Who's obsessed?

Worry and apprehension are normal. At some point in time while we have been on vacation, each one of us has felt a surging anxiety about whether we turned the water tap off or disconnected the gas or locked the door appropriately. Praying or performing ritualistic offerings to ease off worry before a presentation or examination or important life event is a norm in several cultures. Getting negative thoughts amidst positive life events is also a typical reaction because one needs to be prepared for the worst in every situation. Keeping track of adverse outcomes midst confident efforts is the way to go. That's called positive pessimism and it works in all situations. However excessive and unwanted worry that does not lead to betterment in performance, rather acts as an obstruction to it, warrants attention. 

The irking worry

Worries that gnaw at every moment even though we know that we've checked it all, studied it all and secured it all are not normal. Everyone washes their hands before or after their meal, but some people just cannot stop at washing once. It becomes a ritual to wash twice, thrice or maybe several times to make sure that the hands are really clean. A microscopic examination after the first wash can reveal that the bacteria have been washed off; however the obsessed mind fails to see reason. While these people are following this washing ritual they are aware that it is wrong but somehow they just cannot control doing it. Such behaviors are pointers towards Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD. 

Obsessions and Compulsions 

People with obsessive-compulsive disorder have varied fixations on checking, counting, hoarding, contamination and sexuality too. Obsessions are repetitive thoughts while compulsions are ritualistic actions. People may be preoccupied with neatness and symmetry; and feel everything needs to be done in a particular manner or else it's not satisfactory for them. Again, neatness is not a disorder but worrying that something disastrous might happen if they perform otherwise; is. Others may have exactness obsessions and counting rituals to assure the desired perfection. Yet others have ritualistic patterns of behavior and things need to be done in specific sequence. 

Obsessions take over life 

OCD is not a life-threatening problem by itself, but it definitely menaces, and diminishes the quality of life. Most of the time is wasted on performing rituals to prevent imagined calamitous consequences. In effect the time available for the everyday activities get affected. For example a person who has obsessions of dirt may take 3 hours to have a bath and ritualistically soap himself 20 times since he believes that is amount required to get clean and if he does any less, the worry of contamination keeps bothering him. This may affect the skin and lead to dryness and eczema; besides the fact that this person would never make it to office on time and his mind would forever be occupied with the fear of contamination. His obsession and ritualistic washing takes precedence over all other activities of his day. 

Why does it occur? 

OCD is attributable to chemical imbalance in parts of the emotional brain. Some medical illnesses, which affect the immunity, are known to give rise to obsessive behavior in children as an antibody mediated response. The genetic link can never be underestimated since OCD is known to run in families. Sometimes childhood events predispose development of OCD in adulthood. 

What we can do about it 

Management of OCD entails medication along with suitable cognitive therapy and behavior modification approaches like exposure and response prevention, desensitization, thought stopping, flooding, implosion therapy and aversion. A systematic approach with relaxation training helps control the associated severe anxiety response. Obsessions can govern your life. No one but you has a right to do that. So it's wiser to gain control over the mind and get help if we need it.