Does sexual abuse (or bad parenting, childhood neglect, abuse, early loss) cause OCD?
While the quality of one’s upbringing and early experiences can strongly influence one’s susceptibility to OCD and other psychiatric illnesses, there appears to be a strong genetic and biological basis for OCD symptoms. Most patients are most likely to have inherited the tendency from the genes of your parents, thus making them susceptible to the brain abnormalities that cause disturbances of thinking and behavior that characterize OCD. Symptoms often surface under the stresses and strains of life events, transitions and changes.
