What is the difference between normal routine, habits and OCD?

The main difference between OCD or obsessive-compulsive behaviors and normal habits concern the reasons behind particular habits or activities. People with obsessive compulsive disorder often engage in certain types of habits or rituals out of fear or doubt. This fear or doubt usually stems from some kind of pervasive, disturbing or traumatic thought.

These disturbing thoughts are usually subconscious and may even stem from dreams, but they are usually so disturbing to the individual that they can't stop thinking about them. The disturbing thoughts repeat themselves over and over and the obsessive-compulsive individual will create habits or rituals in an effort to prevent the disturbing thought from becoming a reality. Every person with OCD is different, so habits and rituals will vary from person to person, but obsessive hand washing or the preoccupation with germs or illness is very common.

However, I think there are a lot of popular misconceptions about people with OCD in general. There was a movie in the 90s that featured Jack Nicholson that was about a person with OCD. While some aspects of the character's personality were fairly accurate, other parts could have been misleading.

Not all people with OCD will lock, unlock, and then lock the door back, but there are many that are equally concerned about their personal safety, the safety of their family, or their personal possessions. OCD is an anxiety disorder, and there are many other anxiety disorders as well. Every one experiences anxiety at some point in their life or another, so there are also some people who may become slightly obsessive compulsive about things at certain points in their life as the result of stress, grief, or other life situations.

Anxiety is also a common side effect of some medications, and is more prevalent in women than in men. As far as you pillow habit is concerned, I think it is just that: a habit. This is probably just a personal preference.

I also stack my pillows at night. I sleep with two pillows under my head, and fold one of them over so that it is actually like three pillows. I also sleep with one pillow off to the side.

Does this make me obsessive-compulsive? No. This is just how I am comfortable.My mother is very particular about her house.

She likes her DVDs and CDs to be organized alphabetically. If one is out of place, she knows about it, and can often tell from across the room. There are plenty of people that tease her about it, and say things like, "You are sooo OCD!

" In reality, this is just a personal preference. Her alphabetical arrangement of things may be peculiar to some, but it is not done out of a fear about the alphabet monster coming and attacking in the middle of the night or anything. We all have our own peculiarities, and anxiety can heighten that at times.

If we are worried or stressed about something, creating a sense of order out of the chaos can sometimes offer comfort. Now, if you are stacking your pillows because you are somehow afraid that if you don't your brain will hemorrhage or something like that, then I MIGHT begin to think there was a reason for concern. Still, OCD habits or rituals are typically things that are repeated several times a day.

I have heard in the past that there was a secret number to some OCD rituals, and that people who were obsessive compulsive had to repeat the habit so many times a day. It was said that the OCD person did this subconsciously, and that they themselves were not even aware that they did the ritual an exact number of times each day. I think this may be another popular misconception about OCD in general.

While this may be true for some people, it is important to keep in mind that mental illness occurs in varying levels of severity. Again, each person is different. The pillow thing, however, would not be an OCD ritual because it is something that you do only one time a day and not something done repeatedly.

According to the DSM IV, OCD is diagnosed when the obsession causes marked distress, is time consuming such as taking more than 1 hour per day, and interfering in relationships and the normal routines of the day. If you were to obsess about the pillow arrangement, either constantly rearranging them or even thinking about them for an hour during the course of the day, perhaps going back to the bedroom to check to make sure they are in order, then you would be diagnosed as having OCD. It is an anxiety disorder, because you are compulsively doing this to because of some irrational fear, not corresponding to reality.

Compulsive hand washing, for example, means you have an abnormal fear of germs, and by repeatedly washing your hands, you comfort yourself because you feel safer after having done so. I actually wish I had more of this compulsion, because when I catch a cold, I suffer more than other people because of my sinuses. I wish I washed my hands more often, but I cannot seem to get myself into the habit.

Now, nature includes a lot of variety in the expression of behavior, so one cannot conclude absolutely that any behavior is maladaptive. If SARS were more prevalent, the OCD's who washed their hands compulsively might be the only survivors of the epidemic. Currently, there is concern in hospitals about C.

Difficile, an intestinal bacteria that causes severe diarrhea. It is especially difficult to get rid of because it forms spores. The person who keeps compulsively clean in such an environment would have a greater chance of staying healthy.So part of the diagnosis is if the behavior is maladaptive, if the assessment of risk is out of the ordinary.

It is too bad we did not have any OCDs obsessing over the gauges on BP's Deep Water Horizon oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Such a person might have helped avoid the oil spill because they actually had the correct assessment of the danger. But they were ignored, and unfortunately, those obsessed with greater profit won out.

The oil spill of this magnitude was considered an outlier, a "black swan" event. However, there is now the discipline of "black swan theory," where it has been found in some cases, that such events follow "power law" probability distributions, which may be somewhat counterintuitive. Duenhsiyen I thought I'd also share a story of my experience with one OCD person.

I had talked to the husband many times and he would often complain about his wife's OCD. Then, accidentally, I met the two of them at their apartment when they were having a garage sale, and I became quite curious.So, even though the wife would wash where I was sitting with alcohol wipes, and made sure I walked in special slippers and not in my bare feet as is often the custom here in Hawaii, I was fascinated by the cleanliness. I guess because I did not judge them, they invited me in, and I think I was the first visitor they had in many years.

The place was immaculate. The grout in the bathroom was a marvel to behold, perfectly white without a speck of mold or even damage. Yet the apartment was occupied by them for the last 30 or more years.

In some places, even the grout itself was covered by tape to keep it clean. She told me how much effort she spent keeping the walls clean and in perfect condition. The walls and even ceiling had 7 coats of white paint, all perfectly applied.

I was actually thinking to myself, if this family ever wanted to sell, I would want to buy their apartment. That is all she did, and she seemed very much to enjoy doing this, proudly showing me this and that as I walked around. The apartment was in perfect condition, except for one bedroom, which was the husbands, and which was a big mess.

So that is how they adjusted to each other.

This is an excerpt from a paper I wrote for my Bachelor's Degree about OCD, along with a poem I wrote for my Powerpoint presentation on mental disorders. Hopefully they will be informative. Do you know someone who washes their hands 50 or more time a day to free themselves from germs or contamination?

How about someone who is always counting or checking the locks on the doors? These are some of the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that affects approximately 1 out of 100 people or over 2.2 million people in the United States alone. Treatment for this disorder is difficult and doesn’t offer a cure, but it can lead to control and freedom from the symptoms, giving the person a much better quality of life (MayoClinic.Com, U.D. , Obsessive-compulsive disorder, p.5).

OCD is considered an anxiety disorder that affects both adults and children alike. An incessant drive to perform rituals repeatedly is the main characteristic of OCD (p.1). These obsessions and compulsions are divided into four dimensions: symmetry/ordering; hoarding; contamination/cleaning; and, obsessional checking (Mataix-Cols, D.

, 2005. A Multidimensional Model of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, p. 1).

The Mayo Clinic describes obsessions as “repeated, persistent, unwanted ideas, thoughts, images or impulses” that are involuntarily experienced and seemingly senseless (MayoClinic.Com, Obsession-compulsive disorder, p. 1). The description includes things such as obsession with germs leading to multiple hand washings, keeping things organized in a certain way, excessive worries or doubts that keep repeating themselves, sexual images, and impulses that are aggressive or horrifying (p.2 ).

Compulsions were described as “repetitive behaviors that you feel driven to perform” (p. 2). They are utilized as anxiety or distress reducers created by doubts.

The compulsions include: washing hands repeatedly to eliminate contamination; checking doors, windows, and appliances repeatedly to make sure they are off; and, counting in patterns (p.2). The causes of OCD are not known, but some of the suspected causes are: possible chemical changes in the body chemistry; learned behaviors over time; an insufficient amount of the chemical in the brain called serotonin; or, controversially, strep throat. Some of the risk factors for people being diagnosed with OCD are: family history (although no genes have been identified); stressful life events; and, pregnancy (p.3).

It’s Not Me – It’s My OCD Germs, germs, everywhere, On the phone, the doorknob. I can’t open the door I am a prisoner in my house! My hands are all red and cracked I have to get the germs off!

I must have washed my hands 100 times today And, still, they feel dirty. Are the doors locked? I must check, Again, and again, and again.

Did I leave the iron on? Or the stove, or the lights? If I step on a crack, will it really break my mother’s back?

I can’t take that chance. I must not step on a crack. The path through my house is almost gone There is stuff piled everywhere, Much of it is unopened and unused, But, I had to have it!

My garage and yard are full of stuff I can’t bear to part with any of it. I may need it someday. But I am running out of room.

I no longer have a life, These thoughts take all my time, They come one after another, And I can’t stop them. I heard about the Four Steps - Relabel, Reattribute, Refocus, Revalue. I’ve got to fight the obsessions And remember, It’s not me, it’s my OCD.

I’ll get my life back One step at a time If I can hold off these demons And their false messages. I have to remember My brain is wired wrong But I know that I can change it By resisting its commands. You must wash your hands.

No, I want to play tennis. Do something else that’s fun Fight for 15 minutes at a time. It’s been a long, hard struggle But I know my thoughts aren’t real, And as each one comes to me, I say, It’s not me, it’s my OCD.

There is no "definitive" point in which a behavior can be said to be OCD or a habit - they are part of a spectrum. The only useful way to distinguish a habit from an OCD is to measure how much they interfere with an individual's quality of life and the impact they have on others. For example, let's say an individual spends 20 minutes brushing their teeth each morning.

Most people would say that's strange, but maybe not disruptive to their functioning in society. However, if the same individual spent 2 hours brushing their teeth, it would clearly interfere with their life and likely those close to that person too.

Consider it a problem once it is interfering with your life. If your anxiety level makes you unable to function, if you notice you have trouble doing well at work, or if your interpersonal relationships are suffering because of your compulsions.

A habit is something you do. OCD is a habit that is interfering with your ability to live your life.

Whhen it becomes necessary to do it , and you can't do anything else untiol you do that specific thing eg: coounting pennies, sorting collors etc.

Good discussion. The distinction between habits and OCD has been clearly discussed above. It's all a matter of degree, and context.

Washing your hands a few times per day is OK. Hundred times is too much. In-between, there is a threshold.

This threshold depends on motive / context. For some, 20 times daily is excessive, whereas for a nurse, it is normal. The distinction between behaviour and habit is not much covered.

With advancing age, we learn to bypass cognitive process and adopt patterns based on past experience. Decision making becomes automatic. The distinction between behaviour and habit then lies in the frequency we need to make certain decisions.

If we consistently choose chocolate ice-cream for the once per month we visit the ice-cream shop, this is behaviour. If we daily eat cereal for breakfast, this becomes habit.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.