OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER

This is an anxiety disorder when a person is unable to stop or resist continuous or abnormal thoughts or fears that are combined with repetitive behaviour, such as an obsession that the door handle is dirty, therefore, your hands have to be washed and rinsed 15 times to get them clean again. Usually the compulsive action temporarily relieves the anxiety, but this is short-lived and the compulsion soon returns. This is a rarer disorder affecting less than 0.05% of the population.

Treatment is to reduce the anxiety, resolve the inner conflicts and provide an effective way of reducing stress. Medication used includes sedative or sleep inducing drugs and minor tranquilizers. These work on the central nervous system to help reduce the feelings of anxiety and associated feelings. Intensive long-term psychotherapy or group therapy are treatment alternatives. If the obsession interferes with daily work, life and relationships and prevents a person leaving the house or enjoying different activities, treatment should be sought.

An OCD sufferer is usually fully aware of their problems, living in a Residential Care Home can offer steady, behavioural therapy indirectly. At this stage of development, the problem has seriously affected the suffers way of life and they have been through a long sustained period of being unable to live in the community, often having several hospital stays in the past to help them with the appropriate medication.

Staff and other residents in a Residential Care Home can be on had to speak to the sufferer if they start to have a panic attack, often just speaking firmly, suggesting calm breathing, to sit down or stand still can help contain this to a short attack.

Clear routines and acceptable responsible behaviour can help a sufferer. Sometimes keeping to a set time or routine can help things getting out of hand. Staff can also observe and prevent new obsessive routines starting, by speaking at once about this new pattern or by refusing to take part in these routines. This steady influence can help a sufferer manage the anxiety and stress and observation of medication regimes kept within reasonable bounds.