What Doesn't Cause OCD?

Your Child Can Get Better With Effective Treatment

Information for Parents

What Doesn’t Cause OCD?

People who have OCD didn’t do something to cause OCD. OCD is a neurobiological disorder, not a condition that is caused by an action or inaction.

Common misperceptions about the cause of OCD include:

STRESS. Stress does not cause OCD, although sometimes symptoms begin after a severe trauma, such as the death of a loved one. Other stress triggers include birth of a sibling, marriage, divorce, a move to a new home or new community, transition of a child to a new school year, or even a natural disaster, such as an earthquake. And OCD symptoms may increase in times of stress.
ILLNESS. Childhood illnesses do not cause OCD, although some studies suggest that a strep infection may trigger the sudden onset of symptoms in children who are genetically predisposed to OCD.
PARENTING. No evidence exists that would link OCD with the way parents guide or discipline their children. Even the worst parenting doesn’t cause OCD. Parents should not be “blamed” when a child exhibits symptoms of this disorder. However, parents of OCD children need to develop special skills to help their children.

OCD Chicago’s guide, How to Help Your Child, is a good source of advice, and OCD Chicago can help parents find effective treatment for their child.

Order or download How to Help Your Child

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Helping an Adult Child

Expert Perspectives

Self-Directed Treatment for OCD: The Irony of Doing the Opposite

I remember a movie in which one of the characters went around asking people to define the word “irony.” Although most of them seemed to know what it meant, they were unable to put it into words. Not until the end of the movie did one of them give the definition. I’m reminded of this because the continuation and elimination of OCD symptoms are perfect examples of irony or the occurrence of outcomes that are opposite to those that were intended. You have probably been steering clear of triggers for your obsessions and doing compulsions after contact with those you couldn’t avoid. Ironically, instead of lessening your distress, what you have been doing is sustaining or even worsening your condition. To get out of this quagmire, you have to start doing the opposite of your strategy up until now. This means deliberately making contact with the triggers while refraining from doing compulsions. With enough exposure to the triggers, and for sufficient periods of time, you will notice that they become powerless to provoke distress, and the absence of distress eliminates the need for compulsions. See what I mean about OCD and irony? Exposure, ritual prevention, and awareness exercises are used to achieve this.

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