Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Roger Basseck.
Speaker 2: And I'm Gillian Woodward. Spotlight uses a special English method
Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live.
Speaker 1: The boy was afraid that creatures from another planet were
Speaker 1: going to take over his mind. He had been reading
Speaker 1: a book for older children called Animorphs. In the book,
Speaker 1: these creatures called yerks could climb into a person's ear.
Speaker 1: The yerks could control a person's movement, but the person
Speaker 1: would still be aware inside. He would watch as the
Speaker 1: yerks moved his body. He could not control his own
Speaker 1: body's movements.
Speaker 2: This idea was so troubling to the boy that he
Speaker 2: started to feel his ears for the creatures. He knew
Speaker 2: that yiks did not exist. He understood the difference between
Speaker 2: a story world and the real world, but he was afraid.
Speaker 2: Whenever he thought about the yeks. His fear went away
Speaker 2: only if he put his fingers in his ears to
Speaker 2: make sure the yorks were not there. As time went on,
Speaker 2: he had to check many times each day before the
Speaker 2: fear went away. Some days it got so bad his
Speaker 2: ears bled.
Speaker 1: This young boy had obsessive, compulsive disorder or OCD. OCD
Speaker 1: is a disease of the mind. It is characterized by looping,
Speaker 1: fearful thoughts, and repeated actions. Looping is a pattern of
Speaker 1: fearful thoughts. Sufferers often feel trapped. They feel caught in
Speaker 1: a repeating loop or series of thoughts and behaviors, But
Speaker 1: there is hope for people who have OCD. Today's spotlight
Speaker 1: is on obsessive compulsive disorder.
Speaker 2: When most people use the phrase OCD in English, they
Speaker 2: are not talking about the real obsessive compulsive disorder. When
Speaker 2: they say someone is OCD, they mean someone is neat
Speaker 2: or likes to clean. Often, a person called OCD may
Speaker 2: be embarrassed by particular actions, but this person does not
Speaker 2: truly have obsessive compulsive disorder. However, a person with a
Speaker 2: real OCD diagnosis may sometimes feel the need to be
Speaker 2: neat or clean.
Speaker 1: The truth is that OCD is a difficult disease to
Speaker 1: talk about. Each OCD sufferer has two different symptoms, obsessions
Speaker 1: and compulsions. An obsession is a thought or series of
Speaker 1: thoughts that a person with OCD cannot get rid of
Speaker 1: or stop thinking about. A compulsion is an action that
Speaker 1: person feels forced to do obsessions cause compulsions, and compulsions
Speaker 1: reinforce and continue obsessive behavior.
Speaker 2: OCD affects each individual in different ways. Like the boy
Speaker 2: from the introduction, an OCD sufferer may have the need
Speaker 2: to check something over and over again. He may clean
Speaker 2: obsessively because he fears the dirt will make him sick.
Speaker 2: He may avoid crowds because he is afraid he will
Speaker 2: hurt someone. He may pull his hair until the skin
Speaker 2: has turned red and clumps of hair are in his hands.
Speaker 2: He may visit his place of worship over and over again,
Speaker 2: afraid he has done something that will anger his God.
Speaker 2: He may do all of these things or only one
Speaker 2: of these, hour after hour after hour, day after day
Speaker 2: after day.
Speaker 1: These are outer signs of OCD behavior. This is what
Speaker 1: most people see, but the disorder is best described as
Speaker 1: a process that takes place in the mind.
Speaker 2: Each obsession starts with a random thought. Most people have
Speaker 2: thoughts like these. Strange ideas appear in the mind that
Speaker 2: might be troubling. Most people dismiss these thoughts without thinking
Speaker 2: about these too much, but a person with OCD is
Speaker 2: not able to forget these thoughts. These ideas cause fear.
Speaker 2: The more she tries to push the thoughts away. The
Speaker 2: more these thoughts will appear. She may think that there
Speaker 2: must be something wrong with her because she is having
Speaker 2: these thoughts.
Speaker 1: A compulsion is a way to get rid of the
Speaker 1: fear of these thoughts. It is a way to do
Speaker 1: something to control in OCD sufferer's fears. But compulsions do
Speaker 1: not stop the fear from returning. Instead, acting to get
Speaker 1: rid of the fear caused by the obsessive thought teaches
Speaker 1: the brain that there really is something to fear. When
Speaker 1: the thought comes back, the sufferer performs the compulsion again
Speaker 1: to make the fear go away, but over time he
Speaker 1: will need more compulsive actions before the fear goes away.
Speaker 1: The fearful thoughts keep coming back. The more he tries
Speaker 1: to get rid of them, the worse these thoughts become.
Speaker 2: Dr Christopher Pittinger is the director of the Yale School
Speaker 2: of Medicine's OCD Research Office. He told National Public Radio, all.
Speaker 3: Of us get thoughts like this, all of us do
Speaker 3: things to control our fears. OCD is when those get
Speaker 3: to such a point that they start to take over.
Speaker 3: It is there these thoughts get in the way of
Speaker 3: people's ability to live their lives.
Speaker 1: There are many different ways that OCD shows itself. It
Speaker 1: will be a little different for each person who suffers
Speaker 1: from it. One of the most common but often misunderstood
Speaker 1: OCD experiences is having obsessive thoughts about harm.
Speaker 2: Matt has OCD and suffers from this issue. When he
Speaker 2: was twelve, he saw a knife on the kitchen table.
Speaker 2: He wondered if he was going to use it to
Speaker 2: harm himself. He went to the train station, but he
Speaker 2: would avoid going near the train. He was afraid he
Speaker 2: would jump in front of the train. He told the conversation, I.
Speaker 3: Did not feel like I wanted to kill myself.
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed my life.
Speaker 2: I just had an intense fear of doing something to
Speaker 2: hurt myself.
Speaker 1: Matt's thoughts are normal for someone's so from OCD. The
Speaker 1: fears he has often have little to do with reality,
Speaker 1: but the fear makes him question himself. He does not
Speaker 1: want to hurt himself, but what if there is something
Speaker 1: in him that does something out of his control. What
Speaker 1: if he reaches out and grabs the knife without knowing it.
Speaker 2: These obsessions can be truly destructive. Combined with untreated compulsions,
Speaker 2: the disorder can ruin a person's life. The World Health
Speaker 2: Organization lists OCD as one of the most disabling diseases
Speaker 2: in the world. OCD can also lead to other mental disorders,
Speaker 2: like depression.
Speaker 1: But having OCD is not the end. Many people have
Speaker 1: OCD and live successful lives. John Bunyan was an English writer.
Speaker 1: His obsessive compulsive disorder drove him to write the book
Speaker 1: The Pilgrim's Progress. This Christian book is one of the
Speaker 1: greatest examples of English literature from the seventeenth century. It
Speaker 1: remains a favorite book of many readers today. David Beckham,
Speaker 1: one of the most decorated football players in the world,
Speaker 1: has OCD. He obsessively cleans and organizes his home while
Speaker 1: the rest of his family is asleep. American celebrities Katy
Speaker 1: Perry and Lena Dunham also suffer from the condition. The
Speaker 1: International OCD Foundation estimates that one hundred and fifty to
Speaker 1: two hundred million people worldwide suffer from OCD.
Speaker 2: The good news about OCD is that it is treatable.
Speaker 2: Different medications can reduce fears and obsessive behaviors. Mental health
Speaker 2: providers and therapists are trained to help reduce compulsions. One
Speaker 2: helpful resource for OCD is called exposure and response therapy
Speaker 2: or ERP. In ERP, a therapist exposes an OCD sufferer
Speaker 2: to situations that trigger obsessive thoughts. The OCD patient will
Speaker 2: want to react to perform the compulsion, but the patient
Speaker 2: should not. ERP means not reacting to fear until the
Speaker 2: fear goes away.
Speaker 1: ERP teaches that obsessions are just thoughts. These thoughts do
Speaker 1: not mean anything more than other thoughts. The fear that
Speaker 1: follows does not make those thoughts any more important. Not
Speaker 1: reacting to these fears teaches the body that the thought
Speaker 1: is not worth fearing. This is called response prevention. Tracy
Speaker 1: Ibraheim works with n OCD, a provider of OCD treatment.
Speaker 4: She said, the important thing about response prevention is not
Speaker 4: escaping the obsession. You are not trying to escape or act.
Speaker 4: Acting tends to be compulsive. Response prevention can be as
Speaker 4: simple as not doing anything. You just let the obsession live,
Speaker 4: see that it is there, and not judge it.
Speaker 2: OCD never really goes away. In moments of stress, a
Speaker 2: sufferer often falls back on acting compulsively, but she can
Speaker 2: learn to be better. She can know that the world
Speaker 2: of obsessions is not worth fearing.
Speaker 1: Mental illness can be both good and bad. Do you
Speaker 1: know anyone with mental illness? How does this person struggle
Speaker 1: with it? How does it affect this person's life? How
Speaker 1: many you offer support and encouragement to someone with mental illness.
Speaker 1: You can leave a comment on our website at www
Speaker 1: dot Spotlight English dot com. You can also find us
Speaker 1: on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and x. You can also get
Speaker 1: our programs delivered directly to your Android or Apple device
Speaker 1: through our free official Spotlight English app.
Speaker 2: The writer of this program was Dan Christman. The producer
Speaker 2: was mitchyo Ozarki. The voices you heard were from the
Speaker 2: United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted
Speaker 2: for this program and voiced by Spotlight. This program is
Speaker 2: called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
Speaker 1: We hope you can join us again for the next
Speaker 1: Spotlight Advanced program. Goodbye well