Definition : Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder or OCD is a very debilitating illness in its severe form.

Obsessions are painful, uncontrollable and involuntary thoughts or mental images that compel the mind. They are usually related to cleanliness, contamination, sacrilege, order, and the impression of being responsible for catastrophes or a person's death.

In an attempt to repress these obsessions, the subject feels an insistent need to perform certain particular acts, and so he must resort to rituals called compulsions to diffuse the anxiety, often unsuccessfully.

When the individual spends up to three or four hours a day performing ritual activities and his daily life has deteriorated, he ends up seeking th advice of a health care professional.