Obsession. It comes in many forms and many degrees. Everybody
has probably had “obsessive” moments in their life. Maybe you’ve been obsessed
with a band, a certain food, a clothing item, or maybe even a person. Things
you might tell your friends about and all laugh about how silly it is. But what happens when the obsession crosses
the line to a disorder, when a person can’t even leave their house because their
obsessions are controlling their thoughts. They feel completely incomplete and
anxious if they do not complete a certain task. 2.3
percent of the population between ages 18-54 suffers from Obsessive Compulsive
disorder. Obsessive Compulsive disorder
is a disorder that affects people in many different ways, but all has to do
with a person being overly obsessed, causing them to act in a certain way. There
has been a lot of research done on treatment for OCD. Just 10 days ago FOX
news did an article on a new kind of treatment called exposure treatment. This is a treatment where they expose the
patient to different environments and slowly try to turn the patient away from
the obsessive behavior they may have in that environment. OCD is a mental disorder that takes a lot of
time and energy to change.
But what I was wondering was if this
disorder is more common now because of our modern society and values. I thought
this because in some ways a lot of OCD symptoms and sighs
are safety or image based, things that our looked at and spoken a lot about in
our society right now. I thought that it must be a more modern disorder. But
after doing some research I discovered OCD has been in our History since 1489. Martin Luther the Man who was the leader of the
Protest Reformation in Europe suffered from OCD. Charles Darwin
also suffered from OCD. It surprised me that so many people in our history and
presently suffer from OCD.
It’s also interesting to think about the
fact that all of this history and research done on OCD is all based of a single
emotion that someone has. A single emotion that shapes a person’s life and
personality.
I have never thought about OCD as a historical disorder, especially because so many of the "stereotypical" OCD behaviors involve modern inventions, like needing to check the stove or something like that. I would be curious to see how OCD manifested itself before technology.
ReplyDeleteOCD is an interesting view. I like it though!
ReplyDeleteInteresting questions, whether or not OCD is a response to our modern ways of living. What do the rest of you think?
ReplyDeleteinteresting they are trying to come up with a cure for ocd
ReplyDeleteI thought OCD was all based on our modern lifestyles. People become obsessive over their phones or computers or needing to do something a certain amount of times before moving on, I have no idea what "old fashion" obsessions would look like. Would they obsess over the amount of berries they picked before walking back to their huts? Would they obsess over the stitching on their corsets before going to a ball? It's fascinating that OCD goes so far back into our history and severely effects a significant amount of people in our society.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of OCD becoming more prevalent as everything modernizes is something to think about. It would be interesting to ponder how OCD in the 1600s would have been like. This is thought-provoking, for lack of a better term.
ReplyDeleteI didnt know it was possible to cure OCD... Its also interesting that Charles Darwin had OCD, i had no idea.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about the cure for OCD study, that's really interesting. I always thought they just treated the symptoms and nothing else. Cool!
ReplyDelete