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Sleeping-with-ROCD

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part of the brain. This area processes information received<br />

from the environment, decides risks, and develops a response<br />

based on instinctive judgment. This is applicable to<br />

routines such as driving, locking a door, or the measure of a<br />

step when walking up steps. The basal ganglia are responsible<br />

for telling us when and how something needs to be<br />

done, and when it is done. For example, it is responsible for<br />

telling you that you are thirsty, telling you to drink something,<br />

and telling you when you've had enough to drink.<br />

There are a variety of areas where this is applicable,<br />

which include motor function, bodily-function regulation,<br />

cognition, emotions, habit, and learning.<br />

In OCD, the hormone and neurotransmitter of primary<br />

interest in this part of the brain is dopamine. Dopamine is<br />

responsible for the brain's judgment of what is good or bad.<br />

For example, the habit of locking the front door before<br />

bed starts here. The basal ganglia works <strong>with</strong> memory, so it<br />

remembers that you feel good (dopamine) when you lock<br />

the door. It sends a signal to go and lock the door before<br />

bed. The memory part of this may come from a previous<br />

experience of going to bed <strong>with</strong>out locking the door, which<br />

led to bad feelings (dopamine), which caused you to get up<br />

and lock the door.<br />

The brain remembers the relief you felt when you locked<br />

the door, and stores the experience in instinctive memory.<br />

The more times this occurs and creates good feelings, the<br />

stronger the instinct grows, and it eventually becomes a<br />

habit. This is relative to the learning association <strong>with</strong> this<br />

part of the brain. As it remembers things that make you feel<br />

good, it also remembers things that make you feel bad, and<br />

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