When it comes to OCD there are many things that the general public ignores, thus there are many misconceptions about the disorder. First of all what exactly is it? OCD is a disorder with a lifetime prevalence of 1.6 to 2 percent and which affects about 1 to 3 percent of children in the United States (Myrick and Green, 2012) , and is characterized by repeating and frequent thoughts that the patient recognizes as irrational and incongruous but that he or she cannot overcome or ignore. These types of thoughts are what are known as obsessions (Fenger, Mortensen, Rasmussen, and Lau, 2007). Since the disturbing thought will not go away, the person then engages in a series of rituals like ...view middle of the document...
So the misconception that a lot of people have that individuals with this disorder are just fastidious or fussy because they want to, is completely false and should be corrected because the people suffering of OCD cannot easily control their condition and most certainly do not choose to have OCD.
Then, knowing what OCD is, other questions that might arise are is it hereditary? And who does it affect? Some researchers say that there does seem to be a correlation between individuals with OCD and direct family members, but most argue that those percentages are not significant enough to say that OCD is a hereditary disorder because there have not been enough studies conducted. Dr. Kestenbaum says that when she looks at people that Suffer from OCD probably about 9 percent of their mothers meet the criteria to be considered with OCD, and not only that, but when looking at the father, about 25 percent of them meet the criteria as well. In addition, when looking at the siblings, specifically twin siblings the concordance is even greater. Dr. Kestenbaum says that with monozygotic twins, or identical twins, have a 65 to 85 percent concordance rate, and dizygotic twins, or fraternal twins) have about a 50 percent concordance rate (Jesitus, 2011). By concordance rate, in this case, it is meant that of all the twin siblings of individuals with OCD, about X percent also meet the criteria for being diagnosed with OCD. Although, the discovery of a new “OCD gene” could corroborate that the disorder can be carried in some families, more often than not, heredity does not seem to be a contributing factor to the onset of OCD (Rowh, 2007). So there is some evidence that may lead some to think that OCD is hereditary, and that evidence is indeed astounding, but when the whole spectrum of the disorder is looked at, heredity plays too miniscule of a role to be considered the cause of the disorder. As far as to who is affected by OCD, the answer is anyone. It seems as if the disorder affects mostly adults, but the truth is that most adults with OCD report that their symptoms started early on in life during childhood (Myrick and Green, 2012) at an average age of about 12 (Stewart et al., 2011), the disorder continues to expand in frequency and acuteness while in the teen years, and continues to develop with time (Myrick and Green, 2012). Nevertheless, many children or even teens are embarrassed about their symptoms and obsessions and choose to hide them for fear of what others might think (Mueller, 2002), and this contributes to the postponement of seeking help which in turn explains why many people have the misconception about OCD affecting mostly adults.
Furthermore, not only does it take long for some individuals with OCD to seek help, but a lot of them seek help for entirely different reasons. This happens because OCD symptoms can be very similar to symptoms of other psychiatric disorders (Myrick and Green, 2012). An example of this is that frequently individuals with...
