by Dan Williams

Created on: January 10, 2010   Last Updated: November 09, 2010

Causes of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have recently taken a dramatic turn as well as many psychiatric diagnoses. With the advances in medicine, PET scans, neurotransmitter studies etiologies that are environmental based or crisis induced have fallen to the wayside. This is an atrocity and an oversight by my colleagues. It seems to this author that studies which clearly have validity begin to earn more clinical weight than stress induced or crisis induced etiologies. Part of this may be the need to have objective data to validate among those who have disdain for the psychology/psychiatry profession. More and more research does show a physiological foundation for major diagnoses, for example schizophrenia, bipolar, and even OCD. The sadness is that there never is a catch all in medicine and psychology. Recently there is a push to have a physiological foundation for cause of personality disorders. 

There are articles that have recently been published showing questionable physiological changes in the brain from children who have been raped or sexually abused. This author is having extreme difficulty wrapping my cognitive brain around an idea that patho-physiologic changes occur in the brain that are permanent from crisis. There is plenty of evidence that daily, repeated stress, emotional abuse, and trauma can elicit OCD behavior. The individual may not have a full blown OCD behavior, they can display obsessive features, and, or compulsive features. Nevertheless, this real entity can be debilitating and even in severe forms life threatening. Individuals must remember all diagnoses are on a continuum of severity. 

OCD is the combination of obsessions or ruminations combined with physiologic behaviors of obsessions. Obsessions can be recurring thoughts of doors not being locked, coffeepots not being turned off and repeating numbers, letters, and even songs. Compulsions are the actual behavior that is implemented, classic repeatedly washing one's hands, checking the door knobs over and over. We see mild forms by meticulous houses, nothing out of place, and it gives the impression that one does not even live in the home. This is frequently a control issue. The man or woman needs to control their external environment to reach inner peace. The anxiety one experiences is so overwhelming they have difficulty sleeping,  maintaining a relationship at the expense of having their kitchen faucet turned at ninety degrees.

Evidence does show the etiology is harbored in life trauma. This can be a single event that causes guilt, and or repeated abuse. This abuse can be physical abuse or emotional abuse from a spouse. It can be trauma from war, and is commonly seen in veterans.

As consumers we must be knowledgeable, and aware of the professional bias, look for a seasoned professional, understand how life trauma can play a role in our behavior and how we as humans defend against severe forms of stress and anxiety.

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