I used to touch everything in my room ‘that had a bad omen’ and shut my curtains multiple times ‘to stop my family dying’… this is my life with OCD
A person describes living with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), including repeated touching rituals and repeatedly closing curtains because they feared failing to do so could cause relatives to die. The account illustrates how OCD can create distressing intrusive fears and compel people to perform actions intended to prevent imagined harm.
The article focuses on the personal impact of these compulsions within the person’s home and family life. It presents the behaviours as symptoms of OCD rather than genuine beliefs that the actions could control events, highlighting the anxiety and repetition involved.
- OCD led to repeated rituals driven by fears of family harm.
- The person repeatedly touched objects and shut curtains.
- The account highlights OCD’s distressing impact.
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Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, is a mental health condition where people experience persistent unwanted thoughts that create anxiety, and feel compelled to perform actions repeatedly to relieve that anxiety. Usually, the person recognises the logic doesn't work, but feels unable to resist the urge.
The person in this account repeatedly touched objects they saw as bad omens and closed their curtains many times each day, fearing that not doing so would cause harm to their family members. These compulsions filled significant portions of their time and energy.
The pattern persists because the compulsive action provides temporary relief from anxiety, which reinforces the urge to repeat it the next time the thought arises. This creates a self-perpetuating cycle that characterises the condition.