Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - Signs you may have it

According to Wikipedia, Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental disorder where people feel the need to check things repeatedly, perform certain routines repeatedly (called "rituals"), or have certain thoughts repeatedly.People are unable to control either the thoughts or the activities for more than a short period of time. Common activities include hand washing, counting of things, and checking to see if a door is locked. Some may have difficulty throwing things out. These activities occur to such a degree that the person's daily life is negatively affected. Often they take up more than an hour a day. Most adults realize that the behavior do not make sense. The condition is associated with tics, anxiety disorder, and an increased risk of suicide.

Here are some of the most common.

• Hand-washing
  If you think about germs even after washing your hands, worry that you're not scrubbing well enough, or have irrational fears about a disease (such as getting HIV from a shopping cart), it could be a sign that your hand-washing is compulsive, Szymanski says. Elaborate hand-washing routines—needing to wash five times and get soap under each nail, for example—are another warning sign.

• Overzealous cleaning
  If you spend hours a day cleaning, it's almost certainly related to OCD, but it's harder to know if cleaning for an hour a day could be a sign of OCD. "It's really the consequence of stopping," says Michael Jenike, MD, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston. "If you don't [clean], you get terribly anxious and fearful."

• Checking behavior
  It's normal to double-check something once in a while. But if checking interferes with your daily life (by making you late for work, say), or becomes a ritual that you can't do without, it could be a sign of OCD. Jenike has patients who are compelled to check the oven exactly three times, for instance.

• Counting
  "It's all about context—does the behavior make sense in your life?" Szymanski says. Counting can be a good distraction as you walk to your car or climb the stairs to your office. "If it doesn't bother you or anybody else, you are fine," Jenike says. "People come to me if they can't get numbers out of their head."

• Organization
  "I'm neat and organized and like things a certain way, but it is out of preference," says Szymanski, author of The Perfectionist's Handbook. OCD enters in when want to becomes have to: People like Szymanski enjoy a tidy desk and find it helpful, whereas people with OCD may not necessarily want to organize their desk but feel they must, in order to relieve their anxiety.

• Fears of violence
  It's important to recognize that we all have occasional dark thoughts, Szymanski says. But it could be a sign of OCD if thoughts of getting mugged make you avoid the park, for example, or if concern for your mother's safety spurs you to call her several times a day.

• Unwanted sexual thoughts
  "Most people can say, 'Oh, I don't really want to do that or it doesn't represent who I am as a person,'" Szymanski says. "But someone with OCD thinks, 'These thoughts are terrible, no one else has them, what do they mean about me.'" Changing your behavior as a result of these thoughts—avoiding gay friends or a coworker you've thought about sexually, for instance—is another red flag.

• Dwelling on relationships
  "Breaking up with a girlfriend or boyfriend can make anyone 'obsess,' whether or not they have OCD," Jenike says. But it may be a sign of OCD if thoughts like this get stuck in your head and snowball into excessive self-doubt or fears of being a bad person.

• Seeking reassurance
  Everyone uses their friends as a sounding board, but if you catch yourself repeating the same question over and over—or if your friend points this out—it could signal OCD. What's more, the reassurance you get from loved ones could be enabling your obsessiveness.

• Hating your looks
  It's normal to dislike some aspects of your features. But people with BDD may spend hours a day checking the mirror. "You overvalue how important it is to you and others and may avoid being around people," Szymanski says.

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