Steffie wakes up in the thick of the night. Not because she has an early appointment. She is confirming that the front door is locked, or the gas is turned off. This could happen twice or thrice in one night.
Not just that. The 25-year-old has super-attention to orderliness; she will constantly ensure her books and clothes are symmetrically arranged. Always.
Whereas double-checking something once in a while is considered routine, mental health experts warn that if it is repetitive and interferes with your daily life, you could have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
Some of the other manifestations of this condition include frequent hand washing, constant checking and cleaning of appliances and being a nitpicker for time and order, as Steffie shared.
“I prefer that items are neat, aligned and straight, facing the same direction,” said Steffie in an interview, adding that marks and smears on surfaces irritate her.
That a certain colour, day of the week or time of the day is associated with bad luck, a constant fear that stepping on cracks in the pavement can make bad things happen are other indications of OCD.
In an interview with The Standard on Saturday Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town, Dan Stein, said OCD is diagnosed if a repetitive behaviour (that is a compulsion) takes up excessive amounts of time, causes significant distress and anguish and interferes with the social activities and relationships of an individual.
“The most common obsessions centre around concerns of contamination, harm, hoarding, and sexual, somatic and religious preoccupations, while the most common compulsions include washing, checking, repeating, ordering, counting, and hoarding,” says Prof Stein.
Steffie, a Third Year student at a local university, says the condition has not only cost her friends, but at 25, her dating life is almost non-existent due to her repetitive thoughts and actions.
OCD can be accompanied by other mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol dependence and eating disorders, Prof Stein said.
Some persons also hate parts of their bodies as they consider them abnormal or unattractive, a condition known as Body Dysmorphic Disorder.
Some of the most common symptoms associated with OCD include developing a certain numeric pattern based on superstitions as seen in Steffie, who prefers working with even numbers and with multiples of five.
“When am setting the clock, I round off the minute hand to the nearest even number like 2.40 pm instead of 2.39 pm. It’s neater that way,” she said adding that sometimes she also counts her footsteps as even digits.
The condition affects about one per cent of persons in the United States, and Stein estimated that about the same proportion of Africans could be affected even thought there is no data.
Steffie confesses that she is a neat freak: “I arrange clothes based on the specific days I wear them. I also do not wear more than two colours at any one time.”
During this interview, Steffie chose a black outfit from head to toe and accentuated it with a grey handbag that also matched her belt.
A fast talker, Steffie spoke without stammering, to ensure her points were clear. If they were not, she repeated all the sentences she had uttered.
Psychiatrists categorise obsessions based on an assessment whether an individual has persistent, unwanted and unpleasant thoughts that dominate their thinking affecting their everyday lives.
At a recent meeting by mental health experts held in Nairobi, Prof Stein had good news for persons with this condition: “There is proper treatment to break the OCD cycle.”
He underscored the need for an assessment by a psychiatrist to understand the triggers of the condition and also have a clearer understanding of their social network and familial relations. “Treatment goals also encompass minimising medication adverse effects, helping the patient develop coping strategies for their OCD and related stressors, and educating the patient and family regarding the disorder and its treatment,” said Prof Stein, who has authored 30 volumes on psychiatry including ‘Cognitive-Affective Neuroscience of Mood and Anxiety Disorders’.
Treatment can either be given as drugs or as psychotherapy, with the latter is grounded in in dialogue, in a supportive environment where the affected person talks openly with an objective, neutral and non-judgmental professional and leads them towards happier, healthier and more productive lives.
And whereas medicine and therapy are steps towards recovery, Steffie appreciates the role of non-judgmental friends and family who accept that OCD does not define her identity.
