A persistent drive to perform rituals over and over may be an indication of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). For those with OCD, intrusive thoughts and ritualistic behaviours may literally take over one's life.
People with OCD may experience distressing, unwanted thoughts or images that do not make sense to them. These thoughts or images keep coming back despite one's best efforts to ignore them. The person may strive to hide their OCD from friends and co-workers for fear of being labelled "crazy".
OCD includes both obsessions (intrusive repeated thoughts) as well as compulsions (repeated actions which you cannot help). OCD symptoms can be severe and time-consuming. For instance, someone who feels that his or her hands have become contaminated by germs — an obsession — may spend hours washing them each day — a compulsion. This focus on hand washing may be so severe that the person suffering from OCD is unable to accomplish daily life tasks and/or is unable to function anymore.
There is a difference between being a perfectionist and having OCD. Perhaps you keep the floors in your house so clean that you could eat off them, or you like your knick-knacks arranged just so. This does not necessarily mean that you have OCD.
In OCD, your quality of life can decrease dramatically as the condition dictates most of your days and you become consumed with carrying out compulsive behaviours and rituals. When the symptoms have such an influence on your daily functioning, it is more likely that you are suffering from OCD.
Most adults can recognise that their obsessions and compulsions do not make sense. Children, however, may not understand what is wrong. But the lives of both children and adults can be severely affected by OCD. Children may find it difficult to attend school, and adults may find it difficult to work. Relationships may suffer.
If your obsessions and compulsions are affecting your life, talk to your healthcare professional such as your primary care doctor or a mental health professional. It is common for people with OCD to feel ashamed and embarrassed about the condition. But even if your rituals are deeply ingrained, treatment can help.
Most OCD specialists agree that a combination of medicines and a specific behavioural type of psychotherapy is the best treatment for OCD.
Several medications have been proven effective in helping people with OCD, such as anti-depressants (for example clomipramine, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine and paroxetine). If one drug is not effective, others should be tried. A number of other medications are currently being studied.
A type of behavioural therapy known as "exposure and response prevention" is very useful for treating OCD. In this approach, a person is deliberately and voluntarily exposed to whatever triggers the obsessive thoughts and is then taught the techniques to avoid performing the compulsive rituals and to deal with the anxiety.
