Nearly half of all people alive today will be diagnosed with a mental health condition of some kind. Of those people, more than one-quarter of them will have two mental health disorders at the same time. At least seventeen percent will at least three. This is called co-morbidity, and it’s a topic that demands more attention. Let’s focus on one common example.
A co-morbidity of depression will exist in about half of those who have been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This can make it challenging for mental health practitioners to make accurate diagnoses and assign proper treatment plans.
OCD and Depression: Does One Cause the Other?
This question is not as easy to answer as it might sound. As research continues, opinions can change. But, generally speaking, most incidences will involve OCD emerging first. (It’s extremely rare for the two conditions to arise together.) Many professionals currently view depression as an outcome of OCD.
Meanwhile, although no direct cause of OCD has been identified, there are factors believed to play a role, e.g. genetics, family history, childhood trauma, brain-related problems, and more. Whether OCD is an accepted cause of depression can vary. Anyone familiar with the daily signs of OCD will not find it hard to imagine that these symptoms could result in a mood disorder.
OCD Obsessions and Compulsions Can Contribute to Depressive Episodes
As the name implies, OCD features obsessions and compulsions. These behaviors can seriously hamper a person’s daily functioning and thus increase the likelihood of mood swings — and eventually, mood disorders.
Everyone has intrusive thoughts. However, within the realm of OCD, these thinking patterns are called obsessions. They are severe, chronic, and feel very urgent. Such obsessions create an artificial need for the performance of rituals ostensibly designed to soothe the intrusive thoughts. OCD compulsions are not logic-based and most people realize this. That said, they still prioritize their compulsions in the hope they will offer a modicum of relief from the obsessions.
In reality, though, the obsessions and compulsions are time-consuming, exhausting, and frustrating. Adding to that is the fear that others are watching and judging. This combination of factors is depressing by any definition and reinforces why proper treatment is critical. When anyone with OCD learns the skills to better manage the associated symptoms, they are better equipped to fend off feelings of sadness and grief.
Overlapping Symptoms
Treatment Is Available
The typical protocol for an OCD-depression co-morbidity is to address OCD symptoms first. Simply put, there is a far better chance that reducing OCD symptoms will reduce depression than the other way around.
It’s not about finding a “cure,” to speak. Instead, your therapist will use techniques like exposure and response prevention (ERP) to help you decrease the control that obsessions and compulsions can have in your life. People with the OCD-depression co-morbidity tend to respond well to this approach.
From there, you can partake in valuable self-help steps to complement your treatment. For example, anyone with both depression and OCD must remain physically active. Also, they must resist the urge to withdraw and self-isolate.
If all the above sounds daunting, that’s understandable. I’d love to help explain it in further detail at your earliest convenience.
