Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD) (Nursing)

00:01 Obsessive-compulsive disorders are their own category.

00:08 Obsessions are thoughts that are recurrent, intrusive, and despite being considered illogical by the person, they persist, and they create stress.

00:20 Now the compulsions are the behaviours or mental actions that a person cannot ignore or refuse to perform.

00:29 Because the performance has the effect of reducing that sense of anxiety.

00:35 So when we say obsessive-compulsive, the obsessions increase that stress.

00:41 The compulsions are used to decrease that anxiety.

00:48 Now, a person can experience just obsessions.

00:53 A person can experience just compulsives behaviours or mental behaviours.

01:00 Or the person may have both the obsessions and the compulsions.

01:05 This disorder is diagnosed when those obsessions and or compulsions interfere with activities of daily living, you're right.

01:21 What do we know about OCD, which is obsessive-compulsive disorder? Well, it occurs equally between men and women.

01:30 It may begin in childhood.

01:33 It's more commonly seen in adolescence and early adulthood.

01:39 And it is chronic.

01:43 Obsessive-compulsive disorder interferes with relationships.

01:48 And you can understand how if your obsessions and or compulsions are interfering with your activities of daily living, it's really difficult to engage in a relationship with another person, unless that person is willing to accept you with your obsessions and compulsions.

02:11 We see it more commonly in single people than in married people.

02:16 OCD interferes with relationships.

02:18 So it's very hard for a person to connect with another person.

02:23 And therefore this chronic disorder doesn't support marriage very well.

02:33 There are some common comorbidities.

02:37 So people who have OCD quite frequently also are diagnosed with depression.

02:43 And also with substance use.

02:48 The substance use usually is self medication for some of those anxiety as well as for the depression.

02:58 So what are some of the common compulsions that we see? Handwashing is a common compulsion.

03:05 Praying is a common compulsion.

03:09 Counting is a common compulsion and checking on things.

03:14 I once had a patient and when she would leave the room, she would leave and then she would come back in, she would check around, say goodbye.

03:28 She'd walk out, she'd come back in.

03:32 She look around.

03:36 Wave, leave.

03:38 And she would do it three or four times.

03:40 I knew it was what she did, it was her compulsion.

03:43 She was not doing it to be intrusive on me.

03:46 It was intrusive, but I knew where it was coming from.

03:51 The compulsion helps her to think, I didn't leave anything behind.

03:57 We may have our own compulsions that have not interfered with our activities of daily living.

04:04 And remember, it's only when they interfere that they become a disorder.

04:09 So for example, if you are somebody who wakes up in the morning and says a prayer, if you are somebody who, when you pass a cemetery, you cross yourself and you say a prayer, if you are somebody who likes to count when you're walking, these are not, meaning that you have OCD or you have a compulsive disorder, because we might do these things but we can stop.

04:39 We can stop when we want to.

04:42 The compulsion is when it's interfering with our activities of daily living, and we are unable to not do them.

04:51 That is what a compulsion is.