Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: A Case Study

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) deals with an illogical link from the obsession to the compulsion, or ritual. The obsession is the source of the individual’s fears, such as germs or death, and the ritual is the practices one performs, such as washing one’s hands or blinking a certain number of times, as an alleviation of their obsession. The link may or may not make sense to the individual; with the latter case, the ritual is mainly performed just in case something bad was to happen. Those with OCD become fixated on the rituals, which may very well lessen their anxiety that surrounds their obsession; however, those rituals become increasingly illogical as well as all consuming. The confines of a person’s life may be restricted solely on …show more content…
For example, she is afraid of getting hot, so she avoids those who are hot, and the only way to do that is staying in her room, and isolation can incite or exacerbate the mood disorder, depression. Similarly in Posttraumatic obsessive-compulsive disorder: A case study, B.A., a Vietnam War veteran, seemed to suffer from PTSD in tandem with OCD. Although the disorders could be lone standing, this only further demonstrates the ambiguities and intricacies with psychological disorders. Therefore, when listening to the podcast on Black, some of the comments made by Richard Fiddler seemed reductionist, such as when he asked, albeit cautiously, about anxiety being tied with vanity. Perhaps vanity, or a form that we linguistically associate with vanity, is or can be a secondary symptom of anxiety. However, vernacular is imperative when it comes to discussing mental health. For example, Black explains that pathological anxiety and anxiety for say a job interview are two very different realities, but language has made them appear synonymous. Likewise, when people couple psychological problems with moralistic qualifiers it detracts from the legitimization of the disability. Anxiety is an invisible disability, although it may have visible manifestations; consequently, a discrepancy exists between that of appearance versus reality. For example, when Black was younger, she said her behaviors were to protect her family; therefore, while the resultant behaviors may appear to reflect self-centeredness, the intention is quite contrary. Going forward in psychological studies, hopefully language will be considered more carefully. More precise language may increase the awareness of anxiety in mainstream society and improve the accuracy of diagnostics in the medical