Difficulty of Giving Therapy to OCD Patients Essay

Total Length: 604 words ( 2 double-spaced pages)

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Difficulty of Treating Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders are difficult to treat for a multitude of reasons; first, there is no 100% proven-to-be-effective method of therapy that acts as a one-size-fits-all treatment for patient. Behavioral therapy is used by some therapists; others utilize medical therapy, such as Zoloft, Paxil or other prescriptions. Psychosurgery is also an option for patients who do not respond well to either treatments, but such surgery requires literally burning part of the brain and is noted as only having a 50% success rate (Psych Guides, 2015). The bottom line is that anxiety disorders are a complicated manifestation of an underlying issue within the human psyche for which medical science only has a limited understanding.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is one of the most difficult to treat primarily because it requires a strong and durable commitment to transformative behavior therapy such as cognitive behavior therapy. In cases where patients do not have a support system in place, this commitment can be practically impossible; thus, one of the main obstacles to treating anxiety disorders is the lack of a support system for the patient undergoing therapy.

The nature of the anxiety disorder or OCD complex is such that it serves to alienate the person who suffers it from others around them, thus intensifying and reinforcing the very problem that causes the alienation.

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This is seen in numerous examples, perhaps the most notable being that of famed recluse Howard Hughes, whose OCD/anxiety disorder served to essentially cut him off from the world around him (Sasson, Zohar, Chopra, Hendler, 1997).

One of the main issues associated with anxiety disorders and specifically OCD is the baseless fears that impact the patient's ability to function with any normative consistency; obsessions over germs, cleanliness; intrusive thoughts of aggression or sexual preoccupation; depression, fatigue, loneliness, isolation -- all of this impacts the mental functioning of the individual, weighs upon the person's will, manifests itself in outbursts or in uncontrollable tendencies to paranoia. These manifestations in turn cause relationships to become weak, to destabilize, for friendships to suffer, and for family (if any) supports to erode. In some cases, family can even be the cause of the anxiety/OCD, passed from one generation to the next (Wexler, 2013).

Another issue in treating OCD is the problem of finding the underlying cause of the disorder in the first place. While cognitive behavioral therapy can be helpful in….....

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"Difficulty Of Giving Therapy To OCD Patients", 04 July 2016, Accessed.4 July. 2025,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/difficulty-giving-therapy-ocd-patients-2161597