Hey cosmo,
Phobologist, you are very smart, but be careful not to get into all or nothing thinking. That tends to be my problem too.
Yes this is a problem I have, and thank you, so are you. But if obsessive thinking really is the basis for GSASD then I am correct.
I think you might be misunderstanding, because I too believe that there is a common neruological problem. It might very well be an over-active cingulate system as you say. That is not to say that its not cognitive based as well. One does not disprove the other.
Okay let me explain. The basis for OCD is not cognitive, its entirely neurological. People without this neurological CANNOT develop OCD of any type. However, cognitive patterns can produce OCD illnesses in people with this neurological abnormality.
My point is that having something be over-active in your brain will make it more likely for anxiety and obessive thought depending on how you define it. But not neccessarily always, as our brains are good at compensating imbalances in different ways.
True, apparently most people with obsessive thinking do not have OCD disorders. I personally think this neurological problem should be termed Obsessive Thought Disorder, however, because it is a cause of distress.
It's more of a commonality than a direct cause and effect.
No. The literature I have read recently indicates clearly that it is the direct cause. Cognitive elements are highly secondary.
And that's the cognitive part too. Even having high anxiety and obsessive thinking, does not have to lead to the compulsion part in OCD because our brains can compensate in other ways as well.
Obsessive thinking leads easily to Intrusive Thought Disorder, and compulsions are easy to form for obsessives. Just because you haven't, doesn't mean you won't. Obsessives are at risk for entirely neurological reasons. In my opinion, it's best to view obsessives as having Obsessive Thought Disorder, and it's best to view compulsives, as people with Obsessive Thought Disorder who have also formed compulsions. Same shit.
And that's where it becomes more cognitive based. Compulsion is really just a creative cognitive compensation of high anxiety and obsessive though. There are other ways our brains compensate with high anxiety and obsessive thought.
Compulsion isn't as complicated or creative as you think. The neurological basis for compulsion is faulty wiring, not cognitive beliefs. CBT doesnt work very well on compulsions (45% success rate) for that reason. When it does work, I assure you it's because of neuroplastic changes which were inadvertantly made, not because of the therapy's aims. For example, exposure response therapy actually makes OCD worse in many cases. It will only work if preformed according to neuroplastic theory. According to the research I have read, the basis for compulsive behavior is as follows:
[obsessive thought] ----> [anxiety] -----> [ritual] -----> [less anxiety] -----> [obsessive thought] -----> loop
For example, when you get depressed, you lower your anxiety and obsessive thought without any kind of compulsions. The depression & anxiety cycle can mimic the obsession & compulsion cycle. It's depends on how we deal with it and how you want to define it.
Depression increases obsessive thinking, it doesn't lower it. I don't see any evidence for the cycle you are talking about. How we want to define it is in my opinion, irrelevant. How we deal with it has largely neurological underpinnings, not cognitive ones. The stickier the cingulate is, the easier it is to form compulsions. The greater the abnormality in the amygdala, the more prone we are to anxiety. I suspect that the confluence of these two factors alone, probably explains at least 50% of OCD cases. In other situations such as GSAD, and other phobias, you probably need particular traumas to develop the illnesses.
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