"We all try to understand other people. Determining why other people behave or feel something is not easy to do. In fact, we do not always understand even our own feelings and behavior. Figuring out why people behave in normal, expected ways id difficult enough; understanding abnormal human behavior can be even more difficult."

I think there's always somewhere in me this urge to help people with psychological disorders. I believe that most of these disorders are curable or at least, the effects can be lessened. The only disheartening thing is when the victim himself gives up and resign to fate.

I am reading through my text now and since sy talked about OCD to me that day, here's the definition ...

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by persistent and uncontrollable thoughts or urges (obsessions) and by the need to repeat certain acts again and again (compulsions). Of course, most of us have unwanted thoughts from time to time, like an advertising jingle that gets stuck in our mind, these are DEFINITELY not symptoms of OCD. And most of us also have urges now and then to behave in ways that would be embarrassing or dangerous.

But FEW of us have thoughts or urges that are persistent and intrusive enought to qualify us for a TRUE diagnosis of OCD. For a diagnosis of OCD, the obsessions and compulsions must either cause marked distress or interfere with functioning.

Obsessions are intrusive and recurring thoughts, images, or impulses that come unbidden to the mind, are uncontrollable, and usually appear irrational to the person experiencing them.

Compulsions are repetitive, clearly excessive behaviors or mental acts that the person feels driven to perform to reduce the anxiety caused by obsessive thoughts or to prevent some calamity from occurring.

Symptoms may include some, all, or perhaps none of the following:

Repeated hand washing.

Repeated clearing of the throat, although nothing may need to be cleared.

Specific counting systems — e.g., counting in groups of four, arranging objects in groups of three, grouping objects in odd/even numbered groups, etc.

One serious symptom which stems from this is "counting" steps — e.g., feeling the necessity to take 12 steps to the car in the morning.

Perfectly aligning objects at complete, absolute right angles, or aligning objects perfectly parallel etc. This symptom is shared with OCPD and can be confused with this condition unless it is realized that in OCPD it is not stress-related.

Having to "cancel out" bad thoughts with good thoughts. Examples of bad thoughts are:
Imagining harming a child and having to imagine a child playing happily to cancel it out.

Sexual obsessions or unwanted sexual thoughts. Two classic examples are fear of being homosexual or fear of being a pedophile. In both cases, sufferers will obsess over whether or not they are genuinely aroused by the thoughts.

A fear of contamination (see Mysophobia); some sufferers may fear the presence of human body secretions such as saliva, sweat, tears, vomit, or mucus, or excretions such as urine or feces. Some OCD sufferers even fear that the soap they're using is contaminated.

A need for both sides of the body to feel even. A person with OCD might walk down a sidewalk and step on a crack with the ball of their left foot, then feel the need to step on another crack with the ball of their right foot. If one hand gets wet, the sufferer may feel very uncomfortable if the other is not. If the sufferer is walking and bumps into something, he/she may hit the object or person back to feel a sense of evenness. These symptoms are also experienced in a reversed manner. Some sufferers would rather things to be uneven, favoring the preferred side of the body.

An obsession with numbers (be it in maths class, watching TV, or in the room). Some people are obsessed with even numbers while loathing odd numbers (they cause them a great deal of anxiety and often make the person uncomfortable or even angry) or vice versa.

Twisting the head on a toy around, then twisting it all the way back exactly in the opposite direction.(see even body section)

Notice that these are very severe symptoms and doctors have stressed that slight exhibition of symptoms which does not cause EXTREME DISTRESS or DISCOMFORT does not qualify for the disorder.

Treatment? Lazy to type... but it's known as Exposure and Ritual Prevention. Go Wiki it, it's all there.

Now i've done this, i am ready for to choose this topic for my group project! Hah! =p