Mental Disorders: A Case Study Of Alison Dotson's Obsession

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is, “a mental disorder that causes uncontrollable unwanted thoughts or feelings making the person feel compelled to do something repetitively to reduce the intruding thoughts.” For example, a person that obsesses over feeling dirty constantly and not feeling clean even after taking numerous showers will continuously wash themselves. This repetitive act will consumes the person life and interfere with their daily routines creating distress and discomfort for them. The thought of constantly feeling dirty is an example of an obsession. This obsession then leads to the person to engaging in compulsions to decrease the intruding thoughts of feeling dirty. Therefore, constantly washing oneself or engaging in certain
She was unaware of the disorder she was suffering from was treatable. The only thing Alison knew was that she had been in distress from disturbing and very unwanted thoughts for over a decade. Alison symptoms begun with her counting while performing tasks to end on a “good” or “safe” number AND repeating body movements such as tapping, touching or blinking. For example, Alison had a habit of counting every syllable of conversations, her thoughts and even song lyrics on each corner of her feet (P.20 Dotson). She would start counting beginning with her big toe on her left foot and count in a figure eight because eight syllables were ideal to Alison. In addition, sixteen, twenty four, thirty two were perfection as well to her. During a conversation if the person didn't land on eight syllables or didn’t end on the beginning of the counting cycle Alison would feel compelled to respond, so it was corrected. Alison felt that if she didn't respond she would began to feel uneven weight on her big toe on the left foot and it would become heavier. As a kid, Alison experienced another symptom of OCD. She would fear that she would get a disease. This fear occurred when she watched a movie or read a book that included an ill character. She immediately became that concerned she would be affected as well. For example, when
However, it is not a label similar to a nametag instead it is a label that identifies a person exceptionalities. Also, having a label helps a person to know what exact treatment and help to seek. Before Alison was diagnosed she suffered with OCD for too long because of various reasons. First, she was convinced that she would be judged and refused to tell anyone what was occurring in her mind. Second, she was afraid that the doctor would think it was not OCD and the other diagnosis would be much worse. Nonetheless, Alison said “I felt a lot better after being diagnosed, but I wasn’t magically cured (p.56 Dotson). Once she was diagnosed with OCD she felt a sense of relief because she was no longer curious of what was going on. Instead, she had finally been given a label for the symptoms she had undergoing for years. After she was diagnosed Alison received treatment to help control and minimize her obsessions. The treatment Alison received was medication, helping to lessen the symptoms of OCD. The medication her psychiatrist provided her with were antidepressants. Although, medication is typically the last resort, Alison greatly benefited from it. For example, her anxiety was eased extremely while boosting her mood, helping her to take on her obsessions with more