well usually when I've heard it used colloquially it's in the context of someone being super tidy, organized, what have you. this is OCPD. In general (and plz correct me OCDers) ppl with say a hygiene obsession are often not tidy AT ALL because even ~cleaning~ is unhygienic (cf the extreme example of Howard Hughes living in filth). but yeah I guess sometimes it gets thrown around to mean "thinkin bout some things more than others"
at least ("at least") someone with a hand washing compulsion has something other ppl can see and associate with OCD. ppl with a "taboo" obsession and like a compulsion for prayer or something are totally invisible. cf the OCD mother who constantly has unwanted thoughts of killing her child, which she recognizes to be awful and intrusive, and feels compelled to stay away from her baby even though OCDers with homicidal thoughts are safe as milk. the very thing she needs to do in order to assuage her guilt/temper her obsession, is to hang out with her baby all the dang time (exposure therapy, like).
but OCD as "unwanted thoughts syndrome" is not commonly recognized by the public (or even some mental health professionals), and can look a lot like schizophrenia or some other psychotic disorder. which reminds me that yeah, having now spent some qt with patients in the grip of profound mania, I really want to wag my finger at dorks conflating "mood swings" with actual bipolar disorder.
xp DBS is sorta like laser guided ECT: they only "shock" a very very specific part of the brain, versus the whole thing. and yeah, ECT is back in use (or is at my institution), and while there's def not consensus on it, it's shed its bad rep, and can get some very good results for ppl in the middle of mega depression.
― catbus otm (gbx), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 15:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
ECT first became popular because it showed good effects with some patients. The trouble wasn't so much the therapy, as it was the misuse of the therapy. Being effective in a limited set of circumstances was its downfall, when there were so few treatments that showed much promise at all. The old adage applies that "when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem starts looking like a nail."
― Aimless, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 15:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
the lack of discussion on the obsessive streak of the disorder in the mental health community is strange; the compulsions have gotten attention for some time, and of course they are always intertwined, but i believe obsessive unwanted thoughts as a disorder in and of itself (pure o) is only recently getting in-depth attention. maybe because it's hard to talk about. not sure.
― surm, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:14 (1 year ago) Permalink
i have heard of very recent instances when a patient went to a psychiatrist with classic purely-obsessive symptoms, and the psychiatrist did not seem to know the research available on the subject at all, and even prescribed medication that agitated the situation.
― surm, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
(and obviously that patient was me)
yesterday was a particularly bad day. i spent about 2 1/2 hours fixing my hair. with scissors. luckily i don't look like exactly like frankenstein.
― surm, Tuesday, 8 May 2012 13:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
A couple years ago my first therapist suggested that I might have "pure o" because I was (and will no doubt one day again)become fixated on the idea that I'm going crazy. In the past I've also tended to ruminate excessively on and become quite agitated by "brain in a jar"-type fears--things that are basically pointless to think about. Right now I'm in the midst of a pretty debilitating year-long bout hypochondria (which is fun to make fun of but not to experience), which I think might be the same thing but with different content (it's also much harder to function with than existential obsessions, because I feel strongly compelled by the thought that I have some life threatening condition that requires immediate action, and I also have panic attacks with this). In the past when I've been REALLY depressed and stressed out, I've contended with some intrusive thoughts, like what if I harm someone or throw myself out of a moving vehicle on the interstate (I definitely DO NOT want to do these things). Not something you want to admit to the wrong person.
― emilys., Thursday, 14 June 2012 03:07 (11 months ago) Permalink
it's not--i have the same and my parents don't even get it. i'm pretty sure they think i'm a schizophrenic in denial or something.
― een, Thursday, 14 June 2012 03:17 (11 months ago) Permalink
on the bright side, telling someone about it won't actually make it any better, so you're not really missing out on anything
― een, Thursday, 14 June 2012 03:18 (11 months ago) Permalink
Well, I told the internet. And you're right, I still feel terrible!
― emilys., Thursday, 14 June 2012 03:45 (11 months ago) Permalink