OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER

Mental disorder:
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern that occurs in an individual and is thought to cause distress or disability that is not expected as part of normal development or culture

Mental disorder or mental illness are terms used to refer to a psychological or physiological pattern that occurs in an individual and is usually associated with distress or disability that is not expected as part of normal development or culture.

Psychological disorder is when behaviour is either maladaptive for life functioning or when it causes personal discomfort or both

A mental illness is a psychiatric disorder that results in a disruption in a person's thinking, feeling, moods, and ability to relate to others.

I included 4 definitions so that you don't mix up psychological disorder with phobia.

I started about disorders with OCD.. coz me too a victim of it..
Web provides you with many definitions and explanations for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) with complicated nomenclature. I found the following theory reliable from webhealth.info

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by recurrent obsessional or compulsive acts, thoughts you cannot resist, even though you understand that you really do not want them.

Obsessional thoughts are ideas, images or impulses that enter the individual's mind again and again in a stereotyped form.

They are almost invariably distressing (because they are violent or obscene, or simply because they are perceived as senseless) and the sufferer often tries, unsuccessfully, to resist them. They are, however, recognized as the individual's own thoughts, even though they are involuntary and often repugnant. Compulsive acts or rituals are stereotyped behaviours that are repeated again and again. They are not inherently enjoyable, nor do they result in the completion of inherently useful tasks. The individual often views them as preventing some objectively unlikely event, often involving harm to or caused by himself or herself. Usually, though not invariably, this behaviour is recognized by the individual as pointless or ineffectual and repeated attempts are made to resist it; in very long-standing cases, resistance may be minimal. Autonomic anxiety symptoms are often present, but distressing feelings of internal or psychic tension without obvious autonomic arousal are also common.

Wiki says "The symptoms of this anxiety disorder range from repetitive hand-washing and extensive hoarding to preoccupation with sexual, religious, or aggressive impulses. "

Well, the treatments include prescription of drugs like SSRI's (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors), Tranquilisers, Inositol.. And in severe cases people undergo psychosurgery..

Psychosurgery: Psychosurgery has replaced the lobotomy procedure, which often produced unexpected brain damage and memory loss in patients. Psychosurgery involves severing or disabling certain parts of the brain with an electrode. Unlike the lobotomy, psychosurgery uses magnetic resonance imaging in order to select an appropriate place in the brain for surgery. More than a third of all psychosurgery patients report dramatic improvements in their OCD.

More reliable could be Psychotherapy: Cognitive behavioral therapy for obsessive compulsive disorder is highly effective. It is a type of therapy that focuses on changing thought patterns by altering behavior. The patient will be gradually exposed to the obsession which causes fear and told not to engage in compulsive behavior. With increased exposure, the patient will experience less and less anxiety as she realizes that nothing bad is happening. After ongoing treatment, 50% to 80% of patients cease all compulsive behavior.

Celebrities with OCD:
Cameron Diaz
Jessica Alba
Billy Bob Thornton
David Beckham
Alec Baldwin
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Donald Trump
Leonardo DiCaprio
Natalie Appleton
Harrison Ford
Howard Stern
Howie Mandel
Roseanne Barr
Fred Durst
Dan Ackroyd
Rose McGowan
Michael Jackson
Joey Ramone
Kathie Lee Gifford

Their obsessions include doorknobs, cracks in the pavement, blinking etc..

"I have OCD mixed with ADD(Attention Deficit Disorder). You try living with that. It's complicated," The Daily Telegraph quoted Justin Timberlake, as telling website Collider.com.
At times, this 27-year-old gets finicky about making sure that objects are always lined up perfectly.

Historic figures thought to have OCD:
Michelangelo
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson
Ludwig van Beethoven
Albert Einstein
Charles Darwin

A video about obsession of cleaning hands, I found nice.





well, OCD is just not about cleaning your hands, aligning things or similar activities. Its much more irritating as you gotta tackle the thoughts which you know are bad, unwanted but can't avoid.

Sources:
webhealth.info
http://www.ivillage.co.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org

Sufferers of all psychological disorders(including love), let me share my way of reducing when I feel I am the only one suffering.. A song in T.V. show which says "Tum hi nahi ho akele jahan mein, uljhe hai is mein sabhi sabhi" for love. If modified to suit universally, it means "You are not alone in this world struggling with it, everyone has to struggle with one or the other"