Essay Sample about Depression, OCD and ADHD

There are many misconceptions when it comes to mental disorders. Most people only associate disorders with their most well known symptoms, and even then people can be very misled. Depression, OCD, and ADHD are considered to be among the most misunderstood.

Depression is often viewed as just feeling incredibly sad, or as an excuse to be lazy. This could not be farther from the truth. People with depression can often feel restless and irritable. They also often lose interest in activities they used to find enjoyable. Sometimes, sadness can be replaced by feelings of emptiness. Depression can also have many physical symptoms, such as lack of appetite, lack of energy, physical pain, and difficulty sleeping. Not everyone with depression has all of the same symptoms. This also means that no single treatment will work for everyone. Medication and therapy may work for some people, but for others it may not. Even if someone can find the right treatment, there isn’t a real cure, despite what some may think. The best that can be done is lessening the symptoms.

OCD, or obsessive compulsive disorder, is a disorder that is considered by many to just be perfectionism. OCD is a lot more severe than this, however. OCD is primarily defined by someone having obsessions and compulsions, as the full name states. Obsessions are recurring thoughts that cause great distress. Some examples of obsessions include fear of contamination, feeling a lack of order, fear of harm, and other intrusive thoughts such as hurting someone else or losing control of themself. In order to try and get rid of these obsessions, they will use compulsions. Compulsions are actions that can be done to relieve stress or prevent a feared event. Compulsions may not even be connected to the obsession, but they feel like they must do it in order to relieve themselves, otherwise they become anxious or distracted. An example of an obsessive-compulsive behavior would be opening and closing doors a certain number of times in order to prevent something bad from happening. Some common compulsive actions are checking, cleaning, rearranging, and repeating. When people think of OCD, they tend to only think of the cleaning or rearranging aspects, and not on as large a scale as they actually are. Due to these compulsions often being irrational due to the actions not being able to logically prevent something from happening, people may be led to believe that if people with OCD know that what they are doing doesn’t make sense, they will stop doing it. People with OCD can’t just think or will their way out of their obsessions and compulsions. However, there are other possible ways to help with both of these issues, such as psychotherapy, relaxation techniques, and medication. Just like with depression, there is no one method that will work for everyone.