What are the signs of obsession?

Obsession symptoms Fear of contamination or dirt. Doubting and having difficulty tolerating uncertainty. Needing things orderly and symmetrical. Aggressive or horrific thoughts about losing control and harming yourself or others. Unwanted thoughts, including aggression, or sexual or religious subjects.

mayoclinic.org - Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) - Symptoms and causes

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Overview

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) features a pattern of unwanted thoughts and fears (obsessions) that lead you to do repetitive behaviors (compulsions). These obsessions and compulsions interfere with daily activities and cause significant distress. You may try to ignore or stop your obsessions, but that only increases your distress and anxiety. Ultimately, you feel driven to perform compulsive acts to try to ease your stress. Despite efforts to ignore or get rid of bothersome thoughts or urges, they keep coming back. This leads to more ritualistic behavior — the vicious cycle of OCD . OCD often centers around certain themes — for example, an excessive fear of getting contaminated by germs. To ease your contamination fears, you may compulsively wash your hands until they're sore and chapped. If you have OCD , you may be ashamed and embarrassed about the condition, but treatment can be effective.

Symptoms

Obsessive-compulsive disorder usually includes both obsessions and compulsions. But it's also possible to have only obsession symptoms or only compulsion symptoms. You may or may not realize that your obsessions and compulsions are excessive or unreasonable, but they take up a great deal of time and interfere with your daily routine and social, school or work functioning.

Obsession symptoms

OCD obsessions are repeated, persistent and unwanted thoughts, urges or images that are intrusive and cause distress or anxiety. You might try to ignore them or get rid of them by performing a compulsive behavior or ritual. These obsessions typically intrude when you're trying to think of or do other things.

Obsessions often have themes to them, such as:

Fear of contamination or dirt

Doubting and having difficulty tolerating uncertainty

Needing things orderly and symmetrical

Aggressive or horrific thoughts about losing control and harming yourself or others

Unwanted thoughts, including aggression, or sexual or religious subjects

Examples of obsession signs and symptoms include:

Fear of being contaminated by touching objects others have touched

Doubts that you've locked the door or turned off the stove

Intense stress when objects aren't orderly or facing a certain way

Thoughts about shouting obscenities or acting inappropriately in public

Unpleasant sexual images

Avoidance of situations that can trigger obsessions, such as shaking hands

Compulsion symptoms

OCD compulsions are repetitive behaviors that you feel driven to perform. These repetitive behaviors or mental acts are meant to reduce anxiety related to your obsessions or prevent something bad from happening. However, engaging in the compulsions brings no pleasure and may offer only a temporary relief from anxiety. You may make up rules or rituals to follow that help control your anxiety when you're having obsessive thoughts. These compulsions are excessive and often are not realistically related to the problem they're intended to fix.

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As with obsessions, compulsions typically have themes, such as:

Washing and cleaning

Checking

Counting

Orderliness

Following a strict routine

Demanding reassurance

Examples of compulsion signs and symptoms include:

Hand-washing until your skin becomes raw

Checking doors repeatedly to make sure they're locked

Checking the stove repeatedly to make sure it's off

Counting in certain patterns

Silently repeating a prayer, word or phrase

Arranging your canned goods to face the same way

Severity varies

OCD usually begins in the teen or young adult years, but it can start in childhood. Symptoms usually begin gradually and tend to vary in severity throughout life. The types of obsessions and compulsions you experience can also change over time. Symptoms generally worsen when you experience greater stress. OCD , usually considered a lifelong disorder, can have mild to moderate symptoms or be so severe and time-consuming that it becomes disabling.

When to see a doctor

There's a difference between being a perfectionist — someone who requires flawless results or performance, for example — and having OCD . OCD thoughts aren't simply excessive worries about real problems in your life or liking to have things clean or arranged in a specific way. If your obsessions and compulsions are affecting your quality of life, see your doctor or mental health professional. There is a problem with information submitted for this request. Review/update the information highlighted below and resubmit the form. From Mayo Clinic to your inbox Sign up for free, and stay up to date on research advancements, health tips and current health topics, like COVID-19, plus expertise on managing health. Email ErrorEmail field is required ErrorInclude a valid email address Learn more about Mayo Clinic’s use of data. To provide you with the most relevant and helpful information, and understand which information is beneficial, we may combine your email and website usage information with other information we have about you. If you are a Mayo Clinic patient, this could include protected health information. If we combine this information with your protected health information, we will treat all of that information as protected health information and will only use or disclose that information as set forth in our notice of privacy practices. You may opt-out of email communications at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the e-mail. Subscribe! Thank you for subscribing! You'll soon start receiving the latest Mayo Clinic health information you requested in your inbox. Sorry something went wrong with your subscription Please, try again in a couple of minutes Retry

Causes

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The cause of obsessive-compulsive disorder isn't fully understood. Main theories include:

Biology. OCD may be a result of changes in your body's own natural chemistry or brain functions. may be a result of changes in your body's own natural chemistry or brain functions. Genetics. OCD may have a genetic component, but specific genes have yet to be identified. may have a genetic component, but specific genes have yet to be identified. Learning. Obsessive fears and compulsive behaviors can be learned from watching family members or gradually learned over time.

Risk factors

Factors that may increase the risk of developing or triggering obsessive-compulsive disorder include: Family history. Having parents or other family members with the disorder can increase your risk of developing OCD . Having parents or other family members with the disorder can increase your risk of developing . Stressful life events. If you've experienced traumatic or stressful events, your risk may increase. This reaction may, for some reason, trigger the intrusive thoughts, rituals and emotional distress characteristic of OCD . If you've experienced traumatic or stressful events, your risk may increase. This reaction may, for some reason, trigger the intrusive thoughts, rituals and emotional distress characteristic of . Other mental health disorders. OCD may be related to other mental health disorders, such as anxiety disorders, depression, substance abuse or tic disorders.

Complications

Problems resulting from obsessive-compulsive disorder may include, among others:

Excessive time spent engaging in ritualistic behaviors

Health issues, such as contact dermatitis from frequent hand-washing

Difficulty attending work, school or social activities

Troubled relationships

Overall poor quality of life

Suicidal thoughts and behavior

Prevention

mayoclinic.org - Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) - Symptoms and causes

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