Scary question: Did you lock the door before going out during the National Day holiday?

The National Day holiday is here, and many people choose to travel. I wonder if you have ever had this thought in your mind when you went out: "Oh no, did I close the door???"

So you turned back home, went upstairs to check the door, and found that it was locked tightly. Only then did you feel at ease to leave the house, and vowed to check the door carefully before leaving next time.

Copyright images in the gallery. Reprinting and using them may lead to copyright disputes.

Not only that, some people will wash the dishes again if they haven't washed them clean, or turn off the lights if they haven't turned them off. You attribute these behaviors to obsessive-compulsive disorder, and you never think how serious it is. You just laugh at yourself for being careless after locking the door again and again. Little do you know that as these behaviors become more and more frequent, obsessive-compulsive disorder becomes more and more serious, and its harm is slowly eating away your healthy psychology.

People often talk about "obsessive-compulsive disorder"

What is it?

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a group of mental disorders with obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors as core symptoms. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Volume 5) published by the American Psychiatric Association divides obsessive-compulsive disorder into the following four subtypes based on the theme of obsessive thoughts and their ritual types:

1. Contamination-related obsessions and cleaning compulsions ;

2. Obsessive thoughts and checking compulsions associated with suspicion;

3. Obsessive thoughts requiring symmetry or order and compulsive sorting and counting-type obsessive-compulsive disorder ;

4. Obsessive thoughts and images related to compulsions, sexuality, religion, and the body.

In recent years, many researchers have found that "cognition" is an important factor in the pathogenesis of obsessive-compulsive disorder, and that patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder have cognitive defects. In addition to "cognition", researchers have also found that patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder have structural and functional abnormalities in multiple brain regions, and abnormal connections within and between brain networks:

1. The cortical-striatal-thalamus-cortical (CSTC) loop , where the striatum receives too much excitability from the cortical area. OCD patients have a low capture threshold for stimuli such as danger, hygiene, and order, which affects their behavioral inhibition and causes obsessive-compulsive symptoms.

2. Abnormal fronto-parietal circuits responsible for cognitive control functions. The goal-directed behavior of patients with OCD is affected, and patients show more compulsive behaviors.

3. Abnormal fronto-insular circuits responsible for planning. People with OCD need to spend more time on planning and have difficulty adjusting plans in a timely and flexible manner.

4. In other brain regions, abnormal hippocampal activity affects patients’ fear extinction

5. Abnormalities in the structure and function of the cerebellum affect the patient's speech fluency, spatial memory ability, and emotional regulation function.

6. Brain network problems. Obsessive-compulsive disorder patients have structural abnormalities and functional connectivity changes in brain networks involved in cognitive processes such as information filtering, error monitoring and integration.

Facing obsessive compulsive disorder

Also face up to its harm!

The harm of obsessive-compulsive disorder varies in severity and will cause physical and psychological harm to patients to varying degrees.

1. It will cause harm to the patient’s body

The patient is extremely resistant to certain things or environments, but has to endure them silently, which causes the patient to become unconscious or panic due to excessive nervousness. Some psychologically weak patients may also experience fear.

2. Psychological harm to patients

Some patients are affected by obsessive-compulsive disorder, and their thoughts will constantly struggle, causing them to constantly make repetitive movements, making it impossible for them to concentrate on other things. This affects the normal study, life or work of the patients, and they cannot concentrate on their studies or work, and they become mentally disabled. Deep down, the patients are extremely resistant and want to return to normal life, but things do not go as they wish, causing them to suffer deeply.

Copyright images in the gallery. Reprinting and using them may lead to copyright disputes.

3. Harm to patients’ daily life

The patient's mind will develop a fear of a certain environment or food, but the reality is not as scary as the patient imagines. At the same time, once the patient enters the obsessive-compulsive disorder stage, he will sweat wildly, feel panic, tremble all over, or have signs of dizziness. In more serious cases, he will directly fall into a coma. Moreover, this kind of terrifying psychology and behavior is what the patient wants to avoid, but he cannot control it.

In addition to the above three points, male patients usually experience mental weakness, increased paranoia, mental abnormality, depression, and schizophrenia once the disease occurs, while female patients will also have personality defects in addition to the above phenomena, which seriously affects the patient's integration with society and communication with others, forcing the patient to become withdrawn, etc. In addition, patients with low psychological tolerance will have suicidal thoughts, and they are extremely insecure and constantly struggle between reality and imagination.

Therefore, whether your friend or you have symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, you need to face it and use the correct measures to slowly heal it.

Facing obsessive compulsive disorder

How can we treat it?

In clinical practice, common treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder are exposure-response prevention and cognitive-behavioral therapy .

Exposure-response prevention presents fear-provoking stimuli or situations in a graded manner, starting with moderately painful cues and progressing to more painful cues. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on teaching OCD patients to identify and correct dysfunctional beliefs. When patients receive cognitive therapy, therapists ask them to keep a daily diary to record their thoughts and interpretations related to their OCD.

With the development of the times, compared with the above two treatment methods, more gentle and simple treatment methods have been developed, such as mindfulness cognitive therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, metacognitive training, focused solution short-term psychotherapy, mindfulness experience therapy, etc., which can not only prevent patients from having resistance, but also improve patients' symptoms .

Copyright images in the gallery. Reprinting and using them may lead to copyright disputes.

In addition, researchers have also used computers and other new technologies to create new therapies that allow patients to be exposed to a virtual world created by integrating computer images, sounds and other sensory input mechanisms to interact with it, and face stimuli that make them feel anxious or fearful to stimulate their emotions, thereby achieving exposure therapy. Studies have found that this method is particularly suitable for patients with compulsive cleaning.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is not "pretentious". As a neuropsychiatric disease, it causes patients to experience intense psychological and mental tension and anxiety, triggering inner conflicts and having serious impacts on life and family.

When you or someone around you develops obsessive-compulsive disorder, whether mild or severe, you need family and friends to comfort you mentally, accompany you at all times, and patiently listen to your negative emotions. If necessary, you can also have regular psychological counseling to increase your ability to adapt to the environment , so that you no longer force yourself, and don't become anxious or feel inferior because of your obsessive-compulsive disorder.

References

[1] Hauser TU, Will GJ, Dubois M, et al.Annual Research Review: Developmental computational psychiatry［J］. J Child Psychol Psychiatry, 2019, 60(4): 412-426. DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.12964.

[2] Yan SY, Miao HF, Luo YG, et al. Research progress of brain imaging of cognitive-behavioral therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescent［J］. Chinese Journal of Psychiatry, 2021, 54(2): 150-154. DOI: 10.3760/cma.j.cn113661-20200509-00213. Yan SY, Miao HF, Luo YG, et al. Research progress of brain imaging of cognitive-behavioral therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescent［J］. Chinese Journal of Psychiatry, 2021, 54(2): 150-154.

[3] Citkowska-Kisielewska A, Rutkowski K, Mielimąka M, et al. Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and in Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Occurrence and Correlations［J］. J Psychiatr Pract, 2020, 26(2): 101-119. DOI: 10.1097/PRA.0000000000000451.

[4] Niu Yu, Cui Jiefeng Research progress on pathological cognitive characteristics of obsessive-compulsive disorder and its psychotherapy [J] Neurological Diseases and Mental Health, Vol. 23, No. 5, May 20, 2023

[5] Zeng Longjian, The harm of obsessive-compulsive disorder [J] World Latest Medicine Information (Electronic Version) 2019 Vol.19 No.79

[6] Zhang Tianran. Study on the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder [D]. Shanghai: Shanghai Jiaotong University, 2019: 2.

[7] Lai Xiong. Study on the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy on the improvement of obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms [D]. Nanchang: Nanchang University, 2019: 48-52.

[8] Hansmeier J, Haberkamp A, Glombiewski JA, et al. Metacognitive Change During Exposure and Metacognitive Therapy in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder［J］. Front Psychiatry, 2021, 12: 722782. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.722782.

[9] Zhu DQ, Fang XT. Post-modernity Reflection on Solution-focused Brief Therapy［J］. Medicine and Philosophy, 2019, 40(20): 53-58. DOI: 10.12014/j.issn.1002-0772.2019.20.13. Zhu DQ, Fang XT. Post-modernity Reflection on Solution-focused Brief Therapy［J］. Medicine and Philosophy, 2019, 40(20); 53-58.

[10] Dong Zhenming, Sun Fang, Liu Xinghua. Report on the effect of mindfulness therapy on 9 cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder [J]. Chinese Journal of Health Psychology, 2016, 22 (1): 17-22. DOI: 10.13342/j.cnki.cjhp.2016.01.004

[11] Cullen AJ, Dowling NL, Segrave R, et al. Exposure therapy in a virtual environment: Validation in obsessive compulsive disorder［J］. J Anxiety Disord, 2021, 80: 102404. DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2021.102404.

Planning and production

Author: Xu Lang, popular science creator

Review丨Tang Yicheng, Deputy Director of Beijing Zhongke Popular Psychological Health Promotion Center

Planning丨Cui Yinghao

Editor: Yinuo

Proofread by Xu Lailinlin

The cover image and the images in this article are from the copyright library

Reprinting may lead to copyright disputes