There is nothing wrong if you believe that wearing your favorite lucky dress on the day of your job interview will give you the confidence that you need to make a good impression. The same is true when your mother always checks the flat iron or oven before leaving for work. Many of us have little superstitions and rituals that help us to become productive and produce positive results. However, when these ‘rituals’ are taken to extremes and begin to affect normal daily function, it becomes a problem.
When you start feeling that something will really go wrong simply because you are not wearing your favorite lucky shirt; and that you feel you have to wear it to prevent something from going wrong — you may already be obsessed with that shirt. When your mother has to return home even if she’s already outside the door just to check if the flat iron was unplugged when she already did that three times before — she, too, could be suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, or OCD.
OCD is a mental health condition that creates a strong sense of uncertainty, doubt, anxiety, or fear in a person’s mind and triggers rituals like...