Ocd what should i do

As half of the therapist—patient team, you should be able to have a say in your own therapy. The goal is for the homework to produce some anxiety for you to get used to tolerating — not to overwhelm you with it and cause you a setback. The perfect moment is whenever you begin doing them. Perfectionism can be another feature of OCD. If you do find yourself obsessing about having to do your homework perfectly, you risk turning it into another compulsion.

Watch out for having to do your homework according to the same rigid rules each time you do it. Remember that you still have a life to live. Try to read over your homework assignments at the start of each day. When carrying out assignments, be careful to not provide yourself reassurance and undo your hard work. Give your homework your full attention, focus on what you are doing, and let yourself feel the anxiety.

People sometimes let the homework become routine and do it in a very automatic way as a kind of avoidance. You are building tolerance to what you fear, and for that to happen you have to be in the moment with it.

When faced with a challenging assignment or an unexpected challenging situation, try to look at it as a positive. Why do I have to do this? Take your time, and see if you can view it in terms of all the good it will do you. Getting it over with as quickly as possible is not the goal — raising a moderate level of anxiety and staying with it is the goal. Some assignments can cause reactions later on, and it may take doing them a few times before the anxiety occurs.

It is sometimes possible for OCD to try to make you doubtful about your homework. Remember that OCD was known as the Doubting Disease, and it will try to cast doubt on anything that is important to you.

Never forget that you have OCD. This means that you will not always be able to trust your own reactions or the things you think and feel, especially if they seem to be telling you very negative and extreme things. They feel a strong urge to do the ritual. They feel if they don't, something bad could happen. At first, rituals give some relief from the bad thoughts and feelings. But rituals multiply. They take more time and energy. And the worry thoughts keep coming back. This is how OCD becomes a stressful cycle.

Instead of stopping OCD, the rituals keep it going. Someone with OCD will spend more than an hour a day bothered by worry thoughts and rituals.

They may check, arrange, fix, erase, count, or start over many times, just to feel that things are OK. They don't want to think about these things. But OCD makes the thoughts hard to ignore. They don't want to do rituals. But OCD makes them feel they have to. OCD can show up in many parts of their life. Things like getting dressed, having breakfast, or doing schoolwork seem full of stressful choices.

OCD can make it seem like one choice might prevent a bad thing. Or that another choice might make a bad thing happen. Someone with OCD may not know why they think, feel, and do these things.

They may try to hide their fears and rituals. They may worry what others will think. They may even think they are going 'crazy' — but they're not. OCD can cause this to happen. Like in many health conditions, a person's genes play a role in whether they get OCD.

That's why OCD often runs in families. Genes can affect the chemistry, structure, and activity in different parts of the brain. With OCD, these differences lead unwanted thoughts to get 'stuck' instead of move on. OCD gets started because someone has genes that make it more likely. But OCD keeps going because of rituals. The more people do rituals, the stronger OCD gets.

This happens because our brains learn to do more of what we practice. Our brains also learn to do more of what gets rewarded. In OCD, rituals 'reward' the brain with a feeling of relief. Because obsessive-compulsive disorder often requires specialized care, you may be referred to a mental health professional, such as a psychiatrist or psychologist, for evaluation and treatment.

Your doctor or mental health professional will ask additional questions based on your responses, symptoms and needs. Preparing and anticipating questions will help you make the most of your appointment time. Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products. Advertising revenue supports our not-for-profit mission.

This content does not have an English version. This content does not have an Arabic version. Diagnosis Steps to help diagnose obsessive-compulsive disorder may include: Psychological evaluation. This includes discussing your thoughts, feelings, symptoms and behavior patterns to determine if you have obsessions or compulsive behaviors that interfere with your quality of life.

With your permission, this may include talking to your family or friends. Diagnostic criteria for OCD. Physical exam. This may be done to help rule out other problems that could be causing your symptoms and to check for any related complications. Request an Appointment at Mayo Clinic. Share on: Facebook Twitter. Show references Deep brain stimulation for obsessive compulsive disorder: Evolution of surgical stimulation target parallels changing model of dysfunctional brain circuits.

Frontiers in Neuroscience. Brown AY. Allscripts EPSi. Mayo Clinic. May 2, Obsessive-compulsive disorder. American Psychiatric Association;