Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a syndrome that makes a person feel driven toward a certain obsession or fear. By doing this, they end up repeating a certain behavior. Because they cannot be controlled, especially if you are unaware that it is an actual problem, it can disrupt daily activities which can cause you to start losing confidence and gaining anxiety. Research shows that anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S. OCD specifically is equally common in both men and women and affects up to 2.2 million adults.
In some cases, those who show signs are advised to merely ignore it. When this happens, your mind triggers an effect to act out even more because the behavior eases you in some way. There are many forms of this syndrome. A popular one is the fear of germs. Usually, with this, people will constantly wash their hands.
Here are a few symptoms that you can watch out for it you feel that you or someone you know has this syndrome.
1. The Cleanliness Obsession
As with washing hands due to being surrounded by dirty or germs, the same applies to your house, car, or even workspace. You will find that with these types of people, the areas in which they spend most of the time needs to be completely clean in every detail.
Apart from being clean, they will constantly be cleaning the same areas. Although you may see an area as neat and tidy, they will continue to wipe over the same area several times. They may stop once their mind feels that it clean. However, after a few minutes or an hour, they will return to perform the same activity.
One of the ways that you can use to tone down the repetitiveness is to work with your doctor to draw up routine plans. These plans will help to lower the tasks that you perform repeatedly. For example, they may draw up a calendar and, on each day split out the cleaning to perhaps five times a day. They will also provide the times that you can start the cleaning as well as end it.
