Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) centres on specific themes like excessive fear of getting contaminated by germs. 
For you to ease these fears, you may compulsively wash your hands until they are sore. You may try to ignore OCD, but that will only cause your stress and anxiety. Eventually, you feel driven to perform certain acts to try and ease your stress. When you try to ignore or eliminate bothersome thoughts and urges, they keep coming back. This leads to ritual-like behaviors, which is the cycle of OCD. Read on to learn more about OCD.
- What is OCD? Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental illness where an individual has recurring, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) that make them do something repetitively (compulsion). While most people have either obsessive or compulsive habits, some may have both. OCD can interfere with your daily activities and cause significant distress. An obsessive thought is something like thinking that specific numbers or colors are good or bad. A compulsive habit might be washing your hands seven times after touching something that could be dirty. Even when you may not want to think or do something, you feel powerless to stop. While everyone has repetitive habits or thoughts, people with ODC have thoughts or actions that take at least an hour a day, are beyond control, are not enjoyable, and interfere with their daily lives. Read on to discover more about the obsessive compulsive disorder.
- Symptoms. Obsessive compulsion disorder includes obsession and compulsion, but you can also have only obsession symptoms or compulsion symptoms. Obsession symptoms are repeated, persistent, and unwanted thoughts that cause distress or anxiety. The obsessions typically intrude when trying to think of or do other things. Obsessions involve symptoms such as;
- Fear of being contaminated by touching things others have touched
- Doubts that you have locked the door
- Stress when objects are not orderly
- Images of driving your car into a crowd of people
- Thoughts about shouting obscenities
- Unpleasant sexual images
- Avoidance of situations that can trigger obsessions
Compulsion symptoms are repetitive behaviors that you feel driven to perform. These mental acts and repetitive behaviors may reduce anxiety or prevent something wrong from happening. Compulsion signs and symptoms include;
- Hand-washing until your skin becomes raw
- Check doors repeatedly to ensure they are locked
- Counting in certain patterns
- Silently repeating a prayer
- Arranging your goods to face the same way
- Severity. OCD begins in the teen or young adult years. The symptoms begin gradually but can vary in severity throughout life. The types of signs can also change over time. The symptoms worsen as you experience tremendous stress. OCD is a lifelong disorder and can have mild to moderate symptoms. OCD thoughts are not worries about real problems in your life or like to keep yourself clean. If your obsessions begin affecting your life, see a doctor or mental health professional.
There is no cure for OCD. Like most people living with mental health issues, therapy and a combination of treatments can help you manage OCD symptoms.
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