Millions of people worldwide suffer from mental disorders: manias, phobias, and panic attacks exhaust and torment a lot of individuals. One of the widespread, long-lasting mental ailments is an obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD, which consists of obsessive thoughts and compulsive behavior that are almost impossible to control. The analysis of this disorder due to the four D diagnostic indicators can let us explore it more profoundly and thoroughly.
- Distress: OCD often makes individuals feel abnormal when they are forced to fight the terrible thoughts torturing their heads and repeat meaningless acts intended to decrease anxiety. In addition, having “unwanted, recurrent and persistent images or impulses that evoke anxiety or extreme distress” and realizing “the unreasonable nature of symptoms” people cannot stop them (Van Leeuwen et al., 2020, p. 1-2). They become nervous and depressed: therefore, the level of distress is high and complicates the person’s life.
- Dysfunction: This disorder significantly influences the daily life of a patient. Firstly, obsessive thoughts often interfere with the usual people’s acts and cause a surge of panic, disturbing to complete their work. Sometimes, “cognitive biases cause dysfunctional beliefs” (Van Leeuwen et al., 2020, p. 2). Secondly, compulsive actions interrupt a patient’s daily routine, forcing them to do specific steps a certain number of times. Such activities can last even for an hour or more: therefore, the extent of dysfunction is also noticeable.
- Danger: OCD may represent a significant danger for an individual since sometimes, people feel so depressed that they are ready to commit suicide. In addition, sometimes, they may try to defeat their obsessive thoughts, causing self-pain: for instance, they can strike themselves to get rid of the unwanted image. However, although one of the most widespread fears of people with OCD is to harm others, they rarely do it (O’Connor & Aude, 2019). Thus, the level of danger to self is significantly higher than that of danger to others.
- Deviance: Since OCD causes abnormal thoughts and behavior, people with such a disorder can be characterized as deviant. However, it would be wrong to claim that it is easy to “determine the degree of deviation from the norm” (Davis, 2009, p. 1). OCD causes anxiety, stress, and panic; it makes people live in fear that if they do not do specific actions, they will not be able to avoid danger. Therefore, an individual should visit a clinic and let specialists help them fight.
References
Davis, T. (2009). Conceptualizing psychiatric disorders using the “Four D’s” of diagnoses. The Internet Journal of Psychiatry, 1(1). Web.
O’Connor, K., & Aude, J. (2019). OCD is not a phobia: An alternative conceptualization of OCD. Clinical Neuropsychiatry, 16(1), 39-46.
Van Leeuwen, W. A., van Wingen, G.A., Luyten, P., Denys, D., & van Marle, H.J.F. (2020). Attachment in OCD: A meta-analysis. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 70. Web.