What Is Obsessive Behaviour?
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Obsessive compulsive disorder is a condition which combines an obsessive thought process with the compulsion to repeat tasks over and over again to relieve the anxiety associated with those thoughts. For example, someone with OCD may go back repeatedly to lock their front door because, as soon as they walk away, they wonder whether they did it, or did it properly. This thought will repeat over and over again in their head and they will start to worry about the ramifications of not having locked the door; the discomfort from the whirring thoughts compels them to go back again and again to check. Some people have likened the feeling to a stuck record, as the same thoughts run around in their heads over and over again. Many people who suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder get into repetitive routines in an attempt to prevent or limit the anxiety that the obsessive thoughts cause. In the above example of the person who has OCD, they might lock their door many times, counting the number out loud in an attempt to imprint the memory of locking the door on their brains in the hope that this will counter their obsessive thoughts as soon as they walk away from their house. For some people this can help, while for others this becomes just a way of acting out a hope that it might help reduce the problem. OCD can affect people in different ways; for some it may be mild and only come to play over one or two actions, whereas for others it may take up hours of their time every day as they perform their rituals on multiple actions. The most common things that people with OCD obsess about are:
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