Book contents
- Everything You Need to Know about OCD
- Reviews
- Everything You Need to Know about OCD
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 What Is OCD and Is It Really a Problem?
- 2 Who Gets OCD and How Would Anyone Know if They Had It?
- 3 Types and Presentation of OCD
- 4 Drug Treatment
- 5 Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD
- 6 Children and Adolescents with OCD
- 7 Old Treatments, Modern Developments, New Research, and Potential Treatments for the Future
- 8 Other Conditions Which Appear Similar to OCD
- 9 What Can Family and Carers Do to Help a Person with OCD?
- 10 What Can You Do to Help Cope with Your OCD?
- 11 General Principles of Treatment
- 12 How to Better Manage Your Symptoms Before and During Treatment
- 13 Overcoming Fears of Contamination
- 14 Fear of Harm to Self or Others Due to Failure to Act
- 15 Fear of Harm to Self or Others Due to Your Own Actions (or Thoughts)
- 16 Overcoming ‘Taboo’ Obsessive Thoughts
- 17 Loss of Something (Objects or Part of ‘Self’)
- 18 Overcoming Obsessive-Compulsive Slowness, Perfectionism and Symmetry
- 19 Overcoming Obsessive Ruminations (Sometimes Known as ‘Pure O’)
- 20 When the Treatment Doesn’t Go According to Plan or Even If It Does, What to Do Next
- Appendix
- Glossary
- Resources
- References
- Index
3 - Types and Presentation of OCD
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 May 2022
- Everything You Need to Know about OCD
- Reviews
- Everything You Need to Know about OCD
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 What Is OCD and Is It Really a Problem?
- 2 Who Gets OCD and How Would Anyone Know if They Had It?
- 3 Types and Presentation of OCD
- 4 Drug Treatment
- 5 Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD
- 6 Children and Adolescents with OCD
- 7 Old Treatments, Modern Developments, New Research, and Potential Treatments for the Future
- 8 Other Conditions Which Appear Similar to OCD
- 9 What Can Family and Carers Do to Help a Person with OCD?
- 10 What Can You Do to Help Cope with Your OCD?
- 11 General Principles of Treatment
- 12 How to Better Manage Your Symptoms Before and During Treatment
- 13 Overcoming Fears of Contamination
- 14 Fear of Harm to Self or Others Due to Failure to Act
- 15 Fear of Harm to Self or Others Due to Your Own Actions (or Thoughts)
- 16 Overcoming ‘Taboo’ Obsessive Thoughts
- 17 Loss of Something (Objects or Part of ‘Self’)
- 18 Overcoming Obsessive-Compulsive Slowness, Perfectionism and Symmetry
- 19 Overcoming Obsessive Ruminations (Sometimes Known as ‘Pure O’)
- 20 When the Treatment Doesn’t Go According to Plan or Even If It Does, What to Do Next
- Appendix
- Glossary
- Resources
- References
- Index
Summary
Obsessive compulsive disorder can present in many forms, but the most common symptoms of OCD feature one or more of a number of ‘themes’. These themes will be described in detail and illustrated with examples of people’s personal experience. The main themes are:
Contamination fears
Fear of harm to others due to failure to act appropriately
Fear of harm to self or others due to your own actions (or thoughts)
Perfectionism
Worry about losing something
Symmetry
Slowness
Ruminations
The idea of ‘magical thinking’, whereby a person fears that by thinking a thought they make it more likely to occur, will also be described. Thought–action fusion, whereby a thought is believed to be morally equivalent to an action, will also be examined.
The final part of this chapter will examine other conditions which can occur alongside OCD, including physical complications arising from self-neglect such as infection. Other psychological problems and their relationship with OCD will also be explored and will include examination of depression, anxiety disorders, the obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders, autistic spectrum disorders, and schizophrenia.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Everything You Need to Know About OCD , pp. 22 - 44Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022