Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - A Case Study

Samantha was 23 years old and she lived with her parents and to everyone outside of her family appeared perfectly normal. This was until she got home from work. Once she was home her obsessions and compulsions would take over her life. Her obsessions would take up 70% of her time at home. The rest of the time she slept. This had been going on for the past 7 years gradually getting worse and worse. She would repeatedly check and recheck everything in the house, she would have to have everything in a certain order, or she would have to start again with her obsessional rituals. Samantha was finally referred by her parents who just didn't know how to help her anymore. Through a course of CBT we managed to look at her core beliefs about her obsessions and her thoughts about this. We managed to work together to help challenge the beliefs and create meaningful experiments to challenge these beliefs and predications and so gradually reduce her OCD until now she is OCD free and more able to manage her life, create a social life and enjoy her life to her full potential.