Vann 1

Erykah Vann
UWRT 1102-010
Professor Deby Jizi
6 April 2016
Research Essay: OCD in America
When I was seven years old, I was suspected to have OCD. When my mother told me that
the doctor said this, I was confused. I did not know exactly what OCD was but I knew a little
information because my cousin, who I was close with, had OCD. She would constantly
straighten her room and house and if anything looked out of place to her at my grandmothers
house or even in a store, she would be quick to fix it. As I thought about it, I was for sure that I
did not have OCD because my room was far from extremely neat and if something looked out of
place it was usually because I was the one who put it that way. Even though I was sure that the
doctor and my parents were crazy the doctor was still confident in her test that I had OCD. The
doctor sat me and my parents down and explained that I had OCD just a different form of it. That
was the first time that it had been brought to my attention that there are actually different forms
of OCD. I always thought that if you had OCD then you were a person that loved everything neat
and cleaned everything multiple times but obviously I was wrong. The doctor notified me and
my parents that I had a form of OCD where I was considered a Checker. Later in the paper there
will be an explanation of exactly what a Checker is. In my small amount of research, I read that
there are actually five different categories of OCD. This made me more interested in my topic
because I am sure that many people were like me and thought that if someone said they had OCD
then that just automatically meant that they were some kind of crazy neat freak and obviously

Vann 2
that is not right and all who have OCD should be treated with different treatments and considered
different because they are all not dealing with the same issues.
This topic would be important because as a society we are always looking for ways to try
to help people and by my research there are actually a lot more people dealing with this disorder
than the world thinks and if we can get some people interested in this than maybe we could find
a treatment that would help the people with different conditions to deal with their disorder easier
or even maybe find a cure. No, this may not be as serious as cancer but it is still a kind of disease
that people are struggling with everyday. The question that I am looking for an answer to is how
many people in America have this disorder? This question is significant because as a society we
sometimes do no try to fix something until it is significantly affects a large amount of people and
if they see that there is actually a large amount of people being affected then maybe somebody
will try to do something about it. This paper may actually not affect anyone or arise curiosity in
anyone. Most people may not really care how many people struggle with OCD everyday, but
even though most people may not care there will be a few people who are like me and want to
know more about something that they themselves or someone close to them deals with on a
regular basis.
According to an article there are five different categories of OCD. There are the washers,
checkers, doubters and sinners, counters and arrangers, and hoarders and there are about 3.3
million people in the world that fall into one of these five categories (Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder). Like I said before I was identified as a checker by my doctor. A checker is someone
who constantly check things that are around them. An example of this is if someone asked me for
a certain number of something, I would have to check that one thing multiple times out of fear
that it is not the right number or somehow the first five times I checked I did not count it right.

Vann 3
That was what I did when I was a child, but an example of what I do today is when I turn in
some homework online, I would have to check that it was put in correctly multiple times until I
felt it was really done correctly and everything was fine. Before even going into detail of what
are the categories of OCD an article explained to me what OCD can be defined as. The website
defined OCD to be a chronic mental health and the people with this disorder have obsessive
thoughts and repeated physical or mental acts (Nichols 2015). Another question that formed from
this information is how do people contract this disorder? According to a website article, The
exact cause of this disorder runs in peoples families and genetics also play a role in this
disorder (Gluck 2013). I felt all of this information related to my topic because if I wanted my
question of how many people have this disorder, it would be helpful to know what different
symptoms and categories that the people with this disorder actually have and deal with and then
it would be great to know how these people get this disorder. This information actually raised
another question that in my head and that was, what is the number difference between the
amount of children and adults that have this disorder? I found out this answer from a news video
that said, all the children with OCD account for 0.3-1% of the pediatric population while adults
with OCD accounts for 2% of the adult population (OCD Instills).
In the end, I think the information I got from the video seemed to be the most convincing.
I thought the video was most convincing because it was a documentary of a young girls life. It
just seems to me that when somebody talks about what they have dealt with in life, or are
currently dealing with, that is when it makes the information they are speaking on much more
real and true because it is someone speaking on their own life experiences not something they
read about. The video is where I think I got the best answer to my question. My question was
how many people in America have the disorder OCD? This video source gave me the answer that

Vann 4
about 2.3% or 3.3 million people in America have been identified as having OCD. Even though
my original question was pretty basic, that one basic took me to sources that sparked my
curiosity about other parts and question about this disorder. At the end of my research I started to
add another question which was what kind of treatment or possible cures are there for this
disorder? The only thing I could really find was a video source that said there was a possible
corrective surgery for Parkinsons disease that could also work for OCD. The source described
how the surgery is mainly working to shock the areas in the brain that are not firing correctly and
the area that is usually affected this way in someone with OCD is behind their ear near the
temple (Mcfadden 2016).
What I got out of this paper was I realized that there are way more different categories of
OCD then I originally thought. I knew of a few of the categories but after some research I saw
that there are more than I thought. My discoveries have made me feel as a person who has OCD
that I am not alone in what I deal with. Sometimes when you are someone with a disorder or
some kind of sickness you may feel that you are all alone with no one to understand your
struggle but if you can find some people who can understand you it can make a difficult situation
easier to deal with. Even after all of this research I have done, I am still curious about more
possible cures for this disorder. My conditions are not as severe as some other people so I am not
necessarily trying to find a cure for me but I think it would be great to find some kind of
treatment or cure that could possibly make dealing with OCD a little easier. I did find one
surgery but I think that if people in our society could put their heads together they could
definitely think of something. there may be already some things out there and I would love to do
more research and try to find out. What other treatments or cures are there for OCD are there, is

Vann 5
probably my unresolved question from this paper. this paper was a fun and interesting thing to do
and I am interested with how far my curiosity will go after doing this.

Vann 6
Works Citied
Gluck, Samantha. "OCD Causes: Is OCD Genetic, Hereditary? - HealthyPlace." HealthyPlace.
Life Healing Center, 19 May 2013. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.
McFadden, Maureen. "Surgery That Treats Parkinson's Disease Now Helps OCD Patients."
Surgery That Treats Parkinson's Disease Now Helps OCD Patients. South Bend IndianaWNDU 16, 26 Feb. 2016. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.
Nichols, Hannah, and Dr. Helen Webberley. "Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Causes.
Symptoms and Treatments." Medical News Today. MediLexicon International, 26 Nov.
2015. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.
"Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).: Symptoms, Behavior, and Treatment.
HelpGuide.org, Feb. 2016. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.
"OCD Instills Irrational Fears in Children." ABC News. ABC News Network, 24 May 2014.
Web. 03 Apr. 2016.

1. Are the in-text citations correct?

2. Is paragraph 3 too wordy or needs more?
3. Is my heading on the paper correct?