| Did you just come back from checking that the back | | | | known as the caudate nucleus. The caudate nucleus |
| door was locked? Will you be checking again in ten | | | | works in conjunction with an area of the brain called |
| minutes? Will your session at the computer be | | | | the orbital cortex. The orbital cortex is sort of the |
| interrupted at least twice to make sure that the | | | | tattletale of the brain; it serves to warn us that |
| back door is locked? If so, then you suffer from | | | | something isn?t quite right, that we forgot to lock |
| obsessive compulsive disorder. | | | | the door or turn off the stove. But when the |
| Obsessive compulsive disorder may generate laughter | | | | imbalance occurs in the caudate nucleus it causes the |
| in a skit on a television show, but for millions of | | | | orbital cortex to malfunction. In essence, it becomes |
| people it is anything but funny. An obsession can | | | | a tattletale that keeps repeating the same story. It |
| range from something as mildly irritating as checking | | | | keeps telling you that the door is unlocked, or that |
| to make sure the back door is locked twenty times | | | | your hands aren?t clean and need to be washed. |
| a day to never being able to travel more than five | | | | While some drugs have proven to be effective in |
| miles from your home before you return just to | | | | some cases in dealing with the imbalance, as of yet |
| make sure you didn?t leave the stove on. Even | | | | there is still no proven foolproof pharmacological cure |
| though you checked it before you got in the car and | | | | for obsessive compulsive disorder. The magic cure |
| checked it again after you got in the car but before | | | | doesn?t exist yet, but it?s not all bad news. |
| you turned the key. | | | | Increasing numbers of sufferers are finding various |
| Probably the most famous victim of obsessive | | | | levels of relief by combining one of several brand |
| compulsive disorder was billionaire Howard Hughes, | | | | name antidepressants with behavioral control |
| whose battle with the disease took him from being a | | | | methods. One theory goes that the medication |
| dashing movie executive who dated some of the | | | | lessens one?s anxiety level enough to allow for |
| most beautiful women in Hollywood to a recluse who | | | | greater mental control over the fear involved in the |
| washed his hands a hundred times a day and was | | | | compulsive. After all, what is really going on is the |
| petrified of human contact. | | | | fear that you left the door unlocked or the stove still |
| Although many people consider it a mental illness, in | | | | burning. Because the brain is constantly ringing that |
| fact there is physiological condition associated with | | | | alarm, it?s difficult to control the urge to check it out. |
| the disorder. Obsessive compulsive disorder is the | | | | But the medication can work to lessen that anxiety |
| result of a chemical imbalance in the brain. Specifically, | | | | and allow you to exert more control over whether |
| the imbalance takes place in a part of the brain | | | | you check that door for the third time in ten minutes. |