Unwanted, "forbidden" and disturbing thoughts involving sex or religion. Compulsive counting or touching things. The need to do tasks in a certain order. Fear of throwing away something that might be useful later, which may lead to hoarding.
Examples include worries about having committed a sin or breaking a religious rule, blasphemous thoughts about religious figures, or fear that one is falling short morally.
Unacceptable or taboo thoughts in OCD include sexual, aggressive, and religious obsessions. It appears that individuals with this type of primary OCD experience more obsessions and fewer overt compulsions, and thus, may take longer to treat [75].
Typical OCD Thoughts
Constant worry about catching a deadly disease and/or contaminating others with your germs. Disturbing sexual and/or religious imagery that might include sexual assault or inappropriate sexual acts. Fears about contamination with environmental toxins (e.g. lead or radioactivity)
Presentation. Primarily obsessional OCD has been called "one of the most distressing and challenging forms of OCD."
The bottom line
OCD can manifest in four main ways: contamination/washing, doubt/checking, ordering/arranging, and unacceptable/taboo thoughts. Obsessions and compulsions that revolve about contamination and germs are the most common type of OCD, but OCD can cover a wide range of topics.
There are 3 Types of Taboos: cultural, religious, and food.
While both mental health conditions involve repetitive worrying, people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often engage in unwanted and repetitive behavior in response to their worry. People with anxiety, however, tend to overthink their worry, but don't act in specific responsive manners.
What causes OCD? Experts aren't sure of the exact cause of OCD. Genetics, brain abnormalities, and the environment are thought to play a role. It often starts in the teens or early adulthood.
However, research has shown that about 94% of people experience intrusive thoughts. That's almost everyone! Almost every single person has intrusive thoughts from time to time. It is extremely common; People just don't talk about it because it is so taboo and uncomfortable.
Unacceptable/taboo thoughts are distinctly ego-dystonic with a repugnant quality that tends not to be so prominent in other OCD symptoms [12]. As their name suggests, the content of these obsessions typically involves unacceptable, taboo or forbidden themes such as stabbing a relative, incest or blasphemy.
These types of taboo thoughts often include harmful, violent, aggressive, sexual, or religious thoughts that are in opposition to their value system and morals, and they often bring about intense feelings of discomfort, shame, or guilt. These thoughts are often hard for people to talk about.
Harm OCD. This subtype of OCD involves intrusive thoughts of harming others or committing some sort of violent act. Someone who suffers from these types of thoughts experiences significant distress, because thoughts of harming others are inconsistent with their values and who they are.
personality – neat, meticulous, methodical people with high personal standards may be more likely to develop OCD, also people who are generally quite anxious or have a very strong sense of responsibility for themselves and others.
People with OCD experience recurrent and persistent thoughts, images or impulses that are intrusive and unwanted (obsessions). They also perform repetitive and ritualistic actions that are excessive, time-consuming and distressing (compulsions).
There are a variety of conditions that have obsessive compulsive disorder qualities that are quite similar to OCD such as PANDAS, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), hoarding disorder, trichotillomania, compulsive skin picking, hypochondria, and olfactory reference syndrome.
Repeating compulsions can take up a lot of time, and you might avoid certain situations that trigger your OCD. This can mean that you're not able to go to work, see family and friends, eat out or even go outside. Obsessive thoughts can make it hard to concentrate and leave you feeling exhausted.
The type of abnormal activity, though, is quite different: those with OCD exhibit significantly higher levels of activity in this system, while those with ADHD exhibit significantly lower levels of activity in it.