Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) involves excessive, irrational, or unreasonable fear and anxiety. Anxiety is usually associated with anticipation of future negative events, such as "What if... happens?" In OCD, people experience unwanted or meaningless thoughts (obsessions, obsessions) and urges to perform behavioral or mental rituals (compulsions, compulsions). Researchers have been interested in understanding the causes and symptoms of OCD and have therefore conducted numerous studies on the topic, starting since the mid-1960s These studies confirm two important facts about OCD: a) obsessions cause anxiety and b) compulsive rituals (for the most part) reduce anxiety. Let's start looking at these important facts in more detail. This explanation can be divided into two parts: how obsessive fears develop and why obsessive fears persist.OBSESSIONSObsessions are unwanted intrusive thoughts, ideas, or images that cause anxiety, restlessness, or discomfort. Their content is usually meaningless or bizarre, and the person is often (but not always) aware of it. People with OCD try to resist their obsessions, that is, they try to stop the thoughts, often without success. Obsessions usually concern the possibility of danger, harm, or responsibility for danger or harm. Their specific content may focus on aggression, pollution, sex, religion, mistakes, illness and the need for symmetry or perfection, among other topics. WHAT CAUSES OBSESSIONS? You may be surprised to know that almost every person , whether he has OCD or not, experiences intrusive, disturbing, unwanted thoughts from time to time, but that's how it is. We have a highly developed and creative mind that can imagine all kinds of scenarios - some more pleasant, some less pleasant. Sometimes our “thought generator” generates thoughts about danger, although there may not be a real threat. Humans have a lot of thoughts (scientists estimate 60,000 thoughts per day) while we are awake and while we sleep, so we might expect our minds to sometimes create strange or meaningless thoughts (“mental noise”). Often such thoughts are triggered by real-life situations, such as driving, seeing a weapon, using the bathroom, hearing words related to sex, or seeing a religious icon. This is completely normal. In one study, groups of people with and without OCD were asked to list some of their unpleasant, strange, or meaningless unwanted thoughts (people with OCD were asked to list their intrusive thoughts). The researchers then gave the thought lists to psychologists and psychiatrists and asked them to try to distinguish between the thoughts of people with and without OCD. The results were surprising: even these mental health experts could not determine whether the thought was from someone with OCD or without OCD. This study (and several others like it) confirms that people with OCD do not have something wrong with their brain or mind that causes them to have intrusive thoughts. That is, people with OCD are not crazy, bad, or dangerous. Here are some examples of intrusive thoughts that people without OCD report: - Thoughts about jumping off a highway bridge - Thoughts about running off the road or into oncoming traffic - The impulse to run over a pedestrian who is walking too slowly - The impulse to hit someone who talks too much - The thought of getting sick from different places such as the toilet - Thoughts about the dirt that is always on our hands - The thought of contracting a disease from contact with another person - Thought about leaving the door unlocked - The thought that my house will be broken into while I am not at home - The thought that I left an appliance on and caused a fire - The impulse to cross the tracks when the train arrives at the station, etc. Experts compiled a rating.