Author Archives: Vanessa Fladmark

Do you ever feel the need to do things in threes? Do you obsessively apply things such as hand sanitizer or chap stick? Do you feel that if you do or don’t do a certain thing that harm may come to you or someone you know? These are all possible symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_t_in_dc/4800819674/

The best way to explain obsessive compulsive disorder is to explain the acronym OCD. Patients with this disorder can have obsessive or compulsive tendencies or both. The obsessive aspect has to do with constant thoughts, worries, or fears that the mind revolves around. The compulsions are repetitive actions, often done a specific number of times, or actions repeated throughout the entire day such as constant cleaning or grooming or inspecting safety issues such as making sure the stove is off and double (or quadruple!) checking that the door is locked.

Although this disorder is often underdiagnosed or diagnosed as something else, I just want to mention that just because you have one or more symptoms of ocd (I know I do!), that doesn’t mean we have the disorder. In fact, it’s only a concern when it interrupts with our daily life that we should seek therapy and/or medication for help.

There are many examples of obsessive compulsive disorders in the media such as It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia where a main character’s mother turns each light switch on and off three times every night. “Mrs. Kelly, why are you doing everything in threes?” “Oh. So Charlie doesn’t die.” The characters deemed this crazy at first but then her son began to take on her obsessive compulsions (because he too became paranoid about his life being supposedly on the line) and his friends pick up on these habits as well. “One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. You’re right Charlie, I feel better about this. More in control.” (Copyright FX)

Which brings me to my next point about addressing the question, is this disorder hereditary? Is this fictional Charlie character doing everything in threes because he made a conscious decision to do so or is it inherited in his genes? As it turns out, OCD is passed down through our genes. A study was done that showed that immediate family members of someone with ocd have a 25% chance of having the disorder as well . When studies were done on twins, it was found that there is a 50% chance of both the twins having ocd and there was a 90% increase in the likeliness of identical twins that shared the disorder compared to fraternal twins.

Another example of obsessive compulsive disorder in a popular sitcom character is shown below. Notice how Sheldon feels the need to knock three times, even when knocking isn’t socially required, and how he gets uncomfortable when he can’t complete at least three or when someone interrupts his routine of doing so.