Almost everyone has unpleasant or unwanted thoughts at some point, such as thinking that you’ve forgotten to lock the door, or sudden or unwelcome mental images. But if you have persistent, unpleasant thoughts that dominate your thinking and stop you from leading your life, you may have developed obsessions. Compulsions are things that you feel compelled to do and which often start as a way of reducing the anxiety caused by obsessive thoughts. Together, these are sometimes known as obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD.
Clearly, feeling anxious and distressed about hygiene or harm makes a lot of sense during the COVID-19 pandemic. It doesn’t mean that you have OCD. However, if these feelings have been a problem for a while or they’re affecting your life after the pandemic is over, make sure that you talk to your GP. You might find some of the resources on this website helpful too.
Almost everyone has unpleasant or unwanted thoughts at some point, such as thinking that you’ve forgotten to lock the door, or sudden or unwelcome mental images. But if you have persistent, unpleasant thoughts that dominate your thinking and stop you from leading your life, you may have developed obsessions. Compulsions are things that you feel compelled to do and which often start as a way of reducing the anxiety caused by obsessive thoughts. Together, these are sometimes known as obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD.
Clearly, feeling anxious and distressed about hygiene or harm makes a lot of sense during the COVID-19 pandemic. It doesn’t mean that you have OCD. However, if these feelings have been a problem for a while or they’re affecting your life after the pandemic is over, make sure that you talk to your GP. You might find some of the resources on this website helpful too.
OCD is short for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It’s a relatively common mental health difficulty which includes having difficult thoughts, uncomfortable feelings, and repetitive behaviours. The behaviours are often used as a way of coping with the difficult thoughts and feelings, however in OCD this way of coping becomes unhelpful.
A self help guide for Obsessions and Compulsions Download OCD Self-help guide NHS
We all have to cope and manage with change in our lives for lots of reasons. Here are some tips and thoughts on navigating through a period of change.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a psychological therapy based on the relationships between what we think, what we do and how we feel. CBT teaches you how to recognise and tackle problems in the here and now, rather than in the past.
If you, or someone you know, is in crisis and in imminent danger of causing harm to themselves or others, call 999 immediately
