What Are Mental Compulsions?

In Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), compulsions are repetitive behaviors or mental acts that a person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession or according to rigid rules. These compulsions aim to reduce anxiety or prevent some dreaded event, even though they are often not logically connected to the feared outcome or are clearly excessive.

Since this is such a pervasive issue, I’ve made two comprehensive and self-guided worksheets on this topic. There are certain response patterns to anxiety or intrusive thoughts (aka obsessions) that can actually make the problem worse. The way one responds to an intrusive thought is called a “mental compulsion”.