DSM 5 Diagnostic Criteria

Obsessive compulsive disorder commonly (OCD) can be defined as an anxiety disorder differentiated by acts of compulsiveness or continual thoughts of obsession. Persistent thoughts, images, and desires are characteristics of obsessions. These thoughts, images, and desires are not typically willed into one’s mind as they are often senseless, illogical, aggressive, taboo, etc. Compulsive acts are unrealistic and repetitive behaviors. The fear of contamination with germs, dirt, or grease is the most common obsession, which leads to thoroughgoing or compulsive cleansing rituals. Religion, sex,

OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is the unwanted recurrent thoughts, actions, or impulses and repetitive behaviors and actions that a person feels driven to perform (Obsessive Compulsive Anonymous World Services, 1999). People suffering from OCD perform a variation of strange rituals everyday uncontrollably. There are different types of compulsive behavior people with OCD display. For example, hoarders fear that something bad will happen if they throw anything away or give anything away. They compulsively hoard things that they don not need or use. These victims of OCD can become obsessed with not only performing actions, but with keeping objects and possessions.

1. The repetitive behaviors/mental acts that the client feels driven to perform in response to an obsession or according to rigidly applied rules.

The false belief is not accounted for by the persons cultural or religious background or his/her intelligence. The client experiencing this will hold on firmly to the belief regardless of the evidence to the contrary, the client is absolutely convinced that the delusion is real. Delusion are symptoms of either medical, neurological or mental disorder.

When a false belief involves a value judgment, it is regarded as a delusion only when the judgment is so extreme as to defy credibility (Willem 2007). Delusions are generally accepted to be beliefs which are held with great conviction; defended and reinforced; automatic; defy rational counter-argument/irrefutable; and would be dismissed as false or bizarre by members of the same socio-cultural group.

In contrast, the adaptive features of these behaviours are more obscure even to the individuals themselves. Often they can not explain the real reasons for their behaviour because the reasons are outside of their conscious awareness. In fact, if they were aware of what motivated their behaviour, they could possibly change it, either through their own efforts or by asking for help and getting support from therapists or friends and family. Therefore the presence of a symptom signals that the individual has an underlying conflict.

These unconscious thoughts come from a certain part of the mind where they are ‘supressed.

Once an automatic thought occurs within the individual, it triggers a feeling, which in turn triggers the individual’s response, such as a behavior and/or physiological response. For example, after a young child begins to pick up his blocks to be put away, his mother rubs him on the back and gives him praise for his actions. His automatic thought may be, “I am good when I put away blocks,” triggering a feeling of confidence, an increased level of physical energy, and the behavior of putting away the remaining blocks.

The article, DSM-5 Criteria for Substance Use Disorders: Recommendations and Rationale, discusses the reasoning behind changes that occurred in the DSM-5 in regards to substance use. The article discusses the reasoning as well as the research for redefining terms and the addition (and removal) of certain criteria. One of the notable changes was combining dependence and abuse rather than keeping them as two separate components of addiction. Additionally, the criterions in assessing addiction were revised. Consensus among “DSM-5 Substance Related Disorders Work Group” led them to drop criteria of legal problems while adding craving of drug of choice. The work group modified diagnostic criteria, the revision now requires that two or more criteria

"OCD patients have a pattern of distressing and senseless thoughts or ideas- obsessions- that repeatedly well up in their minds. To quell the distressing thoughts, specific patterns of odd behaviors- compulsions- develop." (Gee & Telew, 1999)

Persistent fears that harm may come to self or a loved one, an unreasonable belief that one has a terrible illness, or an excessive need to do things correctly or perfectly, are common. Again and again, the individual experiences a disturbing thought, such as, "My hands may be contaminated--I must wash them"; "I may have left the gas on"; or "I am going to injure my child." These thoughts are intrusive, unpleasant, and produce a high degree of anxiety. Often the obsessions are of a violent or a sexual nature, or concern illness.

Belief perseverance is the act of resisting change in our ideas and beliefs once they have been created. When there is evidence that leads us to believe in something, it is very hard to shift away from that belief despite any contradictory information about our original views (Nisbitt & Ross, 1980). Belief perseverance interferes with critical

Abnormal behaviors are extremely complex disorders which psychologists have been trying to explain for many years. Over time, there has been many theories and perspective created in order to help explain these phenomenon’s. Many of the perspectives discussed in our chapter 2 reading attributed these behaviors to a singular factor and while certain perspective may work for a certain person, they cannot be applied to all. Even when two people suffer from the same disorder, their symptoms, situations and underlining cause are often very different.

A multiple regression analysis was run to predict delusional ideation from pathology severity, perception, memory, speak vs. hear, and imagine vs. hear with forced entry. There was linearity as assessed by partial regression plots and a plot of studentized residuals against the predicted values. There was independence of residuals, as assessed by a Durbin-Watson statistic of 2.011. There was homoscedasticity, as assessed by visual inspection of a plot of studentized residuals versus unstandardized predicted values. There was evidence

Obsessions are unwanted ideas or impulses that repeatedly well up in the mind of a person with OCD. These are thoughts and ideas that the sufferer cannot stop thinking about. A sufferer will almost always obsess over something which he or she is most afraid of. Common ideas include persistent fears that harm may come to self or a loved one, an unreasonable concern with becoming contaminated, or an excessive need to do things correctly or perfectly. Again and again, the individual experiences a disturbing thought, such as, "My hands may be contaminated -- I must wash them" or "I may have left the gas on" or "I am going to injure my child." These thoughts tend to be intrusive, unpleasant, and produce a high degree of anxiety. Sometimes the obsessions are of a violent or a sexual nature, or concern illness. People with OCD who obsess over hurting themselves or others are actually less likely to do so than the average person. Obsessions are typically automatic, frequent, distressing, and difficult to control or put an end to by themselves. With these reoccurring obsessions continuously being played in the sufferers mind, they start performing repetitive acts that reassure them that their hands aren’t dirty, or the gas for the stove is turned of. This response to their obsession is called a compulsion.