I ran across an article on wikipedia recently I found interesting. Instead, it touts itself as OCD without the outward manifestations and only “both the anxiety-inducing obsessions and relief-seeking compulsions of OCD take place in the mind.”
Left untreated, Pure O can be debilitating to the sufferer, who often finds work and social time consumed by the condition. While OCD is an anxiety disorder, the longterm effects of its stress can include exhaustion and depression.
Recent developments in treatment of type “Pure O” OCD has been very successful, with improvement/remission rates of 90-100%, according to specialist on purely obsessive OCD Dr. Steven Phillipson, Dr. S. Rachman and others. New York based Phillipson in fact classifies “Pure O” as a psychological condition rather than a mental illness or disorder.
Pure O” is a highly treatable condition that can be cured, however it requires the right kind of professional treatment/therapy and an absolute determination to become better. Successful treatment ranges from 4-6 months (milder cases) to 1-2 years for the average case.
A person with Pure O experiences periods of intense rumination that are triggered by intrusive or unwanted thoughts, sometimes called “spikes.” Spike traits vary widely by individual, dictated by personal makeup and circumstance. Some frequently cited illustrations include:
- A heterosexual man is making love with his wife when the name of his male best friend happens to flash through his mind.
- A loving mother spots a pillow and has a momentary apprehension of infanticide.
- A young bachelor checks a mirror prior to a date and feels a surge of confidence, but shortly afterward cannot recall what exactly led to that feeling of pride.
- An aspiring painter glances at one of her works and experiences a sense of insecurity about her abilities.
- A son is eating a cake his mother made for him with great care and love. He suddenly gets an idea how nonsensical it would be to throw the cake into trash instead of enjoying it and then telling his mother that he enjoyed it.
- A passenger is waiting on a train platform while the train is coming. He has a thought of what if he did a sudden erroneous movement and fell under the train.
Of course, these instances are not unique to those with Pure O; they are the sorts of day-to-day emotions and quirks experienced by human beings across the board. And for most people, such thoughts are passing and benign; at worst, they are momentarily jarring. For the Pure-O sufferer, however, such thoughts can be the spikes that induce panicky obsession, leading to an amplified sense of fear or self-doubt.
To neutralize the perceived danger presented by the spike, the Pure O is compelled into rumination, an often intricate mental routine driven by a pressing need to “solve” the fear or uncertainty. Ruminations vary from person to person. One type of rumination may involve continually reconjuring an unpleasant scenario. Another example might be an effort to precisely recall the sequence and order of thoughts that led to the spike.
These ruminations can be highly scary. For the example with the train, the passenger would normally react with stepping back a bit to be more safe and forgets the matter. However a Pure O sufferer after stepping back starts worrying about what if these thoughts actually increase the probability that he makes the erroneous movement? After longer time he starts worrying about the time spent with these thoughts and starts worrying if persisent intrusive thoughts of this kind actually cannot cause him a temporary impulse of disabled judgment when the train comes next time and him jumping into the rails actively.
These ruminations are accompanied by anxiety ranging from mild to severe, and can endure for extensive stretches, often hours at a time. Sufferers have described episodes that persist over a series of days. In most every instance, the rumination is all-consuming, essentially taking full occupation of the mind. During rumination, sufferers often find themselves unable to turn their focus to anything else, including “legitimate” sources of stress or danger. For instance: Genuinely bad news — say, word of a friend’s hospitalization — may not trump or even penetrate the anxiety felt by an OCD sufferer who is ruminating on even a seemingly innocuous matter.