habits, and routines slowly become a hindrance to normal life, disturb the quality of life, and eat away plenty of resourceful time! In extreme cases, the rest of the group around the person gets affected too because of the person’s compelling need to ‘correct’ the ‘skew’. 

This is one of the many disorders of the mind that we ALL have in general. As long as mind disorders are well-within acceptable limits, there is no cause of concern because there is no OCD.

How do you know if your interests/preferences/tastes/habits have reached a point of OCD?

• You cannot live without seeing it perfect.
• You believe only you are responsible for the action on behalf of the world around you.
• You put your health behind and do all it takes to feed the obsession.
• Once you are done with the correction of the perceived ‘skew’, you feel elated, happy and tired.
• You arrange everything that is even slightly out of place from the way you saw it the night before.
• You cannot focus on anything else if your 'pet project’ of tidiness, cleanliness, disinfection, orderliness is undone.
• You feel hyperactive when it comes to keeping your obsessive self happy and are always ready to take-on the challenge of sticking to your diligent routine in the process.
• You are upset/angry if you are unable to do the work your way to keep it in order.
• You do not want to connect with people about your mind as you do not like to listen to opinions.
• You feel that just no one understands how important your task at hand is and for the life of you cannot figure out why the others have a problem with your way!

One or more of these signs on a grown-up individual is a sure shot way to the path of OCD.

The following are some of the tips that I have heard/read/understood from many sources to reduce OCD:

• Spend time usefully outside of the obsessive practice.
• Have a hobby.
• Meditate everyday in a serene environment.
• Believe that you are not the final authority to sign-off on your habit/practice.
• Learn to let go once in a while! 

In spite of all these, when OCD hinders our day-to-day lives, then it calls for a psychiatric intervention. 

Psychiatrists are people who:

• Listen to what we say.
• Elicit the right answers that are buried deep down within ourselves for most of our life situations.
• Do not know us from within the family.
• Remain unaffected in any way by the situation.
• Help our minds beat its unspoken barriers/constraints/needs.

For anyone interested in learning more about psychiatrists as an integral support to our mental wellness, here is a simple reason to seek help from a psychiatrist for OCD and many other mental discomforts that we may face from time to time:

We can trust psychiatrists with what we need to speak almost always. 

We do not have to worry about the impression we may make to the doctor whose goal is to get our minds collected and improve our quality of mental wellness.