"As Good As It Gets".

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 "As Good As It Gets" Melvin Udall is the most dysfunctional of men, an acid tongued romance novelist who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Never one to avoid confrontations, he takes pride in his ability to affront, repulse, offend and wound - as he has been. His targets are random; his aim reckless. Leave an elevator in which he stands; cross a street on which he walks. He is to be avoided at all costs, but some victims just cannot escape. Carol Connelly is the only waitress at the local café that is willing to stand up to the sarcastic tirades of Melvin. Simon Nye has the distinct misfortune of living across the hall from Melvin in their West Village apartment building in downtown Manhattan. These three New Yorkers - non of whom appears to have a chance in Hell of finding real happiness - discover their fates intertwined because of the fourth complicated character in the piece, an ugly, tiny dog named Verdell.” This is the description you can find on almost any website dedicated to the film “As Good As It Gets”, and it is a good description of what you see when you view the movie. However, we shall take a closer look at one particular aspect – obsessive-compulsive disorder. Insistent, unwanted thoughts, urges and behaviors are typical of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). OCD can take so many different forms. Let's try to make sense of it. Obsessions are thoughts, often intrusive and upsetting. Obsessions are to be distinguished from ruminations or worries about routine life issues such as finances, children or job security. Some examples of obsessions in OCD may be thoughts or mental images of an upsetting nature like violence, vulgarities, harm to self or harm to others. Obsessions may be of special numbers, colors, or single words or phrases . . . sometimes-even melodies. Examples of what kind of things a person can be obsessed with are; germs, dirt, contamination, illness and symmetry. Compulsions are behaviors, actions, or thoughts that the individual feels compelled to perform, sometimes repeatedly; the “penalty” for failing to repeat a compulsive ritual is intense anxiety.  Although some
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people are preoccupied primarily with obsessions and others are mostly troubled by compulsions, the two occur together in the same individual often enough to be considered two facets of the same disorder; the compulsive disorder is often performed in an effort to reduce the anxiety the obsessions cause. to briefly relieve their obsessions. Obsessions provoke compulsions. Examples include washing the hands too many times, showering too frequently or washing things about the home like clothes or floors or even groceries. How much is too much? Many experts agree that engaging in more than an hour a day raises suspicions of ...

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