What you’ll learn to do: describe obsessive-compulsive and related disorders

In this section, you will learn about obsessive-compulsive disorder and other disorders related to this category. These are a group of disorders in which a person experiences both an obsession (uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts) and a compulsion (behaviors that create an urge to repeat an action over and over). OCD and its related grouping of disorders are chronic, often caused by a dysfunctional response to stress, and interfere with a person’s normal daily functioning. These OCD-related disorders include body dysmorphic disorder, hearing disorder, trichotillomania, and excoriation. Each one of these disorders has a unique presentation of symptoms that we’ll examine more closely in the following pages.