Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and what we do

[Infidel Castro]

Finn might be able to give me the thumbs up (or down) on my view of OCD. I am under the impression that OCD is neither a mental illness or physical ailment, but rather learnt behaviour. I get anxious and it causes panic attacks at times, but I\'ve come to understand the reason for my anxiety as self-taught tension. The amygdala (sp?) is part of the brain that deals with behaviour so, for example, when a police dog is taught to do non-doggy things (like not being allowed to hump legs or piss on lampposts) it is taught a behaviour that the specific part of the brain rewires to that process. Over time we teach ourselves behaviours and that\'s what OCD is, anxiety too.

The next step for me is relaxation. I\'ve been made aware that relaxation is something I need to physically seek because my level/threshold is lower than other folks. If I don\'t relax physically and mentally I get closer to being anxious, but in time the trick is - through relaxation - to teach my brain the new relaxed way, the one I\'ve been trying to do since I found out what the problem was.

Finn? Am I talking shite?

 

[darkartminiatures]

So lets get this right....theres something wrong with us all....working on an average we are normal :bouncy::flip::moon: Damn i hate being normal.....maybe i should be normal in order to be different....erm...no thats not right...i better go paint and something.

 

[sebrushworth]

Yeah Rev, you\'re talking shite. There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding here over what OCD is. OCD is a psychological disorder with a very big genetic component. Most people have little or not risk of ever developing the disorder. In people who are susceptible, it is brought on by stress, and becomes worse in stressful situations/environments. People who have it can learn to control it gradually by refusing to do what their brain is telling them they should do, but it never goes away completely. The more you give in to it, the more it takes control of your life.

I\'ve had long discussions with my wife about it, but since she\'s never suffered from it I think it\'s impossible for her to understand. It\'s kind of like explaining nicotine addiction to someone who\'s never been addicted.

 

[Infidel Castro]

No offence Mr Brushworth, but I\'ll wait for the expert to tell me I\'m talking shite before I believe it

You just wrote about refusing to do what your mind/brain is telling you to do. In other words you have to break the behavioural pattern. Okay, i may be wrong about how OCD comes about, but I know that a lack of relaxation, i.e. stress, brings on bouts of OCD in the same way I get affected by anxiety, but I\'m positive the manner in dealing with the two problems are quite similar. I\'m aware that OCD and anxiety have differences, but the root is quite similar.

Finn?

 

[sebrushworth]

That\'s it, I\'ve had enough of people thinking my name is Se Brushworth! I\'m changing my handle.

This is swiped directly from Wikipaedia:

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric disorder, more specifically, an anxiety disorder. OCD is manifested in a variety of forms, but is most commonly characterized by a subject\'s obsessive (repetitive, distressing, intrusive) thoughts and related compulsions (tasks or rituals) which attempt to neutralize the obsessions.

The phrase \"obsessive-compulsive\" has worked its way into the wider English lexicon, and is often used in an offhand manner to describe someone who is meticulous or absorbed in a cause (Felix Unger). Such casual references should not be confused with obsessive-compulsive disorder; see clinomorphism. It is also important to distinguish OCD from other types of anxiety, including the routine tension and stress that appear throughout life. A person who shows signs of infatuation or fixation with a subject/object, or displays traits such as perfectionism, does not necessarily have OCD, a specific and well-defined condition.

 

[sebrushworth]

Here\'s more:

The typical OCD sufferer performs tasks (or compulsions) to seek relief from obsessions. To others, these tasks may appear odd and unnecessary. But for the sufferer, such tasks can feel critically important, and must be performed in particular ways to ward off dire consequences and to stop the stress from building up. Examples of these tasks: repeatedly checking that one\'s parked car has been locked before leaving it; turning lights on and off a set number of times before exiting a room; repeatedly washing hands at regular intervals throughout the day.

Obsessions are thoughts and ideas that the sufferer cannot stop thinking about. Common OCD obsessions include fears of acquiring disease, getting hurt, or causing harm to someone. Obsessions are typically automatic, frequent, distressing, and difficult to control or put an end to by themselves. People with OCD who obsess about hurting themselves or others are actually less likely to do so than the average person.

Compulsions refer to actions that the person performs, usually repeatedly, in an attempt to make the obsession go away. For an OCD sufferer who obsesses about germs or contamination, for example, these compulsions often involve repeated cleansing or meticulous avoidance of trash and mess. Most of the time the actions become so regular that it is not a noticeable problem. Common compulsions include excessive washing and cleaning; checking; hoarding; repetitive actions such as touching, counting, arranging and ordering; and other ritualistic behaviors that the person feels will lessen the chances of provoking an obsession. Compulsions can be observable — washing, for instance — but they can also be mental rituals such as repeating words or phrases, or counting.

Most OCD sufferers are aware that such thoughts and behavior are not rational, but feel bound to comply with them to fend off fears of panic or dread. Because sufferers are consciously aware of this irrationality but feel helpless to push it away, untreated OCD is often regarded as one of the most vexing and frustrating of the major anxiety disorders.

 

[Infidel Castro]

An anxiety disorder. Exactly. And I edited my blooper lol

Finn?

 

[sebrushworth]

That isn\'t what I was objecting to Rev, what I was objecting to was you calling it \"learned behaviour\", which, though partly true, is giving the wrong idea, and makes it seem as if it\'s a simple case of \"unlearning\" it. Although the specific rituals, like flicking the light switch repeatedly, are learned, the impulses aren\'t.

If you don\'t want to listen to anyone else but Finn on the matter, that\'s fine, but this is a disorder I\'ve suffered from to a greater or lesser degree since I was 11, so I think I know a fair amount about it.

 

[Medved]

cheers for that Mr Rushworth .

it\'s good to hear from those who suffer and how it affects them.

lets all have a hug.......and then paint some minis!

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by Medved

lets all have a hug.......and then paint some minis!

Yep ok to that, but I\'m being choosy who hugs me. Primary criteria = Female, Secondary criteria = Female. :innocent:

Oh and Stuart the original quote in that thread was Spacemunkie, not me, which I\'m quite glad about as I thought I was losing my memory. (again)

 

[Wolf Fang]

well..... after painting for 6 hours strait just now... and STILL feeling the need to paint... i officially think i may have a painting problem lol..... i think il\'l prolly be up till about 3 am tonight painting!

 

[supervike]

Originally posted by sebrushworth

Most OCD sufferers are aware that such thoughts and behavior are not rational, but feel bound to comply with them to fend off fears of panic or dread. Because sufferers are consciously aware of this irrationality but feel helpless to push it away, untreated OCD is often regarded as one of the most vexing and frustrating of the major anxiety disorders.

Oh shit, I have this.

I know I have a problem with anxiety....irrational worries etc. But I didn\'t realize it could be a form of OCD.

I think the link between this and my \'hoarding of miniatures\' does make quite a bit of sense.

I was always under the assumption that these obsessive disorders manifested themselves in negative ways..(ie like you mention with strange behaviors, hand washing, eating oddly).

It never occured to me that it could show up as something I thought was a positive in my life, collecting and painting little metal figures....

So what does that mean? Is my obsession with my little metal men an unhealthy behavior? I mean, sure we all joke about being obsessed with these things, but I really do think about it, post about it, read about it all day long....Rarely do I take a break from it.....

 

[Shawn R. L.]

I did a stint with OCD when I was a teenager. Handwashing and doing things in set\'s of 7. It was awful. Somewhere along the way I realised what a bunch of crap it was and focused REAL hard on the fact that the compulsion was absurd and was able to find a bit of balance. I still had the tendency to see things in extreme black and white and ever since have struggled to keep that in check. OCD is a tough problem, it\'s like trying to let go of flypaper.

 

[emopainterguy]

One thing I find when reading about any psycological disorder is that it\'s very easy to make connections between your own mood or actions or thought patterns to that particular disorder. I found that on many occasions in my psycology classes that I would think that I had the particular disorder we were talking about just because I felt that some of the symptoms or effects were very similar to things I experience in my own life. So I think it\'s quite easy to diagnose yourself with a disorder and it is quite possible you don\'t actually have it, best thing to do would be to see a professional.

@Dauber: I think we\'re up to the DSM-IV now. I had no idea that there was no way to be classified as \'normal\' before the DSM-III. That is interesting though...

Actually now that I think about it I won\'t touch the inside door handle of a public restroom with my hand, I\'ll usually pull my sweater down over my hand... Hmmm... Then again when I dont have a sweater on I\'m pretty sure I just open the door lol.

 

[Infidel Castro]

Originally posted by sebrushworth
That isn\'t what I was objecting to Rev, what I was objecting to was you calling it \"learned behaviour\", which, though partly true, is giving the wrong idea, and makes it seem as if it\'s a simple case of \"unlearning\" it.

Erm, that\'s quite a flippant comment! I became anxious through learned behaviour over a long time and subconsciously. Unlearning is hard as feck. Simple case, my arse :moon:

 

[SebastianRushworth]

Originally posted by reverend
I am under the impression that OCD is neither a mental illness or physical ailment, but rather learnt behaviour.

Ugh, ok, spin it any way you like, but that\'s what you said, before comparing OCD to dogs being taugt not to piss on lamp posts or some such.

OCD is, according to recent research, most likely caused by a physiological abnormality in the brain - certain chemical messages have trouble getting where they\'re meant to go, either because of damaged receptors, or because of a too low serotonin level in the brain. This disorder is not something you \"learn\". That is my point, take it any way you like, Rev.

 

[Infidel Castro]

But you just wrote in the post previous to your last that it is partly true that it is learned behaviour! I\'m not lookig to row and dissect the matter, only I am aware that some of the processes for dealing with anxiety can be applied to OCD, therefore it suggests, though not entirely dictates, that OCD is learned behaviour too, though maybe not in its entirety.

Anyway, that aside, I se you changed your name lol

 

[SebastianRushworth]

Ok, yeah, I don\'t want to row either.

Just to clear up a bit though, since maybe I explained myself badly in the earlier post. OCD is caused by some part of the brain not working the way it should. The disorder isn\'t learned, but usually sufferers find that it gets worse in stressful situations, which shows that there is an environmental component to how the disorder affects us. This is one reason why OCD sufferers are often very orderly. Disorder leads to stress and stress leads to the dark side.

It is characterised by obsessive thoughts on subjects you really don\'t want to think about, but can\'t stop thinking about (think really bad thoughts, like thinking about people who bullied you in school, thinking about horrible diseases, thinking about doing destructive things to yourself or others etc.).
These obsessive thoughts lead to rituals (either physical or mental) that are designed to \"neutralise\" the obsessions. The mental rituals generally take the form of lists that you think, for me generally lists of people I like, although it varies from person to person. The physical rituals generally take the form of redoing an action again and again, often for a set number of times, which is how numbers comes in to it. For me the number 3 was a bad number, because 1993 was the year I started a school I really hated, while 7 is a good number though I don\'t really know why.
You get a feeling that if you don\'t perform the ritual something bad will happen (even though you know the notion is ridiculous) or you just feel that if you don\'t perform the ritual then you won\'t be able to stop thinking about whatever it is you\'re obsessing about. Also you feel like you have to \"neutralise\" certain \"bad\" thoughts by thinking \"good\" thoughts.

The impulses that cause the disorder are not learned, but the specific obsessions and the specific rituals that the sufferer designs to contain the obsessions are learned. See the difference?

There you go, a little glimpse inside my mind, which is a very crowded place!

I hope I haven\'t opened up too much so everyone now thinks I\'m crazy! Like I said, I\'ve had this since I was 11, and I\'m now 23, so that\'s most of my life. It doesn\'t affect me much any more since I\'ve become used to it and found ways to deal with it so it doesn\'t impact my life too negatively.

Hope that answers any questions people have.

Yep, I changed my username! lol

 

[Infidel Castro]

Now that\'s a concise bit of info. Nice work!

So, some similarities and a lot of differences. Cheers!

 

[laurence]

OCD

Hey Medved,

I don\'t think I have OCD but I can relate a little to what you\'re going through.

My story:

From the age of maybe 14 onwards I wanted to become a blues guitar god. I practised everyday ( I still do pretty much ) then when I was 26yo and two years in to my university degree I just got fed up with the whole music scene in my city and quit all the bands I was playing with and kind of withdrew.

This is when I re-discovered miniatures. I became totally obsessed with them. For example: I would dream about them and walk around the city looking for shops that sold them. Also I would imagines that all the people in the city high rise building were painting miniatures. I wanted the world to be a big global mini painting community. Crazy hey!!! Everything related back to miniatures.
Everything. I began to neglect my friendships and would stay at home and paint. I also dropped a subject at university just to get more painting time in. I spent all of my spare $ on ministuff. Totally nuts!

Anyway, I was confronted with a decision. You know, one of those decisions that will change the course of your life. Do I spend my summer holidays painting miniatures at my mums farm or go to mainland China and do a summer semester with my university??? Well at the last second (literally) I chose China and have never looked back.

I now live in Taiwan with my girlfriend and I\'ve had to prioritise. Where does painting minis fit in to my life? Well it fits in ad I make time for it, around five hours a week (instead of ten hours a day like my uni days) and I place my girlfriend, work, Chinese, blues band, friends higher than miniatures. Don\'t get me wrong, I still get a little too pre-occupied with the mini thing. Luckily, you can\'t buy minis in Taiwan. Last time I went back home to Australia I only bought one mini and 17 bottles of GW paints. You might say I was well behaved.

I guess the reason I\'ve written this reply is to let you know that you\'re definately not the only one who perhaps neglects or has neglected his/her life for the sake of miniature art. You\'ll be right! A good break from mini\'s is a great thing. (I took a year and a half break from painting when moving to Taiwan) and it didn\'t take me long to get my chops back. Now I can only paint for a reason. Charity.

Anyway, I wish you the best mate!!!

Cheers,
Chris