Boundless anxiety, what happens?

In daily life, there are many people with some slight compulsive behaviors, such as always suspecting that they have not locked the door, such as books or other items can only be placed in a certain order, such as some words must be repeated repeatedly, etc., most of the time, these mild symptoms do not affect life, and even occasionally you can take it out to move yourself.

But when it becomes a "symptom", it becomes a nightmare, not only for oneself, but also for those around you.

According to the DSM-5 standard, to be called a "symptom", it must have the following characteristics:

1. Have compulsive behavior or thinking;

2. Compulsive behaviors or thoughts that take time (e.g., more than an hour), or that cause clinically significant distress or impair important social functions;

3. This obsessive-compulsive symptom cannot be attributed to the physiological effects of a substance or a physical illness;

4. The disorder cannot be better explained by the symptoms of other mental disorders.

There are teenagers who have been suspended from school because of OCD.

Every day, he had to count whether his books were "properly arranged" and read books of a fixed length at a fixed time every day, but he could not read a word. But he "had to" sit there, and then he would hide in the bathroom or in a no-man's corner and cry, cutting his hand with a knife as he cried, "Only then did I feel better."

"I don't know how I got to be like this", while saying such a painful thing, he smiled lightly and smoothed his hair with his hands, just like the obedient and somewhat confident good teenager in school.

"I can't express pain in front of people, I can only have this one expression."

(Cases have been adjusted, not the parties themselves)

Many people with obsessive-compulsive disorder are so difficult or simply unable to reintegrate into society.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is attributed to anxiety disorder, and indeed, often, behind it is boundless anxiety.

People with obsessive-compulsive disorder are usually more sensitive, cautious, and less tolerant of uncertainty. Once certain triggering events are encountered, it is only a small thing for others, but there may be disastrous intermediate beliefs for them, and to avoid these "disasters", it is necessary to repeatedly alleviate the anxiety of the moment with certain behaviors.

As a result, the behavior that was originally intended to prevent anxiety was constantly reinforced and became a new source of anxiety. And the original "danger" was also buried.

The most important thing for obsessive-compulsive disorder is to understand how visitors "give meaning" to such behavior, how they understand their behavior, and how such behavior brings them safety. Only how to visit will there be a real incentive to participate in the treatment and tolerate the strong emotional responses that can be stimulated during the treatment.

In the clinic, it is best to cooperate with drugs with psychological counseling. Cognitive behavior is a better option for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder. The most important way to treat is exposure + reaction prevention, exposure to the imaginary danger, tolerating that anxiety, finding it different from your own beliefs little by little, and then changing.

In this process, the anxiety caused may be quite intense, can help the visitor to grade, all at once to the highest level of exposure is not feasible, to gradually a little bit, the possible reaction to the visit should be prevented.

For such a client, the cause of his symptoms may come partly from heredity, partly from the way he was raised from childhood, and partly from congenital personality factors, so the possibility of not being anxious is not high, and the real purpose of treatment is to help the client see it and know how to deal with it when it occurs, that is, to improve coping ability.