To a certain extent everyone's lives are structured around routines and rituals. We get up in the morning, and perform a series of structured tasks in order to survive such as showering, dressing, locking the house, driving to work etc. Normally, everyday routine tasks do not become overwhelming and we do not need to repeat them over and over, to feel safe or clean.

Sufferers of obsessive-compulsive disorder suffer from two aspects of the same problem. Initially they struggle with the obsession itself and then increase the difficulty by creating compulsive ritual behaviour in an effort to alleviate the feelings evoked by the obsession. For example; an obsessive fear of contamination, may be neutralised by compulsive hand washing.

Do you wash your hands many times during the day - for fear you will contaminate yourself or others? Do you have to check the back door is locked more than a few times before you go to bed - because you feel that if you don't some harm may come to your family? Do you engage in ritual behaviours to an extent that it is becoming difficult to fit your normal everyday routine around them? The examples given here are only a few of the many forms of Obsessions and Compulsive behaviours that people suffer from. If you feel you may be experiencing something similar, although the rituals may be different, you may be su