Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Are you bothered by thoughts or images that you can’t easily stop or that don’t make sense to you? For example, thoughts about being contaminated by germs, thoughts that you may have hurt someone when you didn’t want to, or thoughts that harm will come to someone you love? If these thoughts are followed by actions that you do over and over again or can’t easily stop, such as washing your hands to make sure they are clean, going back to places to make sure you haven’t hurt someone, or counting or repeating a phrase in your head to stop harm coming to others, then you may have obsessive-compulsive disorder, commonly known as OCD.

OCD shows itself in many different ways, but it always has ‘obsessions’ and ‘compulsions’. ‘Obsessions’ are distressing thoughts or images that you have over and over again and that won’t go away, no matter how much you try to do something to get rid of them. ‘Compulsions’ are things you feel you have to do to get rid of the thoughts and images and to stop what you dread from happening. However, repeating these compulsions is often distressing in itself, and any comfort you feel from doing them doesn’t last long.

OCD can take up a lot of your time and interfere with your everyday life. But there are treatments that can help. To refer yourself to Talk Liverpool, click HERE.