Tormenting Thoughts & Secret Rituals

After reading the piece by Osborn I had gained a new understanding of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). I felt that it was a smart idea for him to discuss his own experiences with the disorder because even though there were some facts gained by research stated, there was also true evidence to support the facts. By him being a doctor and describing his thoughts and feelings showed that such a disorder really is more common then people may think, it can happen to anyone. At first I just thought OCD was based on what I would call a "ritual-based" life. I thought any sufferer of such a disorder would be someone that excessively cleans or turns the door knob 15 times before finally opening up the door.
Osborn explains his experience with OCD as "Terrifying and tormenting thoughts." He breaks down the disorder into two seperate ideas. From his point of view the obsessive aspect of his disorder was the tormenting thoughts that would jump into his head out of no where. The ideas that he would think of in order to forget about or change the bad thoughts fall under the compulsive side of the disorder. He explains how many victims of this disorder hide it from everyone around them because of the fear of being looked at differently from everyone else. Since most people that suffer from OCD can still go about their daily lives they choose to keep it concealed from the outside world. The treatment and diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder has come a long way as well. Many believed that OCD was an illness that had no cure. Everything from antidepressants to shock therapy were used as "treatment" for the disorder. Once seen as a common disorder most of these treatments subsided.
In the second part of the reading, Osborn breaks the word obsession into four sub categories: filth, harm, lust and blasphemy in which he used four different patients as examples for each. Raymond, was a older man in his 40's with a tough looking exterior but soft friendly core. He would be the example for the first category, filth. Raymond explained how he felt his hands were so infected that he would wash them all hours of the day, sometimes until they bled. He would have bloody images of people enter his mind which would drive him insane when he was behind the wheel of a car. Raymonds way of coping a treating his illness was to force himself to live with "dirty" hands and drive around for hours. Eventually his rituals became worse after a trip to Disney World and were taking up much of his time. His obsessions of being poisoned would become so severe that eventually he would pester his children about what they were eating or drinking in fear that they too would be harmed. This led his wife to persuade him to get help. Sherry would be the patient example for the category of harm. She suffered from having thoughts of harming and even killing others. Whether it was herself, strangers or family, no one was spared from her mind and its urge to kill. These thoughts all began one night while babysitting her cousin, where she had the idea of slashing the baby up with a knife. She tried her best to keep herself busy in order to fill her mind with other thoughts. She eventually was given antidepressants and had a lot of support from her husband. However once she felt like she was finally beginning to get better her husband got a new job in Pennsylvania and they had to relocate, and sadly the OCD followed her there.
For the third category of Lust we meet Jeff. Jeff was a thirty year old school teacher well-dressed and well-spoken. He described his disorder as "A voice in his head that keeps saying really awful things." He explains that the voice says that he is a homosexual pervert which he makes clear he is'nt. He also would have images come into his mind all based on sexual activities. Once OCD was thoroughly explained to Jeff he felt less lonely and more optimistic about his life.
Finally, we meet Melissa. She would be the example for the category of blasphemy. She was a freshman at Penn State University who, by her description, was being bombarded with questions in her mind. All of the questions had to do with what was wrong or right for her. She explains how her way of getting the questions to go away was to repeat verses of the Bible over and over. She began to feel as if she wasn't respecting her faith because of the reppetition. She began to question wether or not she was a true Christian or if she had lost all respect for her faith.
These four categories really painted a broader picture of the disorder in that it shows that there isnt just one characteristic of it. There is obsessive compulsive disorder as a whole but then it branches off into different types. I feel that by describing these different accounts of people with the disorders shows that even though some people may feel as if they are alone, they are'nt. He used real people with real-life experiences in order to describe each sub-category of OCD as well as show the innocence and realness of the disorder.
Osborn makes it clear that the term "Obsession" has a different meaning for health professionals studying it than for the general punlic. He states that we have made obsession become whatever we want it to be. We usually use it as a descriptive form of preoccupation. One may say "I am obsessed with buying shoes" which really just means she buys a lot of shoes. Does it mean she thinks about it every second of everyday? Not necessarilly but she is fond of them and therefore, in her mind, is obsessed. He says that the type of obsession he and the four people he met with suffered from were clinical obsessions which in straight terms means "A battle in the mind." He describes all different types of OCD and their characteristics which I find to be very broad. OCD is a very interesting disorder that many misjudge to be phsycotic thoughts or hallucinations. However, we must now look at the bigger picture and begin to try our best to help others around us of whom are suffering from this disorder cope and tolerate it.