Top 10 OCDs That are all too common

Some people must wash their hands a certain number of times or in a certain way to try to reduce feelings of anxiety. If you worry excessively about germs and contamination, even after you have washed your hands, you might want to talk to a mental health professional.

The number of footsteps to your office, the number of seconds before answering the phone, etc. It can be literally anything and the only way to get read of this obsessing habit would be to listen to music or a relaxing sound, to help your brain focus on something else and disconnect during those “counting” moments!

You organize things to the point of overorganizing. You like things neat, tidy and symmetrical. Some people organize their refrigerators alphabetically, their closets by color. They buy things only in pairs or always have items in even numbers. They spend enormous amounts of time making sure their life has order and are keenly aware and agitated if the order is upset.

Another obsession long considered to be part of ‘OCD’ is the inability to discard useless or worn out possessions, commonly referred to as ‘hoarding’.
In the past it was suggested that hoarding, as a subtype of OCD, may be less responsive to treatment than other forms. However, as a result of more recent research, and due to a greater understanding of this problem, there is now significant evidence to suggest that treatment can be just as effective for this type of OCD, as with others.

Intrusive thoughts, in the spectrum of OCD, are where a person generally suffers with obsessional thoughts that are repetitive, disturbing and often horrific and repugnant in nature. For example, thoughts of causing violent or sexual harm to loved ones.

An hyperawareness of particular bodily sensations, also sometimes called sensorimotor obsessions. Symptoms might include breathing, obsession over whether breathing is shallow or deep, or the focus is on some other sensation of breathing or blinking, an obsessive fixation on blinking among many others.

The most common one apparently: everyone has its own personal mental list of things to do in which that makes them feel comfortable, safe or simply good!

'Rumination' is a term often used to describe all obsessional intrusive thoughts, but this is misleading. In the context of OCD a rumination is actually a train of prolonged thinking about a question or theme that is undirected and unproductive. Unlike obsessional thoughts, ruminations are not objectionable and are indulged rather than resisted. Many ruminations dwell on religious, philosophical, or metaphysical topics, such as the origins of the universe, life after death, the nature of morality, and so on.

Avoidance is a common compulsive behaviour, and this is where a person with OCD will go to great lengths to avoid the objects, places or person/people that that they feel triggers their OCD. This will be their way of preventing the distress and anguish, and the hours of rituals they will be compelled to perform.

Similar to handwashing, excessive cleaning usually stems from a fear of germs and contamination. You clean your house excessively and become agitated when your children invite friends over, needing to clean every surface they touched during their visit. Like handwashing, your anxiety is eased for a short while but returns more intensely.