S2C3. Factors Impacting Recovery: What Accelerates or Hinders Progress in OCD

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Two factors significantly impact recovery in OCD—the severity of OCD and the efforts made.

Severity: The first factor is the severity of the disorder. The Y-BOCS test that determines the presence and severity of OCD provides five levels of severity—mild, moderate, severe, very severe, and extreme. A sufferer who has mild OCD has a better chance of faster recovery than a sufferer who has severe OCD. The biological influence in a sufferer with severe OCD is higher than in one with mild OCD. So, other things being equal, the lesser the severity, the faster the recovery process can work.

Many sufferers assume that the duration for which they have had OCD will also determine whether they will recover or not. However, that is not true. Regardless of the duration for which one has had OCD, recovery is possible. It may possibly take longer if you have had OCD for a long time because of the psychological inflexibility that may have set in. But that is all.

In the Worksheets for OCD file, the Y-BOCS Test (Goodman et al., 1989a, b) has been provided as PT2. Discuss each question with your family, understand it well, and complete the assessment to know what your level of OCD is. We work to reduce this score. 

Efforts: The second and equally important factor on which recovery depends is the effort put in by the sufferer. Recovery from OCD needs a lot of work. Sometimes the process gets derailed here. Some people may want to put in conditional effort. They may say, ‘I am willing to work on my OCD, but it should not affect my sleep.’ Or, ‘I am willing to work on my OCD, but it should not affect my work.’

Recovery does not work that way. If you fall in a pit, you would not say, ‘I will try to get out so long as it does not spoil my clothes.’ You would prioritize getting out of the pit over everything else. Similarly, your effort in recovery from OCD should not be conditional effort.

Some people say, ‘We shouldn’t have to work on our OCD. What are the doctors doing? What are we paying them for?’ Well, you are paying them for telling you how to put in the recovery effort. Just as merely paying a gym instructor will not automatically get you a ripped body, paying doctors and therapists does not guarantee automatic recovery. You need to put in the effort of working out in the gym to get a ripped body and practice ERP to manage your OCD.

Some people may pretend to work on their OCD but may not practice ERP well, or at all. ERP is not easy. But if one wants to recover, one needs to continue to work on oneself, regardless of how difficult and painful the process is. Also, merely pretending to work on it is futile because you should not be working on your OCD for others anyway. You should want to get better for yourself.

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