The Types of obsessions In obsessive compulsive disorder are: pollution, losing control, doing harm to others, doing something embarrassing, sexual, sexual orientation, religious, symmetry and hoarding.
The term obsession is something that is widely used by all of us, and surely we have ever had a predominant theme that was spinning in our head.
Obsessions or"manias"can appear in both children and adults, and it is normal that they arise at some point in our existence.
Although there are people who live with obsessions without presenting great problems, there are cases in which obsessions can be very disabling, annoying, and damaging the day to day of those who suffer.
When it causes harm and becomes insufferable, we can consider that obsessions are pathological.
Although many aspects may be in healthy people occasionally, the types of obsessions that we are going to name here are considered typical of the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder , Also considered as"the disease of doubt".
What are obsessions?
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), we can define obsessions as ideas, images or mental impulses that burst again and again into the individual's mental activity, which are unwanted or intrusive and cause significant anxiety Or discomfort.
They are usually unpleasant (violent, obscene or meaningless). Those who suffer from it often try, usually unsuccessfully, to resist them by performing certain behaviors (compulsions, ignoring them, neutralizing them...)
They are incorrectly perceived as own and relevant thoughts, even if they are not really voluntary. Our mind simply produces ideas continuously, so it is normal for Intrusive thoughts arise .
The subject is in the interpretation: the usual thing is that the intrusive nasty thought is ignored. Other people, on the other hand, go around incessantly because they have thought so, creating an obsession.
Main types of obsessions
Let's start with a more general classification. According to Lee and Kwon (2003), obsessions can be of two types:
1- Autogenous Obsessions
They appear in our minds suddenly and for no apparent reason. Its content enters into controversy with the thoughts, beliefs and way of being and behaving of the individual that presents them. Thus, it creates a conflict with his own self that causes discomfort and is defined as"egodistonic."
These obsessions are repulsive and cause the desire to neutralize them immediately. They are unpleasant thoughts of violent, sexual or immoral subjects.
2 - Reactive Obsessions
These obsessions, on the other hand, are triggered by clearly identifiable external motives. And the person interprets these ideas as important, real and rational; Starting to palliate them.
Here we can include thoughts about fear of pollution or asymmetry. For example, in the latter, when the individual sees the disorderly pencils arises the obsessive ideas of need for symmetry and is forced to order them as he wants to lessen his anxiety.
Obsessions according to their theme
If we want to specify more, we will see that there are several themes that often worry obsessive people. Let's look at the main types of obsessions according to the issue of concern:
1- Pollution
It is considered one of the most common types of obsession. It is the compulsive need to stay clean or clean objects with the aim of alleviating the stress caused by the obsession.
The obsession may be that if it is contaminated by touching an object, such as a doorknob, get sick or die. This may be because you think it is dirty or because it contains some harmful substance that could poison you.
Many times the fear can be to simply feel dirty, and they have to spend a great deal of time washing themselves over and over again to feel clean again.
These ideas can also be focused on another person, such as fearing that a loved one gets sick or dies of excess germs or intoxicated by a substance.
Thus, they focus their energies on carrying out a series of behaviors so that obsessive ideas are relieved. What they do not know is that they are within a vicious circle that is getting stronger. Some of the behaviors or rituals that people with obsessions of pollution do are:
- Handwashing repetitive, with lots of soap and spending an unreasonable time.
- Shake clothes constantly.
- They brush their teeth excessively.
- Do not handle certain chemicals for fear of poisoning, or your are afraid to go to places where there is more pollution (near factories).
- Avoid using public restrooms because of the obsession that they will get germs from other people and they will get sick.
- Exhaustive cleaning of the home for fear that the family will be contaminated with germs (washing the dishes several times, disinfecting everything with strong cleaning products, etc.)
- They use handkerchiefs to avoid getting dirty with the doorknobs.
- They avoid public transportation or the hospital for fear of contagion of some disease or germs of other people.
- They do not attend or do not consume anything in restaurants or cafeterias.
As a consequence, this has an impact on a person's ability to maintain satisfactory obligations, jobs, studies, and interpersonal relationships.
But specifically of this type of obsession arise many avoidances to go to places or to touch things for fear of being contaminated, and damages in the skin of the excessive washing. In addition, they can spend a lot of money on products and special appliances to clean.
There is a curious modality of pollution obsession called"mental pollution." It consists of recurring rituals of shower and self-washing, with the difference that your sense of dirt comes from within. That is to say, that person can feel permanently dirty by receiving a physical or psychological mistreatment, resorting to palliate it to his own disinfection to"cleanse".
Thus, it does not come from a contaminating stimulus from outside, but from the dealings with other people.
2 - Losing control
These are repeated obsessions associated with fear of acting Impulsive form So that the person harms himself or others. Included are other immoral acts such as stealing, breaking something, or saying obscenities or insults.
Within this type also belong the ideas of mentally avoiding violent, macabre or unpleasant images. Their fear of not thinking about them and considering them so relevant causes the images to return, building the vicious circle.
These thoughts are called intrusive thoughts. We can all have This type of thoughts Sometimes it is normal, but they become obsessions when the person is surprised to have them and begins to believe that they are serious and that they will make him lose control.
This despairs them and causes them deep discomfort, thinking again and again about the unpleasant idea while trying to avoid it by doing rituals such as counting, hitting a surface a certain number of times, or checking over and over again if the obsession was only one Thought or carried it out.
3. Do harm to others
People who have these obsessions continually think that they can be responsible for something terrible happening to other people, or that they can avoid it.
They see numerous dangers to others in the environment and feel that their obligation is to remove, solve or avoid them.
For example, when they see a stone down the street they can not stop thinking over and over again that someone is going to stumble upon it and hurt themselves. Then your behavior is to remove all the stones or obstacles you see.
They are focused on keeping everything absolutely controlled and taken care of so that neither he nor the others suffer damages, since they think that if this happened it could be his fault for not avoiding it.
4- Do something embarrassing or scandalous
Their obsessions are centered on the fear of insulting someone, saying obscenities impulsively, making mistakes or making fun of others.
For example, they may fear saying inappropriate things like obscenities or foul words in inappropriate environments (a mass, a school). They can become obsessed on the other hand by making a big mistake in front of everyone, forgetting what they were going to say while talking or going blank, committing some spelling mistakes, and even thinking repeatedly that the zipper was open.
These people do not want to do this or they will, but their fear is related (as we saw) with the loss of control. That is to say, they believe that they have done it and that perhaps they have not noticed or they are worried thinking that if they come up with that idea it is because they were going to do it.
It is important not to confuse social phobia , Although it is common for TOC And this disorder occur together.
5 - Sexual obsessions
In this case, the subject of obsessions revolves around thoughts, images and sexual impulses that are considered prohibited, immoral or that could harm others.
Examples of these are obsessions about having aggressive sex, rape, incest, pedophilia, conflicting thoughts about sexual orientation, animals, religious figures, etc.
They differ from fantasies in which people recognize that their obsessions are unpleasant, immoral, provoke feelings of guilt and disgust, and do not want to carry them out.
There is very little research on this topic, although this type of intrusive thinking may be very common. In fact, more than 90% of people report ever having had such thoughts in their lives; And up to a quarter of patients with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Have had this type of obsessions. Although they could be more, but this subject to being socially stigmatized usually is hidden.
6. Obsessions of sexual orientation
They are related to the previous point. In this case, the obsession is centered on being homosexual, engaging in behaviors with people of the same sex or being ridiculed for being homosexual.
The funny thing is that these people are not homosexuals. However, due to some event that could happen to anyone (thinking that someone of the same sex is attractive), they feel that it is evidence that they are homosexual and all day doubt about it.
They are afraid to find evidence that they are homosexuals, and are continually attentive to their own feelings And behavior when they see people of the same sex. Thus, these ideas are repeated again and again, checking all day if they feel that attraction and becoming an obsession.
Finally, those affected can avoid viewing programs or movies with homosexual content, spend time with friends of the same sex, increase the amount of relationships with people of the opposite sex, and can even see pornography of that subject to see if they are excited or not.
It is given more in men than women, and may be for a cultural reason.
At the time of the diagnosis one has to be cautious, since it is often confused with the normal process of discovering one's sexual orientation.
7- Religious obsessions
The religion Is a very important issue for many people, so it is normal that obsessions can arise with it.
The Obsessive thoughts About this issue are concern about committing sins, blaspheming, offending God, not praying enough, fear of going to hell or not being forgiven, screaming or thinking obscenities in a sacred place, fear of not believing in God, etc.
They also receive the name of scrupulosity, and can be very annoying to the person because his obsessions do not let him live in peace with his beliefs. They tend to focus on certain details of their religion and ignore others.
It seems that obsessions of this type occur in 25% of individuals with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (Antony, Dowie, & Swinson, 1998). In addition, they are people who have a negative image of God, seeing it as a being that punishes and penalizes.
Surprisingly, these ideas not only exist in strictly religious people, but also occur in people without defined religion and even atheists.
The behaviors or compulsions that they make to eliminate their anxiety are: to pray repeatedly without mistake, to give thanks to God, to go to church numerous times, to kiss religious objects repeatedly, etc.
8- Symmetry and Perfectionism
These people usually worry about everything being accurate, uniform and symmetrical. Not only visually not the sense of the physical order, but also mental.
That is why there is a desire for Perfectionism Which cause discomfort to the person by being too demanding with oneself. In this way, they can force themselves to know or remember everything; Fearing to forget important information. Thus, they can spend a lot of time checking whether or not they remember certain things and trying to recover them.
Within this category there is also the fear of losing things, or not expressing exactly the words you want.
In addition, it is often associated with magical thinking. For you to understand, let's give an example of this type of thinking:"If I do not order things from my room the right way, my mother is going to have an accident." This is, in short, that the person believes himself responsible for things beyond his control. The person knows this is ridiculous, but he does it"just in case"and so alleviates his fear.
When they observe the lack of accuracy in some aspect of life, they notice an immense discomfort that they try to solve in some way: to place things in a symmetrical way or leave measured spaces between object and object.
It can be mistaken for Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder , but it's not the same; Because the latter seem not to suffer so much malaise and can not be considered obsessions in themselves, but a way of being.
9- Hoarding
It consists of an obsession to retain all kinds of objects, and is triggered when going to malls, or any type of stores or supermarkets.
These people are afraid of needing things someday and lacking them, that is why their behavior is aimed at collecting or keeping at home many objects with no apparent value. They avoid at all costs to discard products, even if they are broken or do not serve and buy or take free articles compulsively (free newspapers, samples...)
It looks like Accumulation Disorder, but it's a different diagnosis.
Other more specific types of obsessions are:
Obsession about having a physical or mental illness without knowing it, or probability of contracting it.
- Avoid or use certain numbers or colors by associating them with negative or positive concepts.
- Concern about losing one's personality or positive qualities
- Superstitions that worry him in a remarkable way.
- Excessive concern about a certain part of your body or appearance.
- Great discomfort when listening to certain sounds or noises.
- Non-violent intrusive images such as faces, clouds or animated characters.
- Inconsistent sounds, words or intrusive melodies that bother you.
If you want to know how to eliminate this type of thoughts, visit How to Remove Obsessive Thoughts .
References
- American Psychiatric Association (APA). (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V).
- Antony, M. M., Downie, F., & Swinson, R. P. (1998). Diagnostic issues and epidemiology in obsessive compulsive disorder. In R. P. Swinson, M. M. Antony, S. S. Rachman, M. A. Richter, R. P. Swinson, M. M. Antony, M. A. Richter (Eds.), Obsessive-compulsive disorder: Theory, research, and treatment (pp. 3-32). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
- Lee H. J., Kwon S.M. (2003). Two different types of obsession: autogenous obsessions and reactive obsessions. Behav Res Ther. 41 (1): 11-29.
- OCD Types. (S.f.). Retrieved on August 29, 2016, from Types of Obsessions.
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