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blacksheep
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01 Jan 2011, 10:59 pm

Hypothetically:

Let's say someone starts washing his hands repeatedly until they bled. When asking why he does it, he says he learned at school if he doesn't wash his hands he will get sick. When explaining further about germs and hand washing, the child stops washing his hands repeatedly.

If someone can stop a behavior just by explaining the logic, would this still be classified OCD? If not, what would it fall under?



Volodja
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01 Jan 2011, 11:04 pm

I would say that sounds like something someone with fairly severe autism would do, rather than someone with OCD. As in, they've misunderstood what they were told in school, taken it too literally



Chronos
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01 Jan 2011, 11:06 pm

blacksheep wrote:
Hypothetically:

Let's say someone starts washing his hands repeatedly until they bled. When asking why he does it, he says he learned at school if he doesn't wash his hands he will get sick. When explaining further about germs and hand washing, the child stops washing his hands repeatedly.

If someone can stop a behavior just by explaining the logic, would this still be classified OCD? If not, what would it fall under?


OCD involves a specific pattern of brain activity and compulsions usually have underlying intrusive thoughts and fears (obsessions) which does not respond to reasoning. Most people with OCD who are compulsive hand washers are not actually afraid of germs. They are tormented by the sensation/perception that their hands are dirty, and a strong compulsion to wash their hands to rid themselves of this sensation.

The "germophobia" associated with hand washing is usually not omnipresent as it would be in true germphobia. Rather, in the mind of the hand washer, certain things are perceived as "clean", in other words, will not cause the perception that the hands are dirty, and other things are perceived as dirty, and this generally follows little, if any logic.