What is OCD? Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD by its acronym is a disorder suffered by millions, this disease is classified as a neurobiological disorder that is not inherited, so do not blame yourself or your parents for it. According to the latest studies, in the U.S alone, 1 out of every 50 people suffer from OCD. Due to the advances of the medical science, OCD is treatable most of the times. One of the difficulties that an OCD patient will most likely face is actually being diagnosed with OCD, if we take into account that it is only then that the right kind of therapy can be applied, getting the right diagnose is essential. An important thing to keep in mind is the fact that OCD usually gets worse under stress and it frequently begins at an early age (childhood or adolescence) In order to fully understand what OCD means, we have to analyze its elements. First of all, we will establish what obsessions are, and provide some examples of them. Then we will analyze what compulsions are with some examples as well, finally we will take a look at the way both of them interact in order to produce OCD. In its most basic definition. An obsession involves spontaneous impulses, images, ideas and thoughts that are the cause of a certain degree of distress. Some examples of obsessions are any recurrent impulses, images ans thoughts that are perceived as inappropriate and causes quite a bit of anxiety or distress. In all cases they are recognized as the product of one’s mind. These obsessions are usually related to fears of contamination, impulsive actions, mistakes and sexual, harm to self and harming others. As far as compulsions goes, they can be defined as actions or thoughts that are developed in order to lessen the distress caused by obsessions. Amongst the most common obsessions, we can mention hoarding or cluttering which is basically the need to collect useless things, washing excessively, arranging and ordering excessively and checking locks, appliances, etc. Now that we have the two elements that together create OCD, we can see how they interact. If we take into account that OCD can be reinforced by learning, it is easier to understand that Obsessions cause distress (and/or anxiety), Compulsions arise as a means to reduce the levels of distress, causing the patient to fully get influenced by negative reinforcement. Since the reduction in the distress is temporary, the cycle will get repeated over and over as OCD gets worse and worse. In order for such a cycle to be classified as OCD, it should present the following characteristics:

*It should cause distress. *It should interfere with normal social or occupational performance. *It should take part of the person's time (one hour as a minimum). Along with OCD, there are several psychiatric conditions that come with it such as Panic Disorder, Social Phobia, Depression, Phobias, Tourette’s Syndrome, Sleep Disorder, Bulimia and Eating Disorder. Some other disorders that can be sometimes confused with OCD are those classified as OC Spectrum Disorders that include Skin Picking, Trichotillomania (hair pulling), and Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). Compulsive spending, Sexual compulsion and Compulsive gambling cannot be classified as OCD since there is a factor of pleasure involved in them. Treatment Options include specific cognitive behavior therapy, which has proven to be very effective in substitution of strong medications with the added value of not presenting side effects whatsoever like any medication would. Therapy alone is not for everybody, some people will still need the medication prescribed by a psychiatrist to complement therapy. The way that OCD therapy works is not that simple, it starts with certain level of psycho education that has to do with the way compulsions work. Once this has been done, a distressful situation scale is designed by both the psychotherapist and the patient. This scale will rank the situations that produce distress to the patient, this could be done with a simple 0 -10 scale, being 0 no distress at all and and 10 a very distressful situation. The patient will gradually be exposed to different situations from the scale until he or she can beat them all.