Obsessive Compulsive Behaviour

What is it like to feel you must check a dozen times that the gas is turned off before you can leave the house? Or to lock and re-lock the front door until you are hours late for work? Do you repeatedly wash your hands until they are chapped and sore? Sufferers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder are often highly intelligent and creative people, but they are slaves to persistent unwanted thoughts, tormented by irrational fears of death and contamination. One in ten individuals suffer from one form or another of obsessional thought or behaviour at some time in their lives - the behaviour needn't be "bizarre" or extreme to qualify. This book aims to help sufferers to overcome these obsessions. Frederick Toates is an experimental psychologist and a former sufferer from obsessional thoughts himself. He explains factors that may trigger the disorder, vital dos and don'ts for the sufferer, the available treatments and pitfalls, and how carers and families can cope.