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obsessive-compulsive disorder

obsessive-compulsive disorder

8 3.5
A long-term mental health problem where unwanted thoughts make you repeat actions
  • noun
  • /əbˈsɛsɪv kəmˈpʌlsɪv dɪsˈɔrdər/
  • Specialized
translation icon : trastorno obsesivo-compulsivo
  • So today we're going to be talking about obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD.
  • obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

But there is a thing called like religious obsessive compulsive disorder that is now studied in the literature.

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Examples

  • There's a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder that manifests in the afflicted becoming incapable of doing anything other than arranging the fringe on a carpet.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • Your smiling co-worker may actually be severely debilitated by obsessive-compulsive disorder; you'd just never know it by looking at him or her.

    Blog text (23)
  • My actual obsessive-compulsive disorder began when I was ten.

    Academic text (2016)
  • No, I do not have obsessive-compulsive disorder.

    Blog text (16)
  • I suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder for a few years, and a bad experience at confession helped set it off.

    Blog text (4)
  • Owen has obsessive compulsive disorder.

  • And in fact, when we do deep brain stimulation for obsessive compulsive disorder, we can fairly reliably induce a positive affect.

  • A 14-year-old non-verbal boy with autism has seen a psychiatrist who recommends risperidone syrup for his obsessive-compulsive disorder.

    Academic text (2014)
  • Mental health diagnoses include anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and unspecified mental health disorders.

    Academic text (2007)
  • In 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it for use in treating obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Surface Forms

Morphology

obsessive-compulsive + disorder

The phrase literally combines 'obsessive' and 'compulsive' (describing types of symptoms) with 'disorder' (a diagnosed condition), so its meaning — a mental-health condition involving obsessions and compulsions — is directly derivable from the parts. This modifier+noun composition is regular in English and has transparent equivalents in many languages (e.g., Spanish 'trastorno obsesivo-compulsivo'), so a learner who knows the constituents would understand it.

Etymology

Obsessive-compulsive disorder comes from its two parts: obsessive means thoughts that keep coming back, like a song you cannot stop, and compulsive means actions you do again and again to try to feel less worried. So, it describes a condition where someone has repeated unwanted thoughts ('obsessions') and feels forced to repeat actions ('compulsions') to reduce their worry.