Madeleine Oehling Assignment 5 Obsessive Compulsive disorder video 1. What did you learn? a. I learned that OCD is a chemical imbalance in the brain. OCD consists of a lot of unwanted thoughts that a person cannot get rid of or change. There are two factors in OCD, obsessive and compulsive. The obsessive part of the disorder is all the thoughts or obsessional thoughts that consume the person with the disorder. For example, two thoughts that surprised me were those of hurting someone and sexual deviation. The compulsive part of the disorder are the habits you create from the thoughts that help provide a peace of mind. One of the people in the video explained the voices as a bully that is with you 24/7. The habits people create and use to cope are also called rituals. The people who suffer from OCD must complete these rituals until it feels right, so for example someone could wash their hands for two hours until they see their hands as clean. 2. What did you find most interesting? a. What I found most interesting was the rituals and habits some of the people in the video needed to do to submerge their obsessional thoughts. For example, Tricia had to do her laundry multiple times until she thought it was clean and had to sort it into perfect piles, based on category. Another little boy in the video had obsessional thoughts that him and his parents would get kidnapped so he would go to the kitchen and put a knife in his mouth and up to his stomach (not harming himself). He would also need to touch things with both hands and even smell his bedroom door. I find the ties between obsession and compulsion really interesting because it truly is different for everyone. 3. What did you find the most surprising or upsetting? a. I feel really bad for the people who suffer from OCD because it puts such a strain on their mental health and relationships with family and friends. As an outsider or someone who doesn’t have OCD, it is really hard to predict and understand what is happening and why. This disorder really deteriorates a person and changes who they are. People fixate on certain things such as Tyler, who was obsessed with the N-word and could not stop saying it. People looked differently at him. This is really sad because he doesn’t mean anything he does and because he does it, he feels like a terrible person, even though it is almost out of his control. A lot of the time, people who suffer from this disorder don’t have many good friends. For example Chris didn’t have anyone show up to his birthday party. It is upsetting because these innocent kids who suffer from such a powerful and consuming disorder suffer in many ways. I feel very bad. 4. Do you feel that the treatments used were the best option? a. I do believe the treatment given was the best option due to the fact it did help a lot of the participants. I don’t think there is much more to do besides prescribing medicines, completing MRI scans, and psychiatric therapy/treatment. I do think that a lot of the people improved in the weeks