If you’ve spent more than an hour washing your hands today, checking that the front door is locked or TV is switched off, or found yourself plagued by recurring, irrational ideas you might be one of the hundreds of undiagnosed sufferers of OCD.
For many in Abu Dhabi, suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder is an isolating, frightening experience. The anxiety-related illness can take many forms, but often sufferers experience repetitive and intrusive thoughts and impulses that they find impossible to ignore. These thoughts form the obsessional part of obsessive-compulsive, and they usually cause the person to perform repetitive compulsions in a vain attempt to give themselves some relief.
A new community support group just launched at The American Center is starting to provide the support that those with the disorder need. In the US, approximately 20 per cent of mental health patients are diagnosed with OCD, but here in the UAE it’s more like five per cent. According to the American Center’s medical director, Dr Yousef Abouallaban, this is often because people don’t recognise the condition for what it is. ‘In the UAE, because of the lack of awareness, people think the ideas they are having are strange, ridiculous, absurd, so they feel ashamed to talk about them in front of anyone and don’t come forward. In fact, we’ve found it takes an average of 17 years between people experiencing symptoms and coming to seek treatment.’
Although there are many people who might quite casually describe themselves as obsessive, Dr Yousef explains that there are two features that distinguish those with OCD from perfectionists. ‘There are two factors that make the difference. Number one is the excessive amount of time spent on the obsession and compulsion. The diagnostic criteria is more than one hour daily – washing their hands or fixing clothes, for example. In extreme cases people spend 10-15 hours on these activities.’ The other factor is the impact on the life of the person with OCD. ‘If the person feels his or her productivity, occupation or education is affected, and is annoyed by this but cannot resist their compulsion.’
The usual treatment of OCD includes medication and therapy, but community support is a particularly useful tool, says Dr Yousef, because one of the issues with OCD, as well as other psychiatric illnesses, is that people think they’re the only one in the world who is suffering. And a particularly significant benefit of having such a group here in the UAE is that for some Muslims with OCD the problem of isolation is compounded. ‘For Muslims, there is a lot of confusion about obsession, because in the last chapter of the Koran there is a verse about the devil whispering to people to make them dwell on negative or bad things. But these are two very different issues. OCD is a disease and needs treatment, while the devil whispering is an entirely separate thing.’
Dr Yousef says the group will provide a place for people to support each other. ‘They can teach each other the techniques they have used to help themselves and also be proactive in bringing more awareness to the community. People say, “I’m scared, I feel I’m going insane,” then they sit together and see many people are suffering from the same problem. These kinds of groups are widely spread in the US and Europe, but here they are not available, so we wanted to take the initiative. It will help sufferers enormously.’
Groups take place on the first and third Mondays of each month at 7pm and are free of charge. The American Center, Khalidiyah, next to Khalidiyah Mall (02 666 4866).
