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The current health situation has had an impact on the pace of therapies to alleviate so-called OCD. Many of them lose effectiveness when they are 'online'.
Washing your hands again and again may seem like a common habit today to prevent the spread of coronavirus. However, when done compulsively it is one of the most recurrent examples of a type of manifestation of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Between 2 and 3% of the population suffers from this disorder, however, the TOC Zaragoza association warns that many people are not diagnosed. They experience it with "loneliness and incomprehension", a fact that they attribute to a lack of information, that repeated gestures or thoughts can be confused with manias, and to the stigma that still exists in society.
"Now you can't tell them not to wash their hands"
The pandemic has aggravated some of the OCD symptoms known to the Zaragoza association, both for fear of infecting oneself and for fear of infecting others. "The patients who are suffering the most from the situation are contamination OCD who, for example, tend to compulsively wash their hands, put on masks or apply gel," says María Pilar Monreal Híjar, president of TOC Zaragoza. For this reason, she points out that it is "complicated" when working with Exposure and Response Prevention (EPR) techniques, which consists of exposing people to what they fear, exercising the brain. "Now you can't tell them not to wash their hands," she acknowledges from the association.
Added to these cases are those who suffer from responsibility OCD. "These people usually have a feeling of guilt about whether they are going to infect or harm others..." adds Monreal, one of the founders of the association, created by three families. Furthermore, as a result of confinement they have perceived more interest in the association. "With the pandemic, cases of OCD that were latent have been accentuated," says Monreal. "They have been unleashed.
Events that produce strong emotions, such as the death of a loved one or failing exams, already produce instability, a pandemic can generate "more difficult" contexts. This worsening, which can be combined with depression, leads to "greater suffering." "When the situation worsens, it does so for them and their families," says María Pilar, a relative of a person with OCD. The association indicates that confinement has had a negative impact on the patients' health, although they took advantage of the half hour that they were later allowed to go outside.
On the other hand, this fear of becoming infected or contagion has an impact on other patients not leaving their homes, in some cases for almost a year, and therefore not attending the psychological clinic in person. For this reason, it is evident that the pandemic has disrupted the rhythm of therapies, which have to be very continuous, and with it their subsequent recovery. In addition, capacity restrictions are also a handicap when carrying out therapy, since only three patients and the professional can meet. The association claims this situation since they have enough space to maintain distances.
