In many mental and physical illnesses, sufferers experience similar symptoms. Obsessive-compulsive disorders are different. The differences between the various forms of compulsions can be so great that the sufferers themselves do not believe they are actually suffering from the same disorder. However, the unifying factor between them is that they all experience some form of uncontrollable thoughts and impulses. The number of symptoms also varies from person to person: while some suffer from one compulsion, others battle a whole range of different obsessive-compulsive disorders at once. The most common forms are briefly outlined below, with the so-called cleaning and washing compulsions making up the largest proportion.
Cleaning and washing compulsions
Sufferers experience panic fear or disgust of dirt, bacteria, viruses, and bodily fluids or excretions. The accompanying discomfort leads to extensive washing and cleaning rituals. In the process, the hands, the entire body, the apartment or even the soiled object are cleaned and disinfected for hours. The course of the rituals is exactly specified. If there are interruptions, the affected person must start again from the beginning.
Control compulsions
The second largest group of obsessive-compulsive disorders are the so-called control compulsions. In this case, sufferers fear triggering a disaster through carelessness and neglect. For this reason, technical household appliances, doors and windows, as well as routes just traveled are checked again and again. But even after repeated checking, the sufferer does not get the feeling that everything is really okay now. Often, the sufferers then ask family members or neighbors to help them with the checks. In this way, they can relinquish responsibility and finish their checkups more quickly.
Repetition and counting compulsions
The so-called repetition compulsions make the sufferer repeat quite everyday actions – such as brushing his teeth or fluffing the bedclothes – always for a certain number of times. If he fails to keep to his rules, he fears that something bad might happen to himself or someone close to him. In counting compulsions, the compulsive person feels the urge to count certain things, such as books on a shelf, paving stones, or bathroom tiles, over and over again.
Collecting compulsions
Collective compulsives are afraid of accidentally throwing away something valuable or important to them. In doing so, they find it extremely difficult to distinguish between mementos that are important to everyone and worthless junk. Many people also collect discarded items such as old car parts or broken household appliances in order to repair them “someday. For some time now, the media have increasingly reported on the so-called messies. Those affected are characterized by the so-called “neglect syndrome”. A large part of them also suffers from collecting compulsions.
Order compulsions
Those affected have subjected themselves to very strict order criteria and standards. Accordingly, they spend a lot of time every day meticulously restoring their order. For example, they always put the cans of food on the shelf in a certain way, or they make sure that the laundry in the closet is exactly on top of each other.
Compulsive slowness
Because obsessive rituals consume a great deal of time, any obsessive-compulsive disorder slows down the lives of sufferers accordingly. For a small subset, however, slowness itself is the problem. They take hours to perform very mundane actions such as eating or dressing. When combing hair, for example, each hair must be brushed individually. If the affected person gets confused in the process, he or she has to start all over again.
Obsessive thoughts without compulsive actions
Intrusive thoughts play a central role in most obsessive-compulsive disorders. However, in a subset of sufferers, the compulsion consists solely of intrusive thoughts. These usually have aggressive (“I might beat my wife”), sexual (“I might sexually abuse the neighbor’s child” or “I am homosexual”), or religious (“I might make blasphemous comments during church services”) content. The greatest fear of those affected is that their thoughts could someday become reality. In fact, no case has yet been reported where an obsessive-compulsive has turned his or her frightening obsessive thoughts into reality.
