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What is the relationship between OCD and the feeling of responsibility?

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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is one of the psychological disorders linked to a strong feeling of anguish that has captured the most attention in the media and popular culture.

Normally, the most widespread idea about this disorder is that it is a pathological extreme perfectionism: an insane tendency to want everything to be exactly where it should be to be. However, this is an erroneous belief. OCD is not linked to perfectionism, but to a personality trait known as Responsibility.

  • Related article: "Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): what is it and how does it manifest?"

What is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a psychological disorder that appears in reference diagnostic manuals in the world of clinical psychology and psychiatry. It is characterized by the presence of repetitive and intrusive thoughts (that is, they arise involuntarily without the person thinking about a similar issue) that are associated with a great feeling of anguish.

This feeling of sudden and intense discomfort leads the person to perform repetitive routines to try to alleviate the anguish, "closing the circle" of the mind opened by intrusive thought through a kind of ritual created by the person himself.

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OCD may seem tribal if we assume that it is just the consequence of an uncomfortable thought, but it is not; can seriously harm the person, drastically altering their mood in the medium and long term, and is associated with a greater tendency to attempt suicide (although, as the latter is a statistical phenomenon, it is not something that happens to all people with OCD).

An example

An example of a person who has developed OCD is the following. A 25-year-old starts a new job, and believes he is qualified to do it. However, on the first day in his position, the memory of a situation in the that, according to him, he was ridiculed in front of his entire high school class for not knowing how to do an exhibition well oral.

This image, together with the idea that possibly many people remember that event, makes the young man begin to feel a lot of anguish and feeling of guilt, to the point of not being able to think of anything else in the following minutes. To "disconnect" from that sensation, he is forced to perform an action that he has learned to associate with the fading of anguish and guilt: scratching your face always following patterns of movement, in a certain order, and in 13 series, one after the other, representing the number of years he was when that happened to him.

The relationship of TOC with low responsibility

Explaining, in a summarized way, that OCD is linked to an excessive amount of perfectionism can be adequate if we are explaining it without going into too much detail to someone who does not know much about the theme. However, if we want to have a reasonably realistic idea about what it takes to develop this disorder, it is necessary to reject that supposed link between OCD and the tendency to seek perfection.

It is true that there is a characteristic, called conscientiousness, that is related to a mental disorder similar to OCD: Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder. This disorder is usually confused with the previous one due to the obvious similarity of its name, but, in fact, it is very different.

In Obsessive-Complusive Personality Disorder, a tendency towards extreme perfectionism is observed.. Specifically, people who develop it obtain very high scores in the personality trait known as Responsibility, which indicates the propensity to take charge that everything goes as it should go, even if that requires effort. On the other hand, in people with OCD, the exact opposite is observed: they score very low in Responsibility, which means that they are usually more disorganized and tend not to always meet the small objectives of the day to day.

Thus, in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder it is not only the fact that the need to perform "rituals" is felt repeatedly. It is, also, in what happens just before that need arises: the feeling that there are many aspects of life that have escaped your control and create chaos around you.

  • You may be interested: "Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder: What is it?"

Do you need help treating OCD?

Although Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder can cause serious problems, that does not mean that it can only be treated medically, through the use of psychotropic drugs. These medications can help alleviate symptoms when the worst attacks occur, but they do not "cure" the patient. To combat the disorder from the roots, it is necessary to intervene on behavior, those behavior patterns that keep OCD alive.

As a psychologist specializing in therapy for adults and adolescents and Director of the Begoña Fernández Psychology Center, I work many times with cases of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, helping to undo the sequence of actions that feed the development of this mental disorder. If you are interested in seeing my contact information or knowing more about what psychotherapy consists of, click click here.

Bibliographic references:

  • Angelakis, I.; Gooding, P.; Tarrier, N.; Panagioti, M. (2015). Suicidality in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD): A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review. Oxford, England: Pergamon Press. 39: pp. 1 - 15.
  • Goodman, W.K.; Grice, D.E.; Lapidus, K.A.; Coffey, B.J. (2014). Obsessive-compulsive disorder. The Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 37 (3): pp. 257 - 267.
  • Lubman, D.I., Yücel, M., Pantelis, C. (2004). Addiction, a condition of compulsive behavior? Neuroimaging and neuropsychological evidence of inhibitory dysregulation, 99 (12): pp. 1491 - 502
  • Miller, C.H.; Dawson W.H. (2008). Scrupulosity disorder: An overview and introductory analysis. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22 (6): pp. 1042 - 1058.
  • Seedat, S. & Stein, D.J. (2002). Hoarding in obsessive – compulsive disorder and related disorders: A preliminary report of 15 cases. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 56 (1): pp. 17 - 23.
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