Ocd Informative Speech

By a show of hands, how many of you know someone who has asthma? How many of you know someone who has diabetes? Now how many of you know someone who has obsessive-compulsive disorder? Not many. Yet OCD is diagnosed nearly as often as asthma and diabetes. It’s estimated that 2.2 million American adults have obsessive-compulsive disorder. This is slightly more than the number of people who reside in Houston, Texas, the 4th largest city in the country. And according to the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation, people go an average of 17 years between the time OCD symptoms begin and the time they begin treatment. As someone who has OCD, I’d like to talk to you about what obsessive-compulsive disorder is, what some common symptoms are, what causes
As defined by the National Institute of Mental Health, obsessive-compulsive disorder is “characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and/or repetitive behaviors (compulsions).” So what does this mean? Imagine a thought in your head. This thought gets replayed over and over again. It’s like an avalanche, and the only way to get rid of this thought is to immerse yourself in some type of repetitive behavior. The most common behavior, or symptom is washing of the hands over and over. This helps to alleviate the anxiety caused by the thought that’s stuck in your head. Some other common symptoms include the need to repeatedly check things, such as a door lock or light switch. Also, an inability to throw away anything. This is commonly referred to as hoarding. These “rituals” can become very time consuming. A 2001 study conducted in 19 clinics right here in northern California determined the severity of symptoms in patients having new-onset OCD. Now as you can see from this illustration, 38% had mild symptoms which occupied up to 2 hours of their day. 19% had moderate symptoms which occupied 2-6 hours of their day. And finally, 8% had severe symptoms which occupied more than 6 hours of their day. With the remaining 35% unable to be determined. As you can see, OCD can be very
Some experts believe that OCD is related to a chemical imbalance within the brain. This imbalance causes a communication problem between the frontal lobe and deeper parts of the brain. In this slide, we have two separate brain scans. The one on the left being from a typical persons brain, and the one on the right being from someone with OCD. As you can see, there’s far more brain activity in the frontal lobe of a person with OCD. Scientists also believe there may be a link between childhood episodes of strep throat and the development of OCD. This occurs because the antibodies that fight strep throat may act on the brain in ways that cause problems with the way neurons communicate. It should be noted, however, that this particular cause is highly debated and is still undergoing