Many people have heard about Obsessive Compulsive Disorders. But not many have heard about Obsessive Personality Disorders, a different illness, dispite it being one of the more common mental afflictions.

Also known as Obsessive Compulsive PD, Obsessive Disorders have been characterized as an extreme form of perfectionism. Often Obsessive Disorders appear after adolescence, and arise from issues of control. It can often be identified through treatment that these control issues as stemming from early parental causes.

More immediately, obsessive acts can develop through a sensitivity to anxiety and stress, which finds a release in the obsessive acts. Finding solutions for these anxieties, and just as importantly building up a resistance to and comfort with anxiety levels are effective treatment plans.

There is a long list of common obsessions listed on this site.

Negative consequences for an OCD sufferer might include:

• the inability to complete important tasks, due to an overly perfectionist attitude

• the loss of opportunities, enjoyment of life, interpersonal relationships, employment, and developing feelings of self disgust, due to symptoms which cannot be controlled

• health related issues from overwork, lack of exercise, and stress

• financial repercussions of unwisely spent time and energies

• tension with others stemming from to an attempt to control others, to live up to their unreasonably high standards

• becoming fearful and anxious generally, particularly over health, personal safety or the loss of money (even when this is cannot be explained by previous circumstances).

• becoming overly rigid, inflexible, and generally losing previous carefree, happy attitudes to things

• losing the ability to see the “big picture”, unable to effectively allocate resources such as time

• Being unable to reach personal goals due to a preoccupation with trivialities and unnecessary detail

Treatment

An obsession is a coping mechanism a patient develops to provide relief or protection from more profound anxieties. These anxieties can be anything from interpersonal, relationship, livelihood, or other anxieties. A build up of stress is experienced, which is relieved by the repetitive or obsessive action.

The most basic treatment strategy for obsessions is to assist patients to develop coping mechanisms to increase the space between a trigger, and a response. By way of example, for a computer addiction: a trigger might be wondering if you have received any new emails, and a response might be the refreshing, or logging onto, your email account.

We have developed a simple reminder you can activate when you recognize yourself stuck in such a situation. It uses leaving the room to get something - however, any physical break from the situation, and that works for your situation, can be used.

There are deeper, more fundamental psychological approaches to treating obsessions, such as developing balance, removing rigidity, or other, more constructive resolutions to anxiety. You can find some more information on in our other tips.