Purely Obsessional OCD | Pure-O

Purely obsessional OCD, also known as Pure-O is a rarer form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that manifests itself through the lack of any noticeable compulsions, which are often seen in regular OCD, such as counting, washing, checking, playing with patterns, etc. This is not to say that there are no repetitive behaviors in a sufferer of Purely Obsessional OCD; it is just that these behaviors are mostly a result of excessive mental meditation. In other words, a purely obsessional OCD person may have obsessions as compulsions but they only appear on a mental level and not on a physical level.

As an example, a pure-o sufferer may have mental rituals with their own thoughts instead of various objects such as counting their thoughts or the need to do things perfectly. Similar to regular OCD, these mental rituals are done to relieve anxiety but they only prove to be a short term superficial solution. The sufferer then starts to do them more often for more mental relief and sooner or later they enter a downward self-reinforcing spiral in which it gets harder and harder to escape the disorder.

Regular people usually have similar thoughts to purely obsessional OCD sufferers but they respond to these thoughts more relaxed, they see them as insignificant, they ignore them and consider them as a normal part of human life. On the opposite, purely obsessional OCD sufferers consider such thoughts as alarming and they strive to remove them and stop thinking about them. That is because their minds are filled with doubt as to whether they are capable of managing the effects of the thoughts should they materialize.

Here’s a list of the most common thoughts for purely obsessional OCD sufferers:

1. Thoughts related to sexuality – such as doubts over one’s sexual orientation despite being involved in a healthy relationship.

2. Thoughts related to religion – such as thoughts related to sacred aspects of one’s religion.

3. Thoughts related to health – such as a strange fear of getting diseases through impossible methods.

4. Thoughts related to another person such as thoughts on whether the sufferer has done them harm unintentionally or they will eventually.

5. Thoughts related to violence.

6. Other less frequent thoughts.

Pure-o sufferers may seem like normal folks to many but inside themselves they spend a lot of their mental capacity on various obsessive thoughts.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is generally considered to be the most effective treatment for pure-o sufferers, particularly Exposure & Response Prevention and Cognitive Therapy coupled or not with various drugs such as the SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor). SSRIs are used for the treatment of various mental disorders including depression and personality disorders and they work by increasing the extracellular level of serotonin. Compared to regular OCD sufferers there seems to be an aversion of pure-o sufferers toward an Exposure & Response Prevention treatment.

This concludes our article on purely obsessional OCD. If you want to add on top of what we wrote here or if you’d like to share your experience with purely obsessional obsessive compulsive disorder then don’t hesitate to post a comment.

No related posts.