Treatment can make your symptoms less severe. Other cognitive therapy may also help change the false beliefs that lead to OCD behaviours.

With the help of a counsellor, this therapy can reduce your symptoms over time. This therapy slowly increases your contact with the thing that causes worries or false beliefs. He or she may increase the dose or change to a different medicine.Р”В¬ounselling for the disorder includes a type of cognitive-behavioural therapy called exposure and response prevention. If you have concerns about your medicine, or if you do not start to feel better by 3 weeks, talk to your doctor. But it can take as long as 12 weeks to see more improvement. You may begin to feel better in about 1 to 3 weeks after you start taking medicine. Examples of these medicines include Prozac and Zoloft. Using both tends to works best.Р”Р„ntidepressant medicines called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are most commonly used. Treatment includes medicines and counselling. Many people with the disorder go without treatment, because they are afraid or embarrassed to talk to a doctor. It's important to talk to your doctor if you think you have OCD. He or she may also do a physical examination. Your doctor can check for obsessive-compulsive disorder by asking about your symptoms and your past health. But at other times they may not be sure, or they may believe strongly in their fears. Sometimes people may understand that their obsessions and compulsions aren't real. They greatly interfere with your normal routine at work or school, and they affect social activities and relationships. The obsessions or compulsions usually take up a lot of time-more than 1 hour a day. Repeating things or always moving items to keep them in perfect order.Counting, often while doing another compulsive action, such as handwashing.Washing, or checking that something has been done.Some people have behaviours that are rigid and structured, while others have very complex behaviours that change. These are behaviours that you repeat to try to control the obsessions.

A driving need to do things perfectly or correctly.

A fear of harm to yourself or a loved one.

The thoughts may be sexual or violent, or they may make you worry about illness or infection. They get in the way of your normal thoughts and cause anxiety or fear. These are unwanted thoughts, ideas, and impulses that you have again and again. If you fail to check, you may suddenly feel tense or anxious or have a nagging sense that you left something undone. For example, you may have an overall sense that something terrible will happen if you don't do a certain task, such as check again and again to see if the stove is on.

Symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder tend to come and go over time and range from mild to severe. Some experts believe that a problem related to streptococcal infections, such as strep throat and scarlet fever, can suddenly bring on the disorder or make its symptoms worse in some children. Not having enough of a brain chemical called serotonin may help cause the problem. Research suggests that there may be a problem with the way one part of the brain sends information to another part. What causes OCD?Р”В®xperts don't know the exact cause of obsessive-compulsive disorder. So to ease that fear, you wash your hands over and over again. For example, you may fear that everything you touch has germs on it. To get rid of the thoughts, a person with OCD may also do the same tasks over and over. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a type of mental illness that causes repeated unwanted thoughts.

Topic Overview What is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)?

Thought field therapy for ocd