How To Support Someone Who Has OCD
If you know someone who has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), you understand how challenging symptoms can be for them.
OCD is a mental health condition that can cause significant impairment in a person’s life. Though OCD seems like a rare disorder, it impacts more people than one might initially believe. While 1.2% of U.S. adults experience OCD each year, the estimated lifetime prevalence of OCD is 2.3%.
When we have a loved one suffering from a mental health condition, we often just want to help them; we often just want to know the right words to say or actions to take to ease their burden.
Helping someone with OCD can come in many forms.
Tips For Supporting Someone With OCD
Education
There are a lot of misconceptions about mental health disorders - OCD included. Thus, being educated about OCD is an important step in supporting someone with the diagnosis.
First, understand that there is no single cause of OCD. However, possible risk factors include (but are not limited to) high behavioral inhibition in childhood, stressful or traumatic events in childhood, exposure to infectious agents, and genetic predisposition.
Second, OCD may present as obsessions, compulsions, or both. Obsessions are recurrent and intrusive thoughts, urges, or images that are neither desirable nor voluntary. Obsessions are unwanted and may cause marked distress and anxiety.
Compulsions are repetitive behaviors used to minimize or suppress obsessive thoughts. The objective of compulsions is to reduce anxiety or prevent an unwanted outcome. However, the nature of compulsions often does not allow its objective to be met. Rather, the nature of compulsions may further perpetuate impairment.
Compulsions can include:
Checking rituals
Counting rituals
Repeating words or phrases
Excessive touching, tapping, or rubbing
Extreme organization to ensure symmetry and order
Inflexibility and rigidity
Ask Questions
Sometimes, you don't know the right words to say to help someone experiencing symptoms of OCD. Or you doubt you can do anything to provide comfort. When you understand the different signs of OCD, you may also become aware of ways to support someone in times of distress. Often times, you can ask the individual with OCD how to best assist them. Whenever you ask questions, assess the situation to ensure the timing is appropriate. Furthermore, gauge when asking questions actually brings more discomfort than comfort. Remember, your job isn't to fix OCD. Rather, your goal may be to recognize, acknowledge, and support.
Help Them Engage in Positive Distraction
If you notice someone struggling from symptoms of OCD, help them to find ways to relieve the negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors they may be facing. To encourage positive distraction:
Suggest going for a walk together. Exercise can effectively release feel-good chemicals such as serotonin or dopamine. These chemicals promote relaxation and happiness and can be tremendously useful for someone who is dealing with OCD.
Suggest mindfulness techniques such as deep breathing and focusing on the present. Over time, these techniques may become automatic and can alleviate obsessive thoughts and deter compulsive behaviors.
Recognize When They Resist A Compulsion
There's a common misconception that people with OCD do not realize they are completing ritualistic or compulsive behaviors. It may not be that a person doesn’t realize their behaviors. Rather, it may be that they do not know how to stop compulsive behaviors at times.
When you notice that someone is partially or fully able to resist compulsive behaviors, acknowledge their effort if they prefer this form of support. Acknowledgement can be affirming, encouraging, and uplifting.
Consider or Suggest Treatment
OCD is a very real mental health condition. If you or someone you know is suffering from OCD, reach out to us for OCD Treatment.
