OCD can be harmful if not treated early - psychiatrist

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental illness that, if not treated early, can badly affect the people living with it, an expert says.

Psychiatrist specialist of Pantai Hospital in Sungai Petani Dr Mohammad Farris Iman Leong Abdullah said OCD could affect the daily life of the person to the extent of not being able of working or having friends, or worst, experiencing symptoms of psychotic disorder, such as hallucination.

“There are people who are not only living with OCD but also showing symptoms of psychotic disorder. For example, they can feel so dirty and contaminated to the extent of seeing (hallucinating) the germs and virus on their hands. This kind of OCD can lead to psychotic disorder,” he said in an interview with Bernama.

Elaborating, Mohammad Farris, who is also a medical lecturer and psychiatric expert at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Advanced Medical and Dental Institute, said there are five types of OCD, but the common ones are contamination and pathological doubt.

Those suffering from contamination OCD are individuals who always think that they and the environment are dirty, while those suffering pathological doubt OCD are mostly in uncertainty, he explained.

Among the effects, said Mohammad Farris, was compulsions and obsessions, whereby the sufferers feel the need to wash their hands repeatedly or having an extremely long shower.

“I once have a female patient who would go for a six-hour-long bath as she feels contaminated and must clean up perfectly. Same goes to doubtful behaviour where the patients would excessively repeat the same activity such as checking whether or not the house door has been locked or the iron plug has been switched off,” he said.

At the same time, he added, there were people with OCD who suffered other mental illness such as depression and they are prone to act out of control such as committing suicide or hurting other people.

“So, if someone has OCD symptoms, don’t be shy to see the experts,” he said, adding that OCD can be treated using medicines and psychotherapy.

To ease the healing process, Mohammad Farris said the public should stop from labelling a person as crazy just because he or she went to see a psychiatrist because not all mental illness was considered as ‘insanity’.

“There is only one mental illness categorised as insanity which is schizophrenia. The public must be aware of the importance of getting early treatment should they experience symptoms of mental illness,” he said.

- Bernama