Understanding your OCD
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is one of the most common disorders 1 in 40 adults in the U.S. is said to have it or have had it. We recognise OCD by one of two traits. Repetitive, intrusive, uncontrollable thoughts or urges also known as obsessions; and repetitive behaviour or mental acts that a person feels compelled to act upon, known as compulsions.
Say I was to go for a drive and when I got home from that drive I started to experience images that I have run over a fox on that drive. It then repeats this image in my mind, becoming an obsession. Because of this thought that I have run over a fox. I drive back along the route that I just took looking for the dead fox. I know however that these images are not real but I am comforted because I checked by re-visiting that route.
Here, my uncontrollable thoughts or obsession that I have hit a fox with my car on the way home, has led me to act on compulsion and drive the route again. But of example, if I just had the thought or just did the drive I would still have OCD. The criteria only ask for one of the two, to meet the standard for OCD.
Obsessions
Common types of obsessions in OCD fall into different categories. These are:
Contamination: That you have been infected with some sort of disease, for example, using the public toilet now I have herpes.
Responsibility for harm…
