Obsessed Meaning
We all are very familiar with the word obsessed. But often people are confused about the obsession that they should consider it as a good feeling or a negative feeling or what does it mean?
Obsession is considered as a negative feeling as the excess of anything isn’t good. Sometimes it can lead you to mental illness or depression. Obsession is when we can’t stop thinking about something or think about something at an extreme level. For example, you were cleaning your garden and at that time, you found a big pile of stones inside your dog’s house. After doing research for some time, you come to know that your dog is collecting the stone for several days, and he almost stole stones from your neighbor’s home. So we can say that your dog is obsessed with the stone.
What is the obsession?
Obsession is a feeling when someone can’t divert their mind from something, can’t focus on other things. Obsession can be an injurious feeling because when someone is obsessed with something, they lose control over themselves. The only thing they are aware of is to get that thing what they are obsessed with, which can harm the person or can make him harm others in many cases.
If we talk in English grammar, obsession is an adjective that means “very interested” It was originated from “obsessus” a word of Latin Language that means “besieged”; so according to this the obsession is when your mind is “besieged” by thoughts of something that make you out of control.
Definitions for obsession
- Obsession is when you have or showing so much concern or limitless concern toward something.
- Obsession is when you are controlled by such a strong emotion or attraction toward something.
- When you can’t stop thinking about something or are too worried about something, you are obsessed with something.
Examples for obsession
- The way he was acting with his wife shows how he is obsessed with her.
- Obsessed with the gold, she decided to hide all the gold in the firebox at her home.
- His son was so obsessed with the game that he had to put a lock in the laptop, mobile, and all other gadgets he had.
- Sally told me about her weird obsession with the cactus plant also that’s why she has a large number of cactus plants.
- He was so obsessed with food that even after gaining 50 pounds, he was not ready to stay on diet.
- She has an obsession with fashion and that’s what lead her to success as a fashion model and recently also launched a clothing brand.
- Hollywood is so obsessed with beauty that even an actress with less talent and bad acting skills but a beautiful face can easily get a role.
- Those car drivers are so obsessed with speed that they don’t even care about death./li>
What is OCD?
OCD is the short form for “obsessive-compulsive disorder”. OCD is when someone is suffering from extreme obsession toward something that can harm someone or himself and need medical help.
What are the main types of obsession?
Many people near us are suffering from OCD in which obsession may have many types, but if we talk about psychologist’s point of view, most dangerous obsessions may be of the following main types:
i) Contamination
Contamination is when someone has fear of germs, bacteria, disease, radiation, urine, feces, dirt, soil, and other dirty kinds of stuff. These people always want everything clean and can be dangerous for others and themselves too. Contamination obsession can lead to excessive cleaning, washing being super careful, and being extra hygienic when someone else does something for them such as cooking, cleaning, dusting, etc.
These people can ignore social interactions or social gatherings because of dust and don’t prefer cooking and work from other’s hands. Normally Contamination isn’t that harmful to others but sometimes people can harm others because of their OCD and fear of unhygienic behavior.
ii) The fear of losing control or harm
A huge number of populations are suffering from the fear of how their action may influence or harm others. When someone has fear of harming someone or even sometimes themselves too, they have fear of images of violence or horrific images in one’s mind or committing any crime. Sometimes, few people may have fear of being responsible for something or harming someone and can live in guilt for years, when these fear come in an excessive phase they may be actually harmful or dangerous and can lead a person to seek medical help. People with this OCD are always careful about things and reassure about every safety. These people always check if they closed the gas knobs, locks, hair strengtheners, candles, etc, and always be careful while using things to make sure that they don’t harm someone.
iii) Perfectionism
The people with an obsession with perfectionism are the ones who want everything to be perfect. They may be obsessed with cleanness, correctness, neatness, tidiness, etc.
The people who want everything perfect and are obsessed with neatness may have stress or anxiety of not having something exactly the way they want it to be. These people are so obsessed with perfection that they almost do everything by themselves as they want everything to be remembered.
Normally, it does not need any kind of medical help or is okay to want something perfect but if someone is too much obsessed with it, it may need medical help.
iv) Relational
In this kind of obsession, there is the highest chance of harming others. It is the most common type of obsession and the people suffering from Relational obsession are the ones who have crossed the limit of loving someone. In normal lives, everyone loves someone but when the love or affection toward someone (it does not have to be only romantically but can be of any relation or anyone) increases so much that it leads to the excessive fear of losing them, it is an OCD.
This for sure can lead to mental illness or can make harm themselves or the person they are obsessed with. This is why this is a risky or unpleasant situation and needs to be controlled immediately.
v) Intrusive thoughts
In this type of obsession, the stressful thoughts repeat inside the head again and again. The people suffering from this kind of obsession may have magical thoughts, which do not really exist in real life or make any logical sense, in most cases people are suffering from sexual or violent thoughts, and choosing medical help is the best choice for these people. Anyhow suffering from your own thoughts can be far more dangerous and stressful than any other thing and can’t be understood by others.
The symptoms of OCD
When a person is suffering from any OCD, they can be identified with the following symptoms;
- The fear of dirt or contamination can be seen in person.
- Doubting about small things, their own self and others too.
- The feeling of need for everything to be symmetrical or in a certain ordered
- Aggressive or having fear about hurting anyone or losing control
- Unwanted thoughts like sexual or aggressive thoughts
- Avoiding a situation that can trigger obsession, such as shaking hands.
- Silently repeating a prayer, phrase, or word
Causes of OCD
The main cause of the obsessive-compulsive disorder cannot be understood by professionals but it can be occurred due to these main factors in few cases;
- Biology
Sometimes an OCD can be the result of biological changes in someone like a natural change or a change in brain function. - Genetic
An obsessive-compulsive disorder may be caused due to genetic components, sometimes a few people may have OCD because of some special genes but these genes aren’t identified till now. - Family History
Having a person in the family with Obsession Compulsive Disorder can increase the risk of developing OCD in other members of the family or children of the family. - Stressful life events
Due to stress or some bad Events that happened in the past a person can have OCD or may have an increase in the disorder.
Complications due to Obsession Compulsive Disorder
The OCDs aren’t only harmful to the person but also for the people nearby him or his family. OCD may have so many complications; a few of them are as follows;
- Time wastage
The person with OCD wastes a lot of time in ritualistic actions with no profits or results. - Number of health issues, disorders
Due to OCD, a person deals with a number of health issues or other disorders. For example, the person who washes their hand, again and again, can have contact dermatitis. - Difficulty in doing their work or attending any social events
The person with OCD tries to ignore social interactions, which creates issues sometimes it creates an issue in working as they don’t want to interact like going to office, school, or college. - Tension in relationships
Due to Bad and weird behavior, there is a situation where these people face tension among relationships as sometimes they become unbearable and hard to manage. - Suicidal thoughts
People with Obsession Compulsive Disorder start having anxiety or suicidal thoughts after a while and due to the problems, they face in their lives. - Overall poor conditions in living their life
The bad conditions or behavior of a person with OCD can make him face many difficulties
Conclusions
Having an obsession, with something isn’t that abnormal until it doesn’t turn into any OCD. But if you have any kind of OCD, the only way to cure it is to seek medical help as soon as you can else it can create problems in your life. It is not such a big problem if you have an obsession but at the starting point, it’s better to control it at this point.