The Role of Fear of Self, Perfectionism, and Rumination on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and its Treatment
The Role of Fear of Self, Perfectionism, and Rumination on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and its Treatment

Summary/Abstract: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) has been widely discussed throughout the years in various research, discussing the suffering of individuals, social issues, as well as treatment methods. Unfortunately, due to the impact of the disorder itself and the distressful side effects of treatment, patients tend to drop out, subsequently even commit suicide. Recent literature shows that the difficulties faced by OCD patients might be due to some transdiagnostic variables. Fear of self, perfectionism, and rumination, which are highly common among OCD patients, might share cognitive and emotional mechanisms, such as heightened self-evaluative processes, maladaptive cognitive styles, and difficulties in emotion regulation, that contribute to the onset and maintenance of the disorder. Their interplay hinders engagement in gold-standard treatments like exposure and response prevention, as perfectionistic ideals and self-concealment foster avoidance, while rumination sustains hopelessness.This review aims to elaborate further on these variables (i.e., fear of self, perfectionism, and rumination), how common they are in OCD, how they impact the daily lives of patients with OCD, how they contribute to the disorder, and affect the treatment process.

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