Teenage Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

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TEENAGE OCD

Many teens suffer from a variety of disorders. These disorders include eating disorders, social disorders, behavioral disorders, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD. In OCD, it is as though the brain gets stuck on a particular thought or urge and won’t let go. This can persist throughout a person’s life; gradually worsening.OCD has a few different forms, including the fear of dirt and germs, compulsive hoarding, disturbing mental images of aggressiveness, and most commonly, rituals of counting or arranging objects.

For teenagers this is a major problem because the compulsions can cause interference with daily life. For example, one obsessive disorder, which affects some teens, called Body Dysmorphic Disorder, can have a person staring into a mirror for hours at a time, trying to fix something which they feel is unattractive. This can create excessive concerns about someone’s personal appearance, which can consume major amounts of time. Doing so could possibly cause a teen to be late for school or work. Another compulsion teenagers face is the constant washing of the hands. They may feel that their hands are covered in germs and contamination, which causes them to wash their hands uncontrollably. This can cause their hands to become raw, and they may avoid touching door handles or commonly used things, for fear that they may catch diseases or infections. Teenagers commonly keep these disorders secret, because they are afraid that they will be seen as weird by their peers.
There are a few different types of treatments for OCD. One is called Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, or CBT. In CBT, you are exposed to things which you fear, so that eventually your fear subsides. For example, if a patient is afraid of germs on their hands, the doctor may have the patient try and touch things that would normally raise high amounts of anxiety. Medication can also be used to help a teen deal with OCD.

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