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Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by two distinct types of symptoms:

• Obsessions - intrusive thoughts, ideas, or impulses that recur repeatedly in a person's mind and cannot be controlled even though the person recognizes that these thoughts are irrational and don't make sense.

• Compulsions - repeated ritualistic behaviors or mental processes that a person is driven or compelled to perform over and over again even though they recognize that the behavior is irrational.

Obsessions in people with OCD commonly involve anxieties and fears about specific situations, including:

• Becoming contaminated with dirt, germs, or other objects
• Causing injury to themselves or to someone else
• Losing or misplacing an object
• Contracting a life-threatening disease such as cancer
• Excessive thoughts about death and dying
• Forbidden sexual practices (e.g., raping someone; molesting a child)
• Superstitions involving numbers, names, dates, colors, that the person perceives as either bringing good or bad "luck".

Common compulsive ritualistic behaviors in people with OCD include:

• Excessive personal hygiene rituals:

  • repeated handwashing
  • repeated toothbrushing
  • repeated showering or bathing
  • repeated hair combing

• Excessive checking rituals:

  • repeatedly checking the front door to make sure it is locked when leaving the house or going to bed
  • repeatedly checking the oven to make sure it is turned off after cooking a meal
  • repeatedly checking to make sure that the baby is asleep in the crib
  • repeatedly checking your shoelaces to make sure they are tied

• Reassurance-seeking rituals:

  • repeatedly asking people the same question over and over again expecting to receive the same reassuring answer

• Hoarding rituals:

  • repeatedly saving object that have little or no value that most people would ordinarily discard

• Mental rituals:

  • repeatedly counting numbers in a particular order or counting steps when walking up or down a flight of stairs
  • repeating the same word or phrase in one's mind

• Organizing rituals:

  • repeatedly arranging objects in a specific rigid order or in specific groups or piles

• Touching rituals:

  • repeatedly touching specific objects in the belief that they will bring good luck