Essay: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, also known as OCD, is one of the world’s most widespread and potentially harmful diseases out there. According to statistics from the World Global Health Organization, “OCD is ranked ten among all diseases as a cause for disability.” (Charlotte-anxiety-and-depression-treatment.com) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by wild, undesirable thoughts and repetitive, ritualized practices you feel urged to perform. If you by chance have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, you presumably perceive that your over the top contemplations and urgent practices are unreasonable. However even along these lines, you feel unable to resist them and break free.
There are two types of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. There is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder obsessions which are “repeated, persistent, and unwanted urges or images that cause distress or anxiety.” (Mayoclinic.org) Two examples of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder obsessions are fear of contamination or dirt and having things orderly and symmetrical. Then there is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder compulsion. A compulsion is simply a ritual. Two examples of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder compulsion are hand-washing until your skin becomes raw and silently repeating a prayer, word or phrase.
What was once thought to be an uncommon mental disease is currently known to be a more common one. Give or take 2.3% of the populace between ages 18 – 54 experience the ill effects of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which outrank mental disorders, for example, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or panic disorder. “The most effective treatments for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder are Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and/or medication. More specifically, the most effective treatments are a type of CBT called Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) which has the strongest evidence supporting its use in the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and/or a class of medications called serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SRIs.” (iocdf.org) Exposure and Response Prevention is ordinarily done by an authorized mental health professional in an outpatient. “This means you visit your therapist’s office at a set arrangement time once or a couple times each week.” (iocdf.org)
Medical professionals have yet to point out any definitive cause or causes of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. “It is believed that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder likely is the result of a combination of neurobiological, genetic, behavioral, cognitive, and environmental factors that trigger the disorder in a specific individual at a particular point in time”(understanding_ocd.tripod.com) Therefore those could be factors that play a role in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. A study by the National institutes of Health analyzed DNA, and the results propose that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and certain related psychiatric disorders may be connected with a phenomenal transformation of the human serotonin transporter gene. There are so many organizations that are helping with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. One specifically would be the International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Foundation which is also known as the IOCDF for short. There are many other groups such as Obsessive Compulsive Anonymous which is a twelve step program for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder sufferers. There is also Clutters Anonymous, also known as CLA. This program is similar to Alcoholics Anonymous in the sense that they are helped to overcome hoarding.
Ken Kesey was a writer, explorer, an artist, a competitor, educator but more importantly a father. Ken was such a variety of things to so many individuals. He was born Kenneth Elton Kesey, September 17, 1935, in La Junta, Colorado. At age eleven Ken and his family moved to Oregon. ‘Kesey was raised in a Christian home, a farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon.’ (archive.csustan.edu) A prevalent competitor, Ken exceeded expectations in wrestling in both high school and at the University of Oregon. He was enthusiastic about reading and films.
After graduating from Oregon, Kesey moved to California to go to the experimental writing program at Stanford University. He soon married his high school sweetheart, Faye Haxby ‘In 1957 they moved to Los Angeles. He wanted to become a movie actor, but instead worked on a never-published novel’End of Autumn.’ (ochcom.org) In 1965, Ken ran into legal trouble for marijuana possession, after his return to California. After faking suicide and fleeing to Mexico, he came back to the Bay Area to face the charges. ‘By October ’67, Kesey is in jail on drug charges. There, Tom Wolfe interviews him for The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Out of jail in a few months, Kesey heads home to Oregon.’ (pbs.org) He served a short spell in the San Mateo Area correctional facility, and consented to openly denounce LSD.
During the 70s, 80s, and 90s, Ken continued to write short stories and briefly published a literary journal. Although he wrote many stories, such as Sometimes a Great Notion, he is most famous for his novel, The One Who Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In his ’60s, Kesey develops liver cancer and soon passed on of complications from liver surgery on November 10, 2001, abandoning armies of grieving fans, and a world perpetually improved on the grounds that he had been in it.