The psychology of obsessions

Like we know nowadays people have a lot of obsessions. Some of them are small obsessions and are lasting for few hours or days, but also some obsessions can last for years and it is called obsessive - compulsive disorder (OCD), which means that the individual may have only the obsessions, compulsions or both. An example of an obsession in OCD is a person who can't stop thinking about dirt or germs that they could come into contact with. In this case, thinking about the dirt and/or germs is the obsession.

So, like I have mentioned obsessive - compulsive disorder (OCD)is a mental disorder and there are two factors which can cause this disorder: psychological and biological. When we talk about psychological causes there are a lot of theories, bus most popular theory is the cognitive–behavioral model which suggests that compulsive behavior is carried out to remove anxiety-provoking intrusive thoughts and when we talk about biological causes is can be said that OCD has been linked to abnormalities with the neurotransmitter serotonin, although it could be either a cause or an effect of these abnormalities. So like we see there are two leading factors: psychological and biological. Also when we talk about obsessions we can think about benefits and drawbacks of obsessions, but there is a one problem there are no benefits when we talk about OCD unless we talk about small obsessions, because when we talk about obsessions which are lasting for few days or few month, for example, obsession of success it can be said that benefit of this obsession is that person will reach his point because he will put all his energy. Talking about drawbacks of obsessions I can say that there a lot of it, but most important I think is permanent anxiety, preoccupation with sexual or aggressive impulses, or with particular religious beliefs, nervous habits, such as opening a door and closing it a certain number of times before one enters or leaves a room and these things can cause severe emotional and economic loss.

Finally I want to say that obsessive - compulsive disorder (OCD) is the fourth-most common mental disorder in the world and factors which cause this disorder are biological and psychological and there a lot of drawbacks of this disorder and all these drawbacks can cause severe emotional and economic loss.

References:
www.psychologytoday.com
www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/articles/disorders/causesofocd.shtml BBC Science and Nature: Human Body and Mind. Causes of OCD. Accessed April 15, 2006.
Barlow, D. H. and V. M. Durand. 'Essentials of Abnormal Psychology'. California: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006.