What Are Compulsions?
Compulsions are the behaviors, or actions, that someone with OCD does to try to shut down the worry thoughts. Another name for compulsions is rituals. By doing compulsions, people with OCD hope to keep bad things they worry about from happening. They believe that doing a certain ritual will make the bad feeling go away and, for a while, it often does. They feel scared that if they don’t do the ritual something bad will happen. Some kids may have a difficult time explaining a reason for their rituals and they do them “just because.” But in general, by doing a ritual, someone with OCD is trying to feel absolutely certain that something bad won’t happen. Of course, plenty of people who don’t have OCD have rituals or actions that are important to them. Maybe you tap your pencil three times before starting a tough test or sing a certain song just before diving off the high dive. Perhaps you have a lucky number or even a lucky pair of socks. But OCD compulsions are much more than doing somet
