This information handout explains the nature of compulsions in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), the different forms they take, and their relationship with obsessions. It helps clients recognize and validate their experiences while supporting evidence-based psychoeducation and treatment.
Includes client-friendly guidance. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.
Offers theory, guidance, and prompts for mental health professionals. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.
Compulsions are one of the defining features of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), yet many clients struggle to recognise the full range of behaviors that maintain their difficulties. While compulsions are commonly associated with visible behaviors such as checking or washing, they can also include reassurance seeking, mental rituals, counting, ordering, repeating, neutralizing, and many other covert behaviors that are less readily identified.
The Compulsions In Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) information handout provides a clear, evidence-based explanation of compulsions,and the different forms they can take, and the common obsessions and related beliefs that accompany them. Practical examples help clients recognize their own compulsions, understand the relationship between obsessions and compulsions, and appreciate that many people with OCD experience multiple overlapping forms of compulsive behavior.
Used as part of psychoeducation, this resource:
Helps clients identify covert behaviors, mental rituals, reassurance-seeking, neutralizing, or subtle repeating behaviors.
Provides a comprehensive overview of compulsions, and the common obsessions and related beliefs that they develop around.
Helps normalize clients' experiences and reduce shame surrounding compulsive behaviors.
Provides a shared language for discussing symptoms that clients may previously have concealed.
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Clients receiving evidence-based treatment for OCD.
Clients experiencing distressing intrusive thoughts, images, urges, or doubts.
Clients relying on reassurance or ritualized safety behaviors.
Clients reluctant to disclose compulsions.
Therapists introducing the CBT model of OCD.
Use early during psychoeducation.
Identify overt and covert compulsions.
Reduce shame by highlighting the diversity of compulsions.
Link compulsions to obsessions and maintaining beliefs.
Introduce the rationale for ERP.
Use alongside other OCD psychoeducation resources.
Compulsions are behaviors performed in response to distressing obsessions. They temporarily reduce anxiety but ultimately maintain OCD by preventing disconfirmation of feared beliefs. They may be behavioral or mental, overt or covert, and are often performed according to strict rules or rituals.
The resource describes the wide range of compulsions encountered in OCD, including washing, checking, counting, repeating, ordering, reassurance-seeking, mental rituals, neutralizing, and miscellaneous compulsions.
The therapist guidance recommends using the handout during psychoeducation, particularly when clients struggle to recognize compulsions, feel ashamed of them, or conceal symptoms. It provides an excellent foundation for collaborative formulation and subsequent ERP.
Description of the wide range of compulsions, including overt and covert compulsions. Categories including washing, checking, repeating, counting, ordering, reassurance seeking, mental rituals, neutralizing, and miscellaneous compulsions.
Therapist guidance for clinical use.
This resource improves psychoeducation, collaborative formulation, and treatment engagement by helping clients recognize the wide range of compulsions that may be present in OCD, and the obsessions or related beliefs that may underly them. It also helps therapists identify covert compulsions that may otherwise be overlooked, improving preparation for CBT and ERP.
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