Lived experience of individuals with OCD during the COVID pandemy; A phenomenoligical study

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is one of the most frequent mental disorders. On the one hand, various theoretical models emphasize different structures; on the other hand, OCD psychotherapies result in inadequate therapeutic outputs. Therefore, it is essential to look into this subject. This study extracted OCD diagnostic components based on lived experiences.

This study is qualitative and phenomenological. The information was gathered through the use of semi-structured interviews and criterion-based sampling. Accordingly, six participants with OCD were interviewed. The themes were extracted through performing interviews and obtaining lived experiences.                                                     

In this research, four organizing themes were extracted. The organizing themes include Cognition (catastrophizing, should, excessive responsibility, and labeling), emotions (anger, fear, and sense of guilt), behavior (inspection, excessive washing, and avoidance), and lifestyle (interactions, excretion, work/education, and leisure activities). These organizing themes were the main components that can facilitate diagnosing and understanding OCD.  

OCD is related to two major cognitive perceptions: 1. Excessive damage (risk) phobia, 2. Taking on excessive responsibility for damages (risks).