OCD
OCD is characterised by unreasonable and unwanted thoughts, feelings, ideas and sensations creating a fear that can be categorised as obsession resulting in repetitive behaviours and rituals which can be termed as compulsion.
With OCD a person may or may not realize that their obsessions aren’t reasonable, the element of fear drives compulsion to greater heights as a result they perform compulsive acts to ease their stressful feelings.
The symptoms of OCD can be seen in childhood, adolescence or adulthood.
Obsessions can be defined as:
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Constant and consistent urges or images that are experienced, at some time during the disturbance as intrusive and unwanted, which causes anxiety and distress.
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The respected individual makes an attempt to neutralize and suppress such thoughts with some other thought or action (performing of compulsion)
Compulsions can be defined as:
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Repetitive behaviours (example: hand washing, ordering, checking) or mental acts (example: repeating words silently, praying, counting) that the individual feels driven to perform in response to an obsession.
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The behaviours or acts are performed to prevent anxiety and stress caused by the obsessions.
Symptoms
Obsession:
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Aggressive impulses
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Thinking someone will harm you
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Thinking you will harm someone
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Continuous sexual thoughts
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Repeated unwanted thoughts
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Extremely possessive about cleaning
Compulsion:
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Constantly washing hands
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Checking frequently doors are locked or not
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Arranging and rearranging particular items many times in a day
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Constantly checking upon things
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Constantly counting
