Common OCD Thoughts and Compulsions can occur by any thought or situation a person suffering OCD may face.

Some common thoughts people with OCD may face include?

• What if I hit my baby?
• What if I hurt myself?
• I don’t want to hurt myself?
• What if I’m gay? (in a person that is not gay, or vice versa)
• What if I beat someone up?
• What if I shoot someone?
• I don’t want to do what that person on TV has done.
• My thoughts are telling me to steal something?

For a person that is not suffering from OCD the above thoughts would come (if they ever do) and go quickly in the persons mind. With my experience someone who has OCD thinking about one of the above thoughts would cause stress and anxiety because the thoughts played out in the mind may seem real but they are not and by obsessing about them increases the obsession which in turn creates panic and anxiety all thanks to the OCD.

Even though I had experienced many of the thoughts above at no stage was I going to act on them because they were just that - thoughts that were controlled by OCD not like a person who had the intention to hurt someone and who carried this out. Thought based OCD are the hardest to manage. An example was in Melbourne in 2006 a man hopped into plane and teh plane was about to take off. As it started to move the man experienced an Anxiety attack even though it may not be related to OCD however he needed to get away from what was causing this and he attempted to open the plane door and jump out.

Common compulsions:

Some common-compulsions may include checking your car or house door, washing yourself over and over again, washing your hands over and over again, driving only in one side of the road, not walking on cracks in the footpath, taking your own cutlery to a restaurant, double checking your mail box etc

So what happens if you to don’t comply and do the compulsive actions such as the washing of the hands?

What I experienced is that if I didn’t wash my hands I would OCD about this over and over again where I then encounter an anxiety attack. By washing the hands over and over again just to convince the OCD they are clean stops the anxiety attack.

Below are two real life examples I had faced during an experience with common OCD thoughts and compulsions.

Thought Based - An OCD Scenario about hurting people – It was not something I wanted to do however the OCD around this was triggered by watching the news on TV and hearing about someone who committed such crime. I had to continue to obsess and be compulsive about this until it triggered an anxiety attack where then the compulsion would slow down and stop. You can’t walk away from a thought based scenario to stop an anxiety attack instead you need to go through the whole OCD attack.

Compulsion Based – A situation I faced many times over was to have a shower dry myself up think to myself I have not washed myself properly and so I would hop back into the shower dry up again and shower one more time. I had to repeat this so I can beat the compulsion in which then I would not experience an anxiety attack. If I did not shower again OCD would then increase which then in effect I would have an anxiety attack. Compulsion based OCD is easier to control than thought based because in most scenario’s you can move away from what’s causing it.

The compulsions and thoughts you do not want to happen (after all they are only thoughts) at the time of OCD seem real and for example if there is something you can do to stop the OCD such as washing of the hands you will do this as many times as you need to.

Common OCD Thoughts and Compulsions - Thought based OCD I found to be the hardest to deal with because what you think and OCD about you can not control the action however you need to go through the OCD in your mind and because for example you may OCD about hurting someone because you do not want to do this it becomes carry and real which then in my situation I would encounter an anxiety attack.

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