If an obsession is the terrifying question that OCD screams in your ear, a compulsion is the action you feel desperately forced to take to silence it. It’s the “doing” part of the cycle—the frantic search for a fire extinguisher when your brain’s faulty smoke alarm is blaring.
On the surface, a compulsion can look like anything: washing your hands, checking a lock, repeating a phrase in your head, or endlessly googling a question. But beneath the surface, all compulsions share the same, singular purpose: to get rid of the crushing anxiety and uncertainty caused by an obsession.
For anyone struggling with OCD in Ireland, understanding the true nature of compulsions is the first step towards dismantling their power. They are not strange habits or personal failings; they are flawed survival strategies. In this guide, we will explore what compulsions are, the different forms they take, and why they are the hidden fuel that keeps the engine of OCD running.
The Core Function of a Compulsion: A Flawed Survival Strategy
A compulsion is not a random behaviour. It is a highly purposeful, albeit counterproductive, attempt to prevent a feared outcome and find immediate relief from emotional distress. Your brain, in a state of high alert from an obsession, believes you are in genuine danger. It tells you that performing this specific action is the only way to guarantee safety and restore a sense of calm.
This process is driven by a powerful psychological principle called negative reinforcement. This doesn’t mean punishment; it means a behaviour is strengthened by the removal of something unpleasant.
- Obsession creates intense anxiety (the unpleasant feeling).
- You perform the compulsion (the behaviour).
- The anxiety temporarily drops (the unpleasant feeling is removed).
Your brain learns a simple, powerful, and deceptive lesson: “The ritual worked! It made the bad feeling go away!” This creates an incredibly strong urge to repeat the behaviour the next time the obsession strikes, locking you deeper into the cycle.
The Two Faces of Compulsions: Overt vs. Covert
When people think of OCD, they typically picture the visible, physical rituals. These are known as overt compulsions. However, some of the most exhausting and common compulsions are completely invisible, taking place entirely within the mind. These are covert compulsions. Recognising both is essential for recovery.
Overt (Physical) Compulsions
These are the external behaviours others might notice. They are deliberate actions aimed at ensuring safety, cleanliness, or a sense of “rightness.”
- Washing and Cleaning: This goes far beyond normal hygiene. It can involve washing hands until they are raw, scrubbing household surfaces for hours, or following rigid, elaborate showering routines to remove perceived contaminants.
- Checking: This is driven by an intense doubt and an inflated sense of responsibility. It includes repeatedly checking that doors are locked, appliances are off, or that you haven’t made a mistake in an email. The checker can never achieve a lasting sense of certainty.
- Ordering, Arranging, and Symmetry: This involves arranging objects in a specific, “just right” way until a sense of inner calm is achieved. The distress comes from the feeling that if things are not perfectly ordered, something bad will happen or the inner tension will be unbearable.
- Repeating: This can involve performing any action a set number of times, such as turning a light switch on and off, re-reading a sentence, or walking through a doorway repeatedly until it “feels right.”
Covert (Mental) Compulsions
These rituals are just as real and debilitating as their physical counterparts. Because they are invisible, people suffering with them often feel they have “Pure O,” but in reality, they are performing constant, exhausting mental compulsions.
- Mental Checking/Reviewing: This is the mental equivalent of checking a lock. You might mentally scan your body for signs of illness, replay a conversation over and over to check you didn’t say something wrong, or review past events to try and be 100% certain about a memory.
- Reassurance Seeking: This is a compulsion that often involves another person. It’s the constant need to ask questions like, “Are you sure you love me?” or “Did that seem okay to you?” or “Are you sure I’m not sick?” It also includes repeatedly searching online for answers to health or relationship fears.
- Neutralising: This involves trying to “cancel out” a “bad” thought, image, or word with a “good” or “safe” one. It might be repeating a specific prayer, counting to a certain number, or actively replacing a violent image with a peaceful one.
- Thought Suppression: This is the conscious effort not to think a certain thought. It is one of the most common and counterproductive compulsions. Trying to force a thought out of your mind is like trying not to think of a pink elephant—it paradoxically makes the thought more prominent and “sticky.”
Why Compulsions Are the “Fuel for the Fire”
This is the central paradox of OCD: the thing you are doing to try and fix the problem is the very thing that is making it stronger. While a compulsion provides a fleeting moment of relief, it causes devastating long-term damage.
- They Validate the Obsession: Every time you perform a compulsion, you are sending a powerful message to your brain: “The threat was real. This ritual was necessary to keep me safe.” This gives the original obsession more credibility and makes it more likely to return.
- They Destroy Self-Trust: When you repeatedly check a lock, you are teaching your brain that you cannot trust your own memory or senses. The more you seek reassurance, the less you trust your own judgment.
- They Shrink Your World: Compulsions are incredibly time-consuming and exhausting. They steal time, energy, and attention away from the things that truly matter in your life—your relationships, your work, and your hobbies. To avoid the distress, you begin to avoid situations that might trigger the obsession, and your world gets smaller and smaller.
Getting Help in Ireland: The Professional View
Recognising your behaviours as compulsions is a courageous and significant first step. In Ireland, reputable health bodies like the Health Service Executive (HSE) provide guidance on OCD, acknowledging it as a serious and debilitating condition.
The treatment path recommended by international bodies like the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF) and supported by professional Irish organisations like the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI) is clear. The gold-standard therapy is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), a specific form of CBT. The “Response Prevention” part of this therapy is aimed directly at reducing and eliminating compulsions.
When seeking professional help, it is vital to find a therapist who is not only accredited (e.g., with the PSI or the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy – IACP) but who explicitly states they have experience and training in using ERP for OCD.
Next in this series: “So, Do I Have OCD?” – An Evidence-Based Self-Assessment Guide
Return to our main guide: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): The Definitive Guide for Ireland