OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) is a psychological disorder that alters the patient's daily life to limits that are often unimaginable for those who do not. There are several types of OCD, depending on the patient's symptoms.
One of the types of OCD is based on thoughts or recurrent mental images that the patient does not want to have, but is unable to avoid it, which causes stress or anxiety. The action against these thoughts can be to try to ignore them or make them disappear, in most cases without success, unless you resort to a professional.
Another type is characterized by obsessions of repetition or obsessive verification. The patient is concerned to check trivial things, which is aware that it is unnecessary to check, but in most cases can not avoid it and loses a substantial time for these. To give an example, we can assume a patient that after closing a container keeps pulling for a while as not being sure that the container is closed despite seeing it, or that it is for a while looking at the shape of something, although it does not really amount at all.
As for the repetition can be, for example, the obsession to wash your hands too often or seek an extreme placement of the objects that surround you.
There are also the collectors, who store objects just for fear of getting rid of them.
For aa OCD patient, not carrying out these "rituals" supposes an irrational and, in many cases, uncontrollable anxiety, although it is believed that in most cases the patient himself knows that it is his / her imagination and that there would be no real consequences for not doing them. The disease makes the patient, apart from suffering, lose much of their time unnecessarily.
It is considered that a high percentage of OCD patients never get to contact a professional who helps them overcome their ordeal or, at least, be able to coexist better with them. This may be due to, say, shame, since, as I have already said, the individual himself in many cases is aware of the irrationality of his actions.
This post is a translation from my post: https://steemit.com/cervantes/@rccc/sintomas-del-toc