Although there is a variety of ways OCD manifests, it has a common cause.body dysmorphia, tourettes, anxiety, GAD, phobias, including social phobia, Scrupulosity, etc

Alternative Treatments for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Types of OCD

In our world, every one wants a name for their health condition. A disease diagnosis is a name that is given to a group of conditions and symptoms.

Often the cause is the same. For instance, lets look at yeast. Usually people think of women having vaginal yeast infections. However, if yeast is in the throat, it is called thrush. If yeast is in the toes or feet, it is nail fungus or athlete's foot. In the blood stream, non EPV chronic fatigue.

If you get the body 100% excess yeast free, all of these health conditions would not exist.

This is also true for a thin myelin. A thin myelin causes OCD, but it can also cause other conditions. Some people think they have to wash their hands and be afraid of germs to have OCD. This is not the case at all. Let's examine the different types of OCD.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Obsession is unwanted persistent feelings or thoughts to an excessive degree.
Compulsion is an impulse or tendency to perform an act which is beyond the ability to resist.

Checking

Often those who have this type of OCD need to check if they did something. For instance, did they turn off the curling iron? They turned it off once, but have a strong need to double check or triple check or more. Often this compulsion comes from fear of not being able to trust their memory. People report that they have an unreal type of feeling; they know that they turned the curling iron off, but they can't be sure.

My theory on why this happens is in my book, Stressed OUT! Below is an excerp.

Let us take, for example, deciding to lock the door. The brain releases an electrical impulse to lock the door. The impulse goes to the synapse, where a chemical (neurotransmitter) is released.

The next nerve ganglia draws it up, then the impulse travels down the nerve chain until it gets to the muscle in the hand and the hand locks the door.

When the hand has locked the door, an impulse goes from the hand up the nerve chain to tell the brain the mission is accomplished.

If the myelin is too thin, it is not able to release enough of the neurotransmitters to get the "mission accomplished" impulse back to the brain. If the neurotransmitters are released less than 100% between each ganglia, the impulse may be dulled or fade away.

Need It To Feel Right

For some, anxiety is a big part of OCD. To feel okay, they need to play out the compulsion. To not act on the compulsion will produce more anxiety than they can tolerate.

As strange as it may seem, we had a cat who had this type of OCD. She would clean her paws and then move on to her neck, etc. If you would touch her paw after she cleaned it, she would have to start over.

Intrigued by this one day, I touched it several times to see what she would do. Now it got to the point that she licked almost all the fur off of that part of her paw. By the way, I would never had done that had I known she would have had such a reaction.

Contamination. Often causing the need to clean or wash hands excessively. Included in this is hand washing, wearing rubber gloves or using disinfectants.

Counting constantly, either outwardly or in your head.

Arranging or organizing in an extremely orderly fashion. For example, having to put all the heads of the play money in the same direction.

Needing to do rituals or things a certain number of times.

Making a list - you cannot do something without first making a list.

Hoarding things, often of no apparent value. For example, buttons which you will never need or broken things. Often children will hoard food.

Need of order or symmetry, such as aligning or balancing objects in view. For example, the fringes on a rug must all be straight or things on a dresser must have a mirror spacing on both sides.

Health obsession. For example, obsessively checking one's self or one's children for a disease to feel safe.

Having a hard time using something unless you have a back up. For example, buying 2 of the same book--one to highlight and the other which can "stay new".

Need for perfection.

Gambling compulsively.

Tourettes - unwanted repetative tics such as motor (jerking muscle movement) or vocal (such as barking, gruntin, or cursing).

Tugging at clothes. Not letting something touch your skin.

Workaholic - can't stop and smell the roses. Must be working to feel right.

Time and Action

Being habitually tardy or late. No matter how important, the person seems incapable of being on time. They will often be ready early, but end up getting to their destination late.

Procrastinating. For example, having your bills habitually late even if you have the money to pay them. Putting projects off.

Indeciviness - Not being able to make a decision. No choice seems right.

In test taking multiple choice is torture because the OCD sufferer can always find an exception to the rule. For instance, if the choice is yes or no and the question is ... "Is grass green", the sufferer might think, "well in a drought it can be brown and there is a Kentucky Blue Grass".

Asking for reasurrance over and over. Included in this is "nothing they do is done right", no matter how perfectly done.

Rituals

Eating rituals - such as avoiding a certain color, food or ritual (not letting a fork touch the lips).

Abnormal preoccupation with measuring food or counting calories.

High Morals

Scrupulosity (worrying excessively that a person may have done something wrong as it pertains to their religion), such as: thinking or saying something blasphemous or worrying that they had not done a religious ritual respectfully or correctly (repent, pray etc).

Intrusive or immoral thoughts about sex or hurting someone keeps popping into their mind.

Fear of causing phyical harm to someone. For example, fear of having run someone over with a car or fear of hurting your child.

This can either be directly or directly. The OCD sufferer might fear he is going to physically hurt someone (by suffocating them) or afraid it might happen if they do not satisfy a certain compulsion (if they do not start their car 3 times, they might cause a car accident).

Fear of saying something to make someone upset.

Phobias

An exaggerated fear or aversion towards something.

Especially:

Agoraphobia - fear of open places or being around people. Often the person can not leave their home.

Anorexia Nervosa (Self starvation), an eating disorder (fear of being fat).

Social Anxiety - Strong fear of a large group of people, excessive fear of social situations, fear of being embarassed.

Social Phobia - Strong fear of a large group of people, excessive fear of social situations, fear of being embarassed.

Miscellaneous

ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) - The inability to focus or keep attention on one task.

Anxiety Disorder - Excessive worry or fear, which can accompany increased heart rate, dizziness, shortness or breath, hyperventilation, heart pains, sweating or choking sensation.

Bi Polar - Manic Depressive. Being emotionally very up or very down (no middle ground).

Bulimia - (forced vomiting or purging), an eating disorder.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) - Repulsion for one's looks or certain physical attributes.

Self Harm - Cutting - Self-Mutilative Behavior. Cutting, burning or injuring one's own body

Mild Schizophrenia - Abnormal thinking, loss of contact with reality. Usually seeing and hearing things which are not there.

Trichotillomania - pulling out of one's hair.

Panic attacks - extreme anxiety which can be accompanied by an increased heart rate, dizziness, shortness or breath, hyperventilation, sweating or choking sensation.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) - The myelin of the eye, brain and spinal cord becomes thin or scarred, disrupting nerve impulses and body movement.

Nail biting and skin picking.

Having an excessive need for rules, lists and schedules.

Conclusion

Often times an OCD sufferer will have an obsession or a compulsion and at least 80% of OCD sufferers have both.

Often the Obsessions or Compulsions can shift, exchanging an old one for a new one.

As you can see, there are many more symptoms of OCD than washing of the hands. I totally believe that the diagnosis of OCD, no matter the type, is, in fact, just an indication that the person has a thin myelin.

Instead of getting hung up on which type someone has, I suggest they nourish the nervous system and the myelin protection which covers it.

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