In a given year, approximately 1% of adults in the United States have a diagnosis of OCD.
Males often show symptoms of OCD in childhood, but females are affected at a higher rate by adulthood.
OCD can appear in any person at any age, but the average age of onset is 19.5 years.
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25% of people with OCD have symptoms by the time they’re 14 years old.
People with OCD attempt to ignore or suppress obsessions, or have to neutralize them by performing a compulsion.
Doing so drastically diminishes the anxiety associated with the obsession.
Compulsions are also commonly misunderstood and can vary from one person with OCD to the next.
Obsessions in OCD are distressing, time-consuming, and fear-driven.
When people with OCD have harm-related obsessions, they do not necessarily fear that they will intentionally do harm.
If they are religious, they may be worried about offending God or blasphemy.
Losing Control
Some people with OCD fear that they willlose control.
The mental imagery of these obsessions may be aggressive or even horrific in nature.
They may be preoccupied with worries that they have a disease or that they will get one.
The obsessions and compulsions that define OCD can have a significant and negative impact on someone’s life.
However, there are ways to manage the condition.
Many people with OCD find relief with a combination of therapy and medication.
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