Relational OCD: Symptoms, Causes and Treatment

Relational Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder focuses on social relationships and self-esteem.

OCD is a pathology that falls under the classification of anxiety disorders and can lead to great disability in people's lives.

When talking about OCD, the most common is to think of those sickly subjects of order, cleanliness, pollution ... But actually the OCD can occur on any subject, and one not so well known is the OCD. one that is not so well known is the Relational OCD.Do you want to know it?

What is Relational OCD?

Relational OCD focuses on the relationships that the person has with other individuals such as children, parents, partners such as children, parents, partners (love OCD), strangers... even towards oneself. Very distressing obsessions are generated with respect to the person who is the target of the ruminations, and the bonds that unite them may be broken to avoid the discomfort, and the pattern is repeated in similar relationships.

Such thoughts can be very painful, and a real inquiry into the feelings towards the target person begins. a real investigation begins on the feelings towards the person, looking for the why, arriving at theThe more you want to ignore a thought, the more it appears) turning them unintentionally into the most frequent topic of the day to day and generating a discomfort that can incapacitate the sufferer because of the distraction and anxiety that it produces.

We will illustrate this with an example. A father stressed by the beginning of his child's upbringing involuntarily creates an image in which he appears throwing him out of the window. The thought is seen as something horrible, unacceptable, which is analyzed over and over again until reaching conclusions such as: I have thought that because I do not love my child, I am a psychopath and I should not raise him because I will hurt him.

In reality this person loves his son and would never hurt him, but when the chain starts and becomes common in the person's head, it seems impossible to stop and above all, it gives it veracity that creates a very pronounced suffering.

Symptoms

The sequence of thoughts that we have seen in the previous example is very common in OCD, since it tends to magnify the importance of the mind creating an image or a concrete idea, making the person go crazy looking for reasons for something for which he/she is not really responsible.

Adding guilt, ruminations, search for inexhaustible reasoning, binary thinking, and so on.In the case of OCD, the search for perfection and the non-acceptance of mistakes (all typical characteristics of people suffering from OCD), a new world is created in which there is room for thoughts such as being a horrible person for having had that image, being guilty for having thoughts of a certain nature, inability to accept that he/she has not been responsible for that mental process and that it has no real repercussions, and so on and so forth.

This makes the person a victim of his mind and an executioner of the actions he starts to actions that he/she starts to carry out to prevent, check and look for a logical and logical. One of these checks can be to look for and compare with other people who share similarities as if the other party was the perfection in which to be reflected.

Causes

It is a vicious circle that is difficult to break and that usually is based on very rigid and strict cognitive patterns. where stepping outside that boundary "means something horrible and unacceptable that you are guilty of". The need to have everything under strict control means that the thoughts that are supposed to be "bad" have been caused by the person "since he has everything under control and should be able to control what his head creates".

The anxiety generated can manifest itself as panic attacks before the thought or the rumination of this one or as a final response of the body when supporting very high levels of discomfort. On the other hand, the blaming component is shared by the depressive disorderThis can cause OCD to be comorbid with anxiety disorder, depressive disorder or both.

Treatment

If you know someone with this type of OCD or you think you may suffer from it, do not panic: OCD is treatable in all its manifestations, the most effective way being the combination of psychotropic drugs with cognitive behavioral therapy. The pharmacological treatment must be dictated by a psychiatrist, who, depending on the symptoms, will recommend a specific type of medication.who, depending on the symptoms, will recommend a particular type of medication.

No OCD is the same for different people and people are not the same in response, so we should not take the medications of an acquaintance with the same disorder. On the other hand, going to a psychologist for cognitive behavioral therapy will help to recognize the reason for the obsessive ideas and work on feeling better.

But be careful! There are people who leave the therapy when they see an improvement.. Keep in mind that relational OCD is like all OCD: it goes through good and bad phases, and it is best to follow up with your therapist and psychiatrist, even if you feel better. And even more so, if we take into account that relational OCD usually occurs with close people, so it is easy to have relapses due to multiple relational causes, phenomena such as atmospheric pressure changes typical of seasonal changes, or stressful periods.

It is common that the person keeps these thoughts for months and even years without communicating them to anyone out of shame, fear... even for thinking that in reality he/she does not suffer from an emotional pathology and the thoughts are true (the average to receive specialized help is usually two and a half years).

But the reality is that when sufferers talk to mental health professionals, their family and people involved, they find a point of support that can be fundamental for treatment and recovery. As other recommendations, sport is fundamental, as well as maintaining good communication, eating well and good rest.

Referencias bibliográficas:

• Ferrali J. C. (1996). Las obsesiones y el arte de la clinica. Desarrollos en Psiquiatria Argentina. Apsa.
• Kinney, J. M. (1995). Comprehension of affect in children with pervasive developmental disorders: Specific deficits in perceptual matching tasks. Washington DC: Human Neuropsychology Laboratory, American University.