Obsessive compulsive disorder, often shortened to OCD, is defined by the National Institute on Mental Health as a long lasting disorder in which a person experiences uncontrollable and recurring thoughts (obsessions), engages in repetitive behaviors (compulsions) or both. OCD is classified as an anxiety disorder. According to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, OCD impacts 2.5 million adults in the US, or 1.2% of the US population. Slightly more women are affected by OCD than men. OCD often begins in childhood or early adolescence. Medications may be able to help with obsessions
and compulsions, but OCD cannot be cured. Hopkins Medicine states other anxiety problems such as
depression, eating disorders, or substance use disorder may occur with OCD.
Obsessional thoughts can look like: fear of contamination by people or the environment, intrusive religious thoughts or fears, extreme concern with order and precision, and fear of losing something important. Obsessions are the intrusive thoughts which often invades the minds of people with OCD . Compulsions, on the other hand. are carrying out actions because of obsessive thoughts. This can look like mental rituals, ritualized hand washing, showering, or brushing teeth, repeated cleaning, ordering things in a different way, and rituals related to numbers and counting.
I have experienced OCD through, making sure everything is perfectly aligned in the fridge, checking to make sure the hair iron in unplugged multiple times and driving back home to check even though I’m certain I unplugged it, and worried that if something isn’t organized a certain way, something bad will
happen.
As a student, having OCD has impacted my life in many ways. It does not only impact my personal
life, but my school life as well. Personally, I would experience obsession over my notes and how they looked. If they didn’t look perfectly neat like how I wanted them to, I would rewrite them. This caused me to rewrite pages upon pages of notes. This process was extremely time consuming and mentally
exhausting, as I was concerned more with how my notes looked than the material I was trying to understand. I have also experienced an intense fixation on germs and contamination. This would come into conflict at my job, where I work in the food service industry. I have been on multiple medications to try and reduce my symptoms of OCD, but I have found they only work to a certain extent. Having also experienced depression, it has been hard to find a medication that helps both disorders. One medicine might be really effective in treating my OCD, but not my depression. I think a part of this is because my OCD/anxiety keeps me going to a certain extent. While my
depression may cause me to have very little motivation, my anxiety is telling me that if I don’t try harder in school, I will be a failure. I think my OCD/anxiety and depression depend on each other a little bit, and
balance the other one out.
What has helped me the most is talking about it to a professional. She reminds me that my intrusive thoughts have no truth to them.
Category Archives: 2023-2024
Depression’s effect on everyday life
*A pseudonym will be used to protect a students identity.
Depression is a mood disorder where a person experiences symptoms of a depressed mood, sadness and loss of interest in daily activities to the point where it affects their normal function such as their appetite, energy levels, concentration levels and sleep.
Each person who suffers from depression suffers differently. Everyone experiences symptoms unique to them. Some may have cases of depression whereas some may have severe cases.
Sasha Orlando* shared her story and experience with depression.
“I would say my experience with depression consists of a lot of ups and downs, sometimes my depression is more prominent than other issues I have in my life like my anxiety,” Orlando stated.
Depression can take over someone’s entire life. It can severely affect how someone treats others and how they perform in school. A person’s actions are greatly affected by how they feel.
“I would say the hardest part of having depression is not realizing that’s what’s currently going on even though I’ve been dealing with depression since I was seven when my dad passed away. It’s still really hard for me to identify when I am depressed,” Orlando explained.
Depression can cause moments of haze where someone is not completely aware of the things going on around them or it can cause a person to not care about the things happening around them.
“It’s so different for other people so it’s really hard to put that into words. I feel like for me personally, prescription medications have never worked for me. I’ve tried so many for years increased and decreased the dosages for so many different things and that has never been something that has helped it always made things worse. It has made me feel like I have no emotions, and I’m a very emotional person, so that’s not normal for me no matter if I’m depressed or not,” Orlando said.
Depression can also bring a sense of comfort. For some people, it can be extremely hard to recover because they find comfort in their sadness. Depression can also be something that someone works so hard to get away from but can not. Depression is a very difficult illness to overcome to the point in which some do not overcome it and end up succumbing the their depression.
“My recovery process might have looked different for other people, and I wouldn’t even say recovery because I still deal with depression every day of my life. It’s not something that goes away. It may get easier, but the thing that helps me the most is being with my mom or being outside.”
As Orlando explained how her recovery process might look different than other people’s. Everyone’s recovery and depression experience is going to be unique to them. Everybody’s brain is wired differently.
Orlando talked about how her depression has changed over time. As a person grows their depression and how it affects their daily life and the symptoms it causes changes, too.
“I feel like when I was depressed before maybe in the past year and previously I had a really hard time talking to people about it. I didn’t know how to talk about my feelings or why I was feeling this way. I feel like now when I’m depressed, I want to talk about it. I want somebody to be there for me, but I mean it’s still really hard when you can’t recognize that’s what the issue is,” Orlando stated.
Orlando’s experience may look similar or very different to others. Orlando’s story might be one some can relate to. Depression can become a very serious illness if not treated. Orlando talked about what did and did not work for her and how similar things may or may not work for someone else. It is all about finding what works just right for a specific person.
Recovery is not easy, but it is possible. “Recovery is long and it’s not easy to go through, but it can be done,” Orlando said.
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