Lucknow’s Gauri Todaria beat obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to score a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 10 in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 10 examinations, the results of which were declared on Saturday.
Todaria, a student of the Rani Laxmibai Memorial Senior Secondary School in Lucknow, fought hard against the brain disorder that is characterised by obsessive and compulsive behaviour where people feel the need to check things, perform certain routines, or have certain thoughts repeatedly.
“The mind is not under your control. The patient suffers from a lack of decision-making ability and is not able to analyse the situation,” she said while talking about the problems she faced.
Todaria, who used to become nervous in difficult situations and started crying loudly, had to undergo a psychiatric treatment. Before overcoming her problem, she also suffered from acute depression just like her father - Kamal Kishore.
“My blood pressure dipped and there were plenty of (other) problems,” the 16-year-old, who wants to become a company secretary, said.
“The difficulty was noticed by my school teacher who reported the matter to my parents. It was diagnosed when I was in Class 9. The problem increased with time. My mother was in tears because both my father and I were suffering from this unique problem,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}“The difficulty was noticed by my school teacher who reported the matter to my parents. It was diagnosed when I was in Class 9. The problem increased with time. My mother was in tears because both my father and I were suffering from this unique problem,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}Daughter of a stationery shopkeeper, Gauri had limited resources at home. “My father has a meagre income. A lot of money was spent on treatment. So I could not go to a coaching centre,” she said.
Jaipal Singh, her school founder manager, said OCD is increasingly regarded as a unique condition because of its bizarre symptoms and impact on the patient that can be more serious than one realises.
Her mother, Archana Todaria, said doctors now warn against taking early signs of OCD lightly, in children displaying strangely compulsive behaviour patterns.
The pass percentage of Class 10 was recorded at 90.95, a dip of over 5 percentage points from last year’s 96.21. Girls with a pass percentage of 96.36% did marginally better than boys, who had a pass percentage of 96.11, in 2016.
Trivandrum region has the highest pass percentage at 99.85, followed by Chennai region at 99.62 and Allahabad region on the third place with 98.23. Delhi saw a major dip of 13.67% in its performance this year. From 91.76% in 2016, the pass percentage plummeted to 78.09 this year.