What is the relationship between OCD and the feeling of responsibility?

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is not as closely related to perfectionism as it is believed.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is one of the psychological disorders linked to a strong feeling of distress that has attracted the most attention from the media and popular culture.

Usually, the most widespread idea about this disorder is that it is a pathological extreme of perfectionism: an unhealthy tendency to want everything to be in the exact place where it should be. However, this is a mistaken belief. OCD is not linked to perfectionism, but to a personality trait known as Accountability..

What is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a psychological disorder that appears in the reference diagnostic manuals in the world of clinical psychology and psychiatry. It is characterized by the presence of repetitive and intrusive thoughts (i.e. they (i.e., they arise involuntarily without the person thinking about a similar subject) that are associated with a great feeling of distress.

This feeling of sudden and intense discomfort leads the person to perform repetitive routines to try to alleviate the distress, "closing the mental circle" opened by the intrusive thought through a kind of ritual created by the person himself.

OCD may seem tribal if we assume that it is only the consequence of an uncomfortable thought, but it is not; it can seriously damage the person, drastically altering his state of mind in the medium and long term.The latter is a statistical phenomenon, and is associated with an increased tendency to attempt suicide (although, being a statistical phenomenon, it is not something that happens to all people with OCD).

An example of a person who has developed OCD is

An example of a person who has developed OCD is the following. A 25-year-old starts a new job, and believes he is qualified to do it. However, on his first day on the job, he is reminded of a situation in which, according to him, he made a fool of himself in front of his entire high school class because he did not know how to give an oral presentation.

This image, together with the idea that possibly many people remember that event, makes the young man begin to feel a lot of anguish and guilt, to the point of not being able to think of anything else in the following minutes. To "disconnect" from that feeling, he is forced to perform an action that he has learned to associate with the fading of anguish and guilt: scratching his face always following certain movement patterns.The OCD is associated with the fading of anguish and guilt: scratching his face, always following certain patterns of movement, in a certain order, and in 13 series, one after the other, representing the number of years he was when it happened to him.

The relationship of OCD with low responsibility

To explain, in summary, that OCD is linked to an excessive amount of perfectionism may be adequate if we are explaining it without going into too much detail to someone who doesn't know much about it. However, if we are to have a reasonably realistic idea about what is involved in developing this disorder, it is necessary to reject this supposed link between OCD and the tendency to strive for perfection.

It is true that there is a characteristic, called scrupulosity, which is related to a mental disorder similar to OCD: Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder. This disorder is often confused with the previous one because of the obvious similarity of its name, but, in fact, it is very different.

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder does show a tendency toward extreme perfectionism.. Specifically, people who develop it obtain very high scores in the personality trait known as Responsibility, which indicates the propensity to make sure that everything goes as it should, even if that requires effort. In contrast, in people with OCD, just the opposite is observed: they score very low on Responsibility, which means that they are usually more disorganized and tend not to always meet small day-to-day goals.

Thus, in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder it is not only the fact that one feels the need to perform "rituals" in a repetitive way. It is also in what happens just before that need arises: the feeling that there are many aspects of life that have escaped your control and generate chaos around you..

Do you need help to treat OCD?

Although Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder can cause serious problems, that does not mean that it can only be treated medically, through the use of psychotropic drugs. These medications can help to alleviate the symptoms when the worst crises occur, but they do not "cure" the patient. To combat the disorder from the root, it is necessary to intervene on the behavior, those behavioral patterns that keep OCD alive.

As a psychologist specializing in therapy for adults and adolescents and Director of the Begoña Fernández Psychology CenterI often work with cases of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, helping to undo the sequence of actions that feed the development of this mental disorder. If you are interested in seeing my contact details or knowing more about what psychotherapy consists of, click here.

Bibliographical references:

• Angelakis, I.; Gooding, P.; Tarrier, N.; Panagioti, M. (2015). Suicidality in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD): A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review. Oxford, England: Pergamon Press. 39: pp. 1 - 15.
• Goodman, W.K.; Grice, D.E.; Lapidus, K.A.; Coffey, B.J. (2014). Obsessive-compulsive disorder. The Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 37(3): pp. 257 - 267.
• Lubman, D.I., Yücel, M., Pantelis, C. (2004). Addiction, a condition of compulsive behaviour? Neuroimaging and neuropsychological evidence of inhibitory dysregulation, 99(12): pp. 1491 - 502
• Miller, C.H.; Dawson W.H. (2008). Scrupulosity disorder: An overview and introductory analysis. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22(6): pp. 1042 - 1058.
• Seedat, S. & Stein, D.J. (2002). Hoarding in obsessive–compulsive disorder and related disorders: A preliminary report of 15 cases. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 56(1): pp. 17 - 23.