Hello, I'm Koelle and I'm Kevin welcome to this week's a mental breakdown
mental it gets a good breakdown keeping that in there
just grabbed my toes they were like it was like toe holding or hand-foot
holding feet hold hand-holding what I'm trying to it's like when you never
mind I know what you're trying to say but you said eight things yeah all right
what are you gonna say my armpits smell really bad do they I can't wait to take
a shower oh yeah and I've worked tonight to we this is my only day off work we
really didn't work yesterday you are awful you're out of town but I'm gonna
be busy don't be busy Andrew is taking an extended hiatus off work and so they've
moved me to bar and so nice play was like I need help find the bar and I was
like okay that's cool yeah that's cool I don't see you need a bit of a break
lovey-squee like the bar
all righty guys this week's mental breakdown topic is going to be drum roll
obsessive compulsive disorder I know I think I have this lookie no okay so
oh my god I'm pretty sure I have that that's terrible that's so good now I
think I've pinpointed the disease but I heard the diagnosis that I could have
really I'm also not a psychiatrist but I'll actually do that one right next
one I'm gonna do that one so do what your own diagnosis the one that I think I
could be dying like so much fun yeah I'll let you talk now no you're fine so
kind of the reason that I want to talk about OCD is because I feel like it's
thrown out so much no people like oh it's just my OCD but it's not but it's
not no I see the actually you know what I mean like and it's it's it's kind of
interesting that we throw it around so much like it's so yeah yeah like oh my
gosh this lights on I must turn it off it's it's triggering my OCD you know
yeah which okay so in order for you to or one to be diagnosed with obsessive
compulsive disorder at this point we'll just call it OCD you have to have the
presence of one or both of these behaviors so it's a it's a this is
straight from the DSM 5 it is one a recurrent and persistent thought urge
or images that are like experienced at some point at some point during the
disturbances you're experiencing so disturbance of intrusive thoughts you
know disturbance of unwanted thoughts and it causes stress and anxiety so you
have to have that right recurrent persistent thoughts and possible addition
to so number two the individual attempts to ignore or suppress the thoughts
urges or images or neutralize them in some way with a thought or an action and
it's done by performing a compulsion yes so it's you're already having intrusive
thoughts and you want these thoughts to go away so it's you're creating another
thought or an action to distract your brain from that or in some type of a way
to prevent that thought so you count to ten three times right that could be
considered a compulsion right a compulsion so what I wondered though is
because it said it's the presence of one or both and so does that mean that you
could have one without the other but you can't have the other without the first
one no you know what I mean I think you could have one without the other on
either or but if you have recurrent and persistent thoughts or just images and
it's intrusive I think you could have that without the compulsion that's what
I'm saying but I don't think you can have the compulsion without the thought
because the compulsion itself comes from the fact that you're trying to prevent
the thought that you're having do you know what I mean I get what you mean it's
like having non-gmo it were organic you can have something non-gmo but it's not
organic but if it's organic it's already non-gmo that's a good that makes sure so
I just wondered about that because it really didn't describe them that in the
DSM 5 I'm sure if I did a little bit more research and then I probably find
that so what are compulsions you ask but wish you didn't but I didn't but I'd
like to know so compulsions are defined as repetitive behaviors so that's like
hand-washing which is like what would be manifesting as a physical one or it
could be a mental act like counting or repeating words silently over and over
again and this person feels like they are driven to perform these in a response
to an obsessive thought or according with the rules that are applied so like your
compulsion might be not the same as my compulsion just because of the thoughts
that I'm having are different yes and I again I said this earlier somewhat
jokingly I think that I exhibit some signs and symptoms of OCD I don't think
that I have enough to be diagnosed with it but the compulsions that you're
talking about I have a persistent and intrusive thought when I lay down
somebody's gonna break in somebody's gonna break in I get up three or four
times just to check the locks yes that is consistent with those that is right and
so yes you've hit the nail on the head for yeah because that's part of what a
compulsion is so the other half of the compulsions are that the behaviors or
mental acts are aimed at preventing or reducing the stress that you're already
experiencing or preventing some dreaded event or situation so it comes with like
the sense of fear right you're fearful of something however these behaviors or
mental acts either are not connected in a realistic way with what their disease
is designed to neutralize or prevent or are clearly excessive so that's part of
it it's like there's a disconnect so one might one person might be like well I
don't want anybody to come into the house so I'm gonna lock the door and that
one time you check is sufficient but when you are like you said laying in bed
and having repetitive thoughts repetitive thought like it's not gonna go away
until I touch that doorknob to make sure touch that lock right so that is I would
consider a hint of OCD even a hint but yeah even if I fucking turn the top
bolt lock in the door handle I still jiggle the door to make sure that I do
that too but I wouldn't know I like if that's necessarily like I feel like it's
a reasonable compulsion and I think that that's that's what this is saying here
is that when it's irrational yeah like you having to check a light switch a
billion times because you're afraid it's somehow going to cause a butterfly
effect that will kill your family now those are two thoughts yeah that don't
seem like they're connected in some way and so that's what this is saying it's
like the behaviors are not connected in a realistic way yeah and so that's that's
what can be considered a severe OCD and I've heard cases where people you know if
I don't say the pledge of allegiance three times in a row I'm going to fall
off of a cliff today or something right like things like that you're right like
those things seemingly don't have anything to do with each other but the
brain puts them together as if okay if I don't do this then this will happen right
or vice versa if I do this then this won't happen exactly yeah so just some
warning signs you may have OCD if the obsession or compulsions you're
experiencing are time-consuming i.e. they're taking more than an hour out of
your day or it caused clinical significant distress or impairment and
social occupational or other areas of function that's also something that you
like experience when you're watching TV and you have let's see somebody on Dr.
Phil who has OCD compulsions like they have a compulsion to you know turn their
car on and off five times before they start driving otherwise they're going to
be in an accident and it takes forever and a lot of these people it sucks because
they can't they can't get to work on time it's affecting their daily life
exactly can't pick up their child from school on time or whatever it is so
another one of these are a disturbance your experience is not better explained
by symptoms of another mental disorder okay so which is kind of interesting when
I was reading this I was like okay that that totally makes sense so these
examples are excessive worry as in general anxiety disorder preoccupation
with appearance like a body dysmorphic disorder difficulty discarding or
parting with certain possessions in hoarding disorder hair pulling as in
tricked atillomania like pulling hair disorder repetitive patterns of
behavior like autism spectrum disorder and the list goes on unless it's like
explained with a different type of disorder that may be present and then thirdly
the disturbance you're experiencing is not due to a direct physiological effect
of substance abuse basically drug abuse medication or a general medical
condition and that's everything which really is and so that's I maybe that's
why it's so easy for people to say oh it's my OCD and and be tossed around a
little bit more maybe yeah and what I thought it was really interesting is like
when I tried to look up killers with OCD there were a lot of other more
prevalent mental disorders on some of these cases like Ted Bundy had narcissistic
personality disorder and things like that but OCD may be a co-morbidity with
right just not as prevalent exactly and and like I said with that that list that
goes on I mean it literally touches on everything in the DSM 5 it is as long as
it is not any of these other things yeah it might be possible it's possible and so
again I like you said co-morbidity is huge with this and it manifests in a lot
of other diagnosis yeah I just think it's silly when someone says like you know I
walked into the house and it was dirty and I cleaned it because you know my OCD
like no that's like what everyone does when something's dirty they clean it
yeah if you are obsessed with obsessively cleaning like you can't have a
speck of dust on something that's different right just cleaning because
there's clutter is not OCD and I think it's funny because not funny but I think
it's ironic because a lot of people think that OCD is that but it's completely
different right yeah it's a lot more detailed than you think I can't can I
consider myself to be a bit of a germaphobe like I don't share drinks or
smokes with people or anything like that I if I if I feel like I have something
nasty on my hands I'll wash it but it's but it's not hindering my everyday life
and I don't think I'm doing it because I'm going to die or someone's going to
die and I think that it coupled with that obsessive thought is what makes
that's you know it's obsessive compulsive disorder so it's
coupled with the thoughts of obsession over something that seems like it would
be trivial or rational and then then comes the compulsion and I think that
that's the thing that a lot of people are missing is that they feel like they
have a compulsion to or maybe even a strong habit of making sure all your
whites are put together when you put them in the washer or whatever that might
be a really good habit or a strong habit that you're exhibiting but it's not a
compulsion a compulsion is the need to do it because of the obsessive yes so
yeah that was a good way of putting it so what I found to be really interesting
is that the case of OCD can be exacerbated by the type of insight that
the person has about their own diagnosis so if you have a good or a fair
insight about what OCD is the individual can recognize that obsessive
compulsive beliefs are definitely or probably not true or that they may or
may not be true so if you recognize that you have this and you're you have a
pretty good insight that yeah the thoughts may or may not be true or or
not true yes and that way you know it kind of opens up the gateway into
recognizing your own diagnosis and and learning to cope with it yeah and I
think that goes for any of these diagnoses if you if you learn about it
and you know exactly what's causing it exactly why you're thinking the way
that you're thinking what you're doing the things that you're doing it's a
lot easier to like kind of cope with like when we talked about DID as soon as
not as soon as but you know when you get the proper knowledge of DID and what
what it is and why it happens it's a lot easier for them to deal with the their
everyday life right is DID you know which which can also spill into the
stress that you're experiencing yeah and if your stress levels are lower you're
probably likely to like have less compulsions so so with that with poor
insights like you know enough about it but maybe you're not doing your due
diligence enough and and learning about how your brain works and that the
individual thinks obsessive compulsive disorder beliefs are probably true yeah
so they it's one of those like it may or like it it's probably true so I'm
gonna go ahead and do it anyways yeah I'd rather be safe than sorry exactly and
if they're not if they're not sharing these thoughts with other people then
they've not been told otherwise and they have no reason to believe it's not
true right so with the absence of insight or with delusional beliefs the
individual is completely convinced that obsessive compulsive disorder beliefs are
true yes and of course can be detrimental yeah great mind-stick like
yeah unfortunately obsessive compulsive disorder treatment may not result in a
cure but it can also bring symptoms under control so they don't really your
daily life so you can be able to daily function function daily depending on the
severity of your OCD some people may need long-term on ongoing more intensive
care it was really interesting again like we kind of touched on it I couldn't
find any killers that had OCD that didn't have another more severe mental
disorder or condition but what I did do instead is I we like to always add it
like pepper in some famous people wringlin so of course one of the more
famous cases of OCD that we see regularly is howie mandel right he's a
germaphobe howie mandel what I found it really interesting in researching him
is that he doesn't talk about his coping like skills or the way that he copes
with his OCD at all because he's afraid to put out information that people think
is like accurate yeah for everyone and those he says he said everybody's an
individual what works for me work that's what works for him so he doesn't want to
put out any of this information like it's the truth or like it's a cure or like
it's gonna help everyone I think that's really cool like that he chooses not to
talk about what he does but he's so comfortable in talking about who he is
well that's that's a smart move on his be had that's an educational you know
educational approach to that yeah is to not say something especially knowing
how big his platform is right how easily people are influenced by celebrities so
I think that's really smart yeah I do too so Maria Bamford she is my favorite
female comedian she is hilarious she does like voice stuff like when in her
stand-ups she's just so funny and so unique I was really surprised this year
on this list so actually I don't remember the source but in an interview
she that she did she was talking about how when she was like nine or around that
age like adolescence that she would lay awake in bed because she was afraid that
if she fell asleep she would murder her parents and not know what and that she
was afraid to wake up to them dead and then I heard that yeah but that was an
obsessive thought so she was like through ages like nine to whenever she would
just came to lay in bed and just obsess over that thought and she was afraid to
go sleep so she just didn't sleep at night isn't that interesting yeah that
your brain can get such a young age to that your brain just what you know I
mean I feel like children can have irrational fears that's a pretty severe
fear yeah and that's again where you see the obsession of the thought of killing
her parents or losing her parents and the connection that she made with the
compulsion to stay awake yeah and it seems so irrational right like if I lay
awake I will save my parents this one seriously is so personal to me it's
sugar from BTS oh my gosh I did not know that I didn't either and I was
researching and I was like sugar from BTS oh my gosh that he deals with OCD he
says that he's written quite a few songs but more specifically a song called
the last is about his journey through seeking help for his OCD and yeah yeah
about his struggles with OCD as well so the last one that I have for you is
Leonardo Caprio what? I don't know like he's just one of those people that like at
any age I'm like yeah he just seems like so candy and I mean I don't know him
obviously personally but like he just seems like such a genuine person yeah
and that's why in his acting you know I've not seen a lot of interviews about
him or anything but so he actually played a part in a movie where he was
portraying a person with severe OCD and that he really recognized that he did
struggle with things similar to that although not as extreme but he says even
to this day he has to catch himself walking in and out of doorways multiple
times and so he tries not to be as forward presenting with his OCD and so he
constantly tries to catch his own behavior but I found that was really
interesting yeah super interesting and again we say this every mental breakdown
but if this is your first one listening you know just goes to show that there
are so many people that live with these diagnoses not even diagnoses but these
struggles and we're you know symptoms maybe they're not diagnosed daily basis
and it's a difference in availability insurance money that if you get it
treated or not you know and so don't be quick to judge somebody based on
something that they literally can't control and most of the time they can't
get help for right or they don't want to because they're embarrassed or
stigmatized or whatever so just a friendly reminder right and of course we
mentioned before that the comorbidity between OCD and other disorders is very
high and so if you do experience thoughts like that and you feel like
they're abnormal I mean you know or someone mentions them to you that they
might be abnormal maybe maybe talk to someone you know I mean you would hate
for it to manifest into something else yeah and I like to say you know therapy
of course is not cheap getting diagnosed for something is not cheap however use
your free resources talk to your parents talk to your friends talk to anybody in
your family that you think is you know willing and able to at least listen don't
rely on anybody to diagnose you or anything like that but if you need
advice and you're not in a position financially where you can get professional
advice at least on your friends and your family and you ask them just not even
ask but just vent just talk about whatever is bothering yeah the interesting
thing about OCD is that there are so many resources online about it when you
talk about different types of therapy or you know I know there's like meditation
there's that exposure therapy there's another one even talk therapy is good
for yeah things for sure well thanks for bringing I didn't know you were gonna
do that one and I'm glad that you did because I mean I still I always learn
something even though I'm like oh I know exactly what this is about I still it's
nice to even just get like a reminder like a refresh on like the exact like
professional diagnosis like the scientific words and stuff right that's
what I want to how it's defined exactly and that's I mean one of my goals is to
be able to you know talk about certain things like that and sound you know
intellectually developed and and know exactly how to explain it so that
everyone understands and I don't sound like right I'm leaving something out you
know yeah absolutely I love that the DSM 5 is out there and accessible to people
because if that is the true definition and I feel like especially when we're
talking about personality disorders or schizophrenia spectrum that there's so
much misinformation that all of the definitions are are just kind of pulled
from different areas and what you think in your head or what people might think
or society might think is the true definition of a disorder so to really
read it in black and white is kind of huge yeah and learning about again
comorbidity or what those specific compulsions are or mean or the difference
between that and another type of a disorder I think is really huge because
when you're speaking to someone or someone wants to come to you and approach
you about this topic you know I I know a little bit more you know I know that
like it just again it's full circle back to that fact that everybody says
that's my OCD yeah so whenever you hear that phrase people according to
diagnosing a killer mental breakdown nope you do not have OCD and it should be
taken seriously and I feel like it shouldn't I mean there was a place in a
time where people said things about you know retardation and stuff like that and
how and to me that word affects me and I don't you know I don't like when people
use that word yeah and so you know I'm glad that the progression of words like
the words and the verbage that we're using is changing yeah and so I would
hope that we come across a day or a time where people don't go oh it's just my
OCD yeah or it's my hypochondria or it's my whatever and especially if you have a
diagnosed with that yeah and that people could take it seriously and you can
speculate all you want like I do but I also like to mention that I am not
diagnosed with it I just think that I may be able to be but it's only only with
the proper proper prognosis and you know and evaluations by a professional I
definitely do not try to self-medicate or self-treat any of these symptoms
yeah without making sure that of course what's going on and I do think that it
again piggybacking off of the thought that we are progressing so much so far
as a culture just especially I mean just worldwide culture in general
recognizing mental illness and mental disorders I think that what's so
important you know when we say things like it's my OCD it's my whatever that
we recognize that when we use those terms and when we say those things I
think that's what allows us to be introspective and realize that these
diagnoses and these disorders are not far-fetched yes that everybody can relate
to something like OCD everyone can relate to personality disorders
antisocial you know these aspects of things and I think that instead of us
using these terms we need to understand that like people really do struggle with
these disorders but have empathy of course because it is not far-fetched
people get people have these disorders of course and just we all have brains we're
all capable of these things and just yeah and it's not something that you'll
know I mean like we talked about in this good different spectrum that isn't
presented in females to the late 20s early 30s so when you're 17 18 19 even
mid 20s you know it sounds bad but it's still possible you know you're not as
different as you want to think and we're not by any means saying that everyone's
gonna develop a mental disorder at some point in their life but just be aware of
the fact that it can happen to anybody and just be yeah and that was your
sister your brother your father your mother your cousin your boyfriend your
whatever yeah you would want people to be empathetic towards that so not be so
quick to judge mm-hmm
got it she said I think my phrase is for lack of a better term I say I'm not
too but I say dummy a lot too I say I listen to the Robert DeFaero case
Robert whoa I listened to the Ronald DeFeo case and I said idiot like 18 times
I mean it was fitting but I was like idiot do you know a better word than that
no anyways thank you guys for joining us for the mental breakdown yes season
it's November it's November thanks give me mental breakdown yeah we'll do it
we'll have to do a Thanksgiving episode yeah that'll be awesome all right guys
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that I said I was gonna go watch the Astros when Game 1 of the World Series
we lost but I'm gonna go watch the Astros when game 6 of the World Series
right now