Obsessively Yours

Just because mental disorders can be beneficial for society it does not mean the person with it does not suffer. With most mental disorders you suffer without knowing you suffer.

I agree that people who are diagnosed with OCD are usually suffering. That isn't my point--one can suffer from a behavior that society deems unworthy. Remember how homosexuals suffered from having a disease that was deemed unworthy? The point is that we need to be very careful before assuming that OCD is a brain malfunction, and very careful to understand how that malfunction works. Simply cutting out the circuit in the brain involving "planning" may relieve OCD symptoms in some people but it doesn't fix OCD. How can it, if OCD isn't definitively a brain disease.

I believe People with OCD always have Depression as well,so Depression is the primary brain disease that should be treated along with OCD.

It surprises me to here you question OCD as a dysfunction - of course it is!

Sincerely,David

It always saddens me when, people attempt to interpret the nature or origins of mental disorders such as OCD by referring to things like cultural infuences or the acceptance of this behaviour by society, etc. Such points, if adopted, ultimately lead to the dispute of OCD as a real disease (i.e. if in another society this behaviour is accepted, then why is it a disease???)...Unfortunately, this is really, really far away from the truth about this disorder. Unless you are an OCD sufferer yourself or an expert on OCD, you can never really grasp the nature of this disorder. I agree that some people actually gain some pleasure when performing rituals, but this is NOT what the disorder really is...it is living in a world where everything makes you anxious, or guilty or shameful, and while recognising the irrationality of your thoughts you have no control over them. They come all the time, not letting you relax, provoked or unprovoked, and since they stem from your own mind, they always concern the things that would make you feel the worse...And, unless treated, this is never ending, lasting your whole life...It doesn't matter what society thinks of it, or everyone in your surroundings think of it. By gaining acceptance, it only helps remove the shame and secrecy, but the torture remains. The pure essence of an obsession, (in the context of a disorder such as OCD, and not i.e. obsessing when being in love), is the generation of extreme anxiety and fear, panic, guilt or shame in the self, that cannot be suppressed, (unless through special techniques such as ERP), and what is worse, is that the nature of the obsession will change as the self changes through the years, according to what he considers as unacceptable. Imagine this happening 24/7 all your life....it is more than a disease....it is Dante's Hell. Only one who has experienced it can fully understand it. And I will have to agree with you that psychiatry is giving diagnoses to everything nowadays (especially in US, where there is this madness with ADHD, givig children horrific, dangerous drugs such as methylphenidate), but OCD IS a REAL DISEASE. It can be mild, but it can also be severe. And severe ocd is probably a condition that is one of the worst diseases to live with. It surely deserves aggressive treatment options such as surgery, if everything else has failed, and provided surgery IS effective. I have seen (i am a neurologist) brain surgeries performed in cancer patients as palliative measures (where it is almost sure that it will provide very modest relief, such as a few more months of life in a hospital bed with tubes and needles coming out of every whole of one's body), yet noone says anything about that. Why should we be against brain surgery in conditions that ARE AS INCAPACITATING AS BRAIN CANCER, if the research is sound, the patient is fully informed, and strict criteria for patient selection are applied??? It sounds more like a reflex reaction stemming from the experience in the 50's. We should examine out own motives and deeper feelings when criticising these novel potential treatments. Above all, we should understand, that it is not about us, or our own perception of morality and ethics and how it is offended by such treatments, but about finding an effective cure for really sick people, albeit in a radical way.

I dont know if anyone is ever going to read this!? But I just want to add to what Siddharta says!.... If OCD isnt a BRAIN DISORDER why the HELL cant I stop it!!!????? The suffering is undiscribable!!!!I used to to have uncontrolable thoughts of hurting my children but EFFEXOR XR has helped me so much!! but now Im pulling my hair out!!! Im almost bald!!!So why the hell would I do these things to myself??? Its a brain DISORDER!!!!