All that eyes cannot see!

Han is a good student. One day her teacher calls her to give her some extra responsibility. She is used to doing extra work and in fact likes it. This particular day she is extremely overworked and forgets about the job her teacher gave her. Her teacher is upset but she understands the poor girl’s plight. However, Han is not one to forgive herself so easily. She now fears that the teacher hates her and over-analyses everything the teacher says. This makes her overthink all her actions and words and makes her mind function like a machine in overdrive. While the above story about Han seems very possible or common, these kinds of symptoms are extremely common in people who are susceptible to OCD or already have OCD. In these scenarios the obsessions and compulsions are overt and out there for the world to see but are hidden away in the labyrinth of the mind. This is known as covert OCD. Covert OCD Covert OCD is the type of OCD that has mental compulsions as opposed to physical compulsions. These are extremely common among people who suffer from OCD. This compulsions include covert rituals and mental neutralizations. The mental neutralizations include over reassuring or excessive praying. This also on the long run affects the person adversely. These include over praying or over confessing. These obsessions are purely in your head which makes it extremely difficult to detect as OCD. Diagnosis A 1994 study by Lee Baer about OCD classified it into three types Symmetry/Hoarding, Contamination/Checking, and Pure Obsessions. It was thought that there were types of OCD that resulted only in mental agony because there were no obvious compulsions. This though didn’t fit the definitions of OCD because OCD essentially meant that the obsessions and compulsions go hand in hand. Mental rituals are restricted to what the person does or says to themselves and hence it is hard to diagnose. For OCD you need both O and the C and only when they are recognised can they be systematically targeted using therapy. Homosexual OCD and psychopath OCD are some types of OCD that fall under this category. This kind of OCD is still largely ignored because it is invisible but it is essential that therapists and psychiatrists dig a little deeper.