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Washing your hands before preparing a meal and checking the door is locked before you leave the house are actions many of us carry out – and indeed it makes good sense to do so. The question is, when do behaviours like this cross the line and become a psychological concern?

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is becoming an increasingly well known term. High-profile celebrities (like David Beckham) are discussing the condition and a range of TV shows and documentaries have surfaced on the subject, raising awareness.

Obsessions are recurrent and persistent urges, thoughts or images. These can be about anything, however they typically revolve around a need for perfect order, preventing something bad from happening or contamination.

Compulsions can be thoughts or behaviours that temporarily relieve the anxiety brought up by the obsession. For example, checking a lock a certain amount of times may relieve the sufferer’s anxiety. The problem is, this...

The term OCD is one many are familiar with, but few truly comprehend the impact it can have on people’s lives. Josh Cannings is 22 and has suffered from symmetry OCD for almost 10 years. Josh has to touch everything with his left and right hands, and his left and right feet an equal amount of times everywhere he goes.

When Josh doesn’t ‘equalise’ he says he feels an intense sense of dread, similar to the feeling you have when you receive bad news about a loved one. This feeling then triggers anxiety or panic attacks if he cannot equalise.

Those suffering from symmetry OCD feel compelled to perform all tasks in a balanced, symmetrical way – this can involve aligning objects or repeating the same action with each side of the body.

Other forms of OCD include:

Checking: This...

Kirsty always had a few idiosyncrasies, feeling the need to put things in the ‘right’ place and do things in a certain order. None of these habits caused her trouble and therefore she never sought help.

After she gave birth to her first two children however, she did feel herself indulging in these routines a little more. Kirsty felt the need to keep her surroundings impeccably clean and germ-free to ensure her children didn’t fall ill.

The birth of her third child seemed to trigger an even bigger reaction. A survey conducted by the Nursing Times has suggested that 11% of mothers suffer from postnatal OCD, but many mothers are unaware that this is an illness in its own right.

Kirsty’s troubled thoughts regarding cleanliness soon took a new form after a near trip down the...

One man who participated in the awareness week was men’s group coordinator Kenny D’Cruz. Kenny developed mental health problems after travelling to Britain as a refugee from Uganda.

When his father was declared an enemy of the state, he, his younger brother and his mother flew to Britain while his father had to be smuggled out of the country. His father’s parting words at the airport were ‘You are the head of the family now, you must look after your brother and mother.’

For a young child that is an impossible demand, and one which Kenny carried around for months as they made their way through a series of refugee detention centres, wondering if they’d ever see their husband...

Using mental health terms as if they are clichés has become commonplace in the past few years, we hear them dropped into conversation as though they are just any other word, but as much as the people who say them don’t do so out of malice, are they accurate and more importantly, are they acceptable?

Much research has suggested that using mental health terms to describe personality traits is becoming increasingly common, with a 2007 study of the terms “schizophrenia” and “schizophrenic” in the UK media revealing that 11% of the references were metaphorical.

According to consultant psychiatrist Arun Chopra who works at Queen’s Medical Centre based in Nottingham, using these terms so flippantly can have a negative impact upon...