Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)- Cause, Symptoms, OCD Treatment, Homeopathic Medicines for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder OCD

OCD is an anxiety disorder & characterised by obsessive thoughts which are recurrent, unwanted & usually anxiety-provoking, & by compulsions, repeated acts which relieve feelings of tension.

Cause of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

OCD is widely accepted to result from genetic vulnerability &/or chemical changes in some area of brain.

The precise pathology is not completely understood.
According to psychological school – obsessions are considered anxiogenic. OCD patients cannot escape this anxiety & therefore develop compulsion in an attempt to reduce or prevent the feared consequences. Reduction of anxiety reinforces the compulsive behaviour.

Symptoms of OCD:

Obsessions: Are frequent & persistent thoughts, impulses or images that are normally experienced as intrusive & senseless. They are usually accompanied by marked anxiety.
Common obsessions are- contamination, aggression & sexual or religious ruminations.

Compulsions: Are repetitive behaviours; e.g. hand washing, checking, ordering, or mental acts (e.g. counting, repeating words silently)

1) Obsessive compulsive personality.
2) Depressive disorders.
3) Phobic disorders.
4) Generalised anxiety disorders.
5) Post-traumatic stress disorders.
6) Tic disorders.
7) Anorexia nervosa.

Management of OCD:

Cognitive behaviour therapy- The main approach in OCD is graded exposure & self-imposed response prevention. This requires patients to face their feared obsessions without undoing them with their compulsions. Exposure should be of sufficient duration to be effective.

Homeopathic Remedies for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Homeopathy treats the person as a whole. It means that homeopathic treatment focuses on the patient as a person, as well as his pathological condition. The homeopathic medicines are selected after a full individualizing examination and case-analysis, which includes the medical history of the patient, physical and mental constitution etc. A miasmatic tendency (predisposition/susceptibility) is also often taken into account for the treatment of chronic conditions. The medicines given below indicate the therapeutic affinity but this is not a complete and definite guide to the treatment of this condition. The symptoms listed against each medicine may not be directly related to this disease because in homeopathy general symptoms and constitutional indications are also taken into account for selecting a remedy. To study any of the following remedies in more detail, please visit our Materia Medica section. None of these medicines should be taken without professional advice.

1) Arsenic album
2) Cannabis indica
3) Lachesis
4) Medorrhinum.
5) Natrum mur.
6) Pulsatilla
7) Rhus-tox.
8) Carcinocin etc

Conscience, as if a crime had been committed. Inconsolable anguish, with complaints and lamentation. Hypochondriacal humour, with restlessness and anxiety. Fear of solitude, of spectres, and of robbers, with desire to hide oneself. Indecision and Changeable humour, which demands this at one time, that at another, and rejects everything after having obtained it. Despair, he finds no rest, especially at night, with anguish. Despondency, despair, weariness of life, inclination to suicide, or excessive fear of death, which is sometimes believed to be very near. Too great sensibility and scrupulousness of conscience, with gloomy ideas, as if one had offended all the world. Ill-humour, impatience, vexation, inclination to be angry, repugnance to conversation, inclination to criticise, and great susceptibility. Caustic and jesting spirit. Extreme sensibility of all the organs, all noise, conversation, and clear lights are insupportable. Great apathy and indifference. Great weakness of memory. Stupidity and dullness’. Delirium. Delirium, with great flow of ideas. Loss of consciousness, and of sensation, dotage, maniacal actions and frenzy. Madness, loss of mind (from the abuse of alcoholic drinks).Great Prostration, with rapid sinking of the vital forces; fainting. The disposition is:

a. Depression, melancholy, despairing, indifferent.
b. Anxious, fearful, restless, full of anguish
c. Irritable, sensitive, peevish, easily vexed.

The greater the suffering the greater the anguish, restlessness and fear of death.

2) Cannabis indica:

Exaltation spirit, with excessive loquacity. Full of fun and mischief, and laughs immoderately. Hallucinations and imaginations innumerable. Anguish, accompanied by great oppression: better in the open air. Constant fear of becoming insane. Exaggeration of duration of time and extent of space, seconds seem ages, a few rods an immense distance. Horror of darkness. Fear of approaching death. Inability to recall any thought or event, on account of different thoughts crowding on his brain. Sudden loss of speech, begins a sentence but cannot finish it. Stammering and stuttering. Exaltation of spirits, with excessive loquacity. Very absent-minded. Every few minutes he would lose himself, and then wake up, as it were, to those around him. Constantly theorizing. Clairvoyance. Delirium tremens, trembling, hallucinations, tendency to become furious, nausea, unquenchable thirst. Laughs at merest trifle. Sudden loss of memory.

Timidity of character, with variableness and indecision. Great apathy and xtraordinary weakness of memory, everything that is heard is, as it were, effaced, even orthography is no longer remembered, and there is forgetfulness even of things on the point of utterance. Confusion as to time. Mistakes are made in speaking and writing, as well as in the hours of the day and the days of the week. Imbecility and loss of every mental faculty. Over-excitement and excessive nervous irritability, with a tendency to be frightened. Perfect happiness and cheerfulness followed by gradual fading of spirituality, want of self-control and lasciviousness, felt as if she was somebody else and in the hands of a stronger power. Amativeness. Affections of the intellect in general. State of ecstasy and exaltation which even induces tears, desire to meditate, and to compose intellectual works, with a sort of pride. Frantic loquacity with elevated language, nicely chosen words, rapid and continual change of subject-matter. Loquaciousness, with mocking jealousy, with frightful images, great tendency to mock, satire and ridiculous ideas. Nocturnal delirium with much talking, or with murmuring. Dementia and loss of consciousness.

The thread of her talk. Seems to herself to make wrong statements, because she does not know what to say next, begins all right but does not know how to finish, weight on vertex, which seems to affect the mind. Difficulty in cncentrating his thoughts on abstract subjects. Could not read or use mind at all from pain in head. Thinks some one is behind her, hears whispering, sees faces that peer at her from behind bed and furniture. One night saw large people in room, large rats running, felt a delicate hand smoothing her head from front to back. Is sure she is going to die. Sensation as if all life were unreal, like a dream. Wild and desperate feeling, as of incipient insanity. Cannot speak without crying. Suicidal. Is in a great hurry, when doing anything is in such a hurry that she gets fatigued. Spirits in the depths, weighed down with heavy, solid gloom. Better by torrents of tears. Is always anticipating, feels most matters sensitively before they occur and generally correctly. Dread of saying the wrong thing when she has headache. Apprehensive. Fear of the dark. Feeling as if he had ommitted the unpardonable sin and was going to hell. Irritated at little things. Very impatient. Great selfishness.

Unpleasant recollections & much weeping all attempts at consolation worse _ obliged to weep. Hypochondriacal, tired of life. Joyless, taciturn. Great tendency to start. Hurriedness, with anxiety and fluttering of heart. Prefers to be alone. Anthropophobia. Anxiety respecting the future. Anguish, sometimes during a storm, but especially at night. Indifference, laconic speech, moroseness, and unfitness for labour. Impatient precipitation and irritability. Timidity. Hatred to persons who have formerly given offence. Irascibility and rage, easily provoked. Inclination to laugh. Laughs so immoderately at something not ludicrous that tears come into her eyes and she looks as if she had been weeping. Alternative gaiety and ill-humour. Laughs immoderately and cannot be quieted. Difficulty of thinking, absence of mind. Weakness of memory and excessive forgetfulness. Heedlessness and distraction. Tendency to make mistakes in speaking and writing. Brain-fag, with sleeplessness, gloomy forebodings. Exhaustion after talking, embarrassment of rain. Incapacity for reflection, and fatigue from intellectual labour. Distraction, does not know what he ought to say. Awkwardness.

Impulse to hide or to run away, mistrust and suspicion. Covetousness. Taciturn madness, with sullen, cold, and wandering air, sighs, often seated with the hands joined, but without uttering any complaint. Despair of eternal happiness, with continual praying. Discouragement, indecision, dread of occupation, and obstructed respiration. Disposition envious, discontented, and covetous, exhibiting itself in a wish to appropriate everything. Caprice, with desire at one time for one thing, at another time for something else, either being rejected as soon as obtained. Hysterical laughter after meals. Hypochondriacal humour and moroseness, worse evening, often with repugnance to conversation, great sensitiveness, choleric disposition, cries, and weeping. Ill-humour, sometimes with a dread of labour, and disgust or contempt for everything. Inadvertence, precipitation, and absence of mind. Difficulty in expressing thoughts correctly when speaking, and tendency to omit letters when writing.iddiness, patient neither knows where he is nor what he does. Great flow of very changeful ideas. Nocturnal raving, violent delirium and loss of consciousness. Frightful visions. Weakness of memory. Fixed ideas. Stupidity.

Anxious sadness and excessive anguish, especially (at twilight) in evening and at night, with wish for solitude and inclination to weep. Restlessness which will not suffer the patient to remain seated, and compels him to throw himself about in bed. Anguish with fear of death and sighs. Fear of being poisoned. Suicidal mania (desire to throw himself into the water). Irritability and ill-humour, with repugnance to labour. Moral dejection with anthropophobia. Helplessness and profound despondency. Uneasiness respecting one's children, affairs, and the future, with want of self-confidence. Weakness of memory and forgetfulness (cannot remember the most recent events). Want of ideas and of mental energy. Difficult comprehension. Slowness of conception and mental dullness. Delusions of the imagination and visions. Mild delirium, with insensibility.