Do you have a specific sport ritual that you have to go through in order to be sure that your team will win? Perhaps someone else in your life goes through a seemingly bizarre ritual before a game, or wearing a specific shirt or sitting in a special seat. Whilst many people all over the country indulge in similarly silly rituals, it can be hard to know where the line is between a fairly common sense of superstition surrounding sport and a full blown case of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
Whilst the former may be taken terribly seriously by the participant, on some level he or she knows that the ritual is nonsensical. It is just something that they do in order to feel that they are making a contribution to the success of their favourite team. Those with OCD, on the other hand, have a real crippling anxiety and fear about certain things, and their rituals are a mental health problem that stop them from living a normal life.
In the case of people who have OCD, the rituals are performed because they fear that if they don’t carry them out compulsively then something really bad will happen to them. They feel that doing specific things over and over again is the only way to protect their wellbeing. Millions of people find their wellness affected as they spend their days carrying out these compulsions or rituals in order to try to protect themselves.
Unlike simply putting on a favourite smelly old shirt to watch the football in, OCD rituals get in the way of daily life as the person affected carries out tasks such as washing their hands or checking their light switches over and over, often to prevent harm from coming to them (or so they believe). Some of the rituals can be more bizarre and carrying them out can seriously affect the sufferer’s wellbeing.
It is important that sufferers are aware that OCD is a problem and is quite distinct from the rituals associated with sport. It can be treated with medication or psychiatric help and should not be ignored.
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