Examples of OCD
Typical examples of OCD are described below.
Mrs A is constantly afraid of catching cancer from contact with other people. She is particularly afraid of touching people who may have been in hospital where cancer patients have treatment. However, she tries to avoid touching anyone because they may have touched someone else who has had contact with cancer. Because of this she tries to avoid going out of the house at all. If she does touch someone, she has to wash her hands and her clothes extremely thoroughly, sometimes taking hours. She also insists that her husband and children should take off their clothes and wash themselves thoroughly whenever they come into the house. Her family are becoming increasingly inpatient with this. They are also beginning to resent her constant demands that they should tell her in great detail about whether they have been. This is so that she can be reassured that they have not been anywhere 'dangerous'. She knows these fears are unrealistic but she cannot rid herself of the worry that she will catch cancer if she does not take these precautions.
Mr B feels he constantly has to check things in order to prevent some mishap. Getting out of the house can take him over an hour. He has to go round the whole house repeatedly checking that ashtrays do not have burning cigarette ends, plugs are unplugged, switches,water and gas taps are switched off and repeated a certain number of times before he can be sure that they have been done 'properly'. At work he is always behind because he has to check and recheck everything he does in case he has missed some small mistake. Again,he feels that his precautions are really too extreme, but whenever he tries not to carry out his checks he feels so uncomfortable that he soon gives in and does check.
Mrs C has recurring thoughts that she might harm her young child. In reality she loves her child and is a good mother, but she is constantly plagued by thoughts that she might somehow lose control and attack him. She has grown increasingly worried that she must be 'going mad' because she has these thoughts. Though she tries to forget about them, they keep coming back many times a day. The only way she can calm herself is to make a particular prayer to herself a certain number of times. In this way she gets temporary relief, but the thoughts soon come back.
