Abstract : As children, we may have exhibited compulsions to count train bogies, trail fingers over railings or along parked cars, or hop, skip and jump over tiles. Generally we outgrow them. But when these behaviour patterns spill into adulthood, problems begin. Compulsions can have countless themes-from a need to check and recheck doors and windows to almost ceaseless rituals concerned with everyday affairs, informs Amisha Roshan.

In the film As Good as It Gets , as soon as the character Melvin Udall enters his apartment, he pulls a bar of soap from his medicine cabinet (stacked with nothing but soap), rubs his hands under scalding water for a few seconds, drops the bar in the trash, and grabs another and then another and another. He fears dirt and mess so much that he brings his own plastic silverware to the one restaurant he patronises. And he never allows another living creature to step into his home.

Udall suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). But he has many kindred spirits -- not clinically diagnosable though they still inspire both admiration and scorn in their quest for cleanliness and order. Your aunt might set a thematic table, or your husband might alphabetise all the books on the shelf. Such folks are neat freaks, checking and re-checking light switches, doors, gas burners, etc. washing (and even putting money down the toilet because it was contaminated). Offsprings of people with this disorder are more likely to develop it, indicating that genes play some role. "I had an uncle in Dindigul who developed a phobia for dirt; so he always held his glass of coffee high in the air lest dust settled on it. He always carried a soap to wash hands several times a day; and refused to shake hands. One of his daughters also developed the fetish and in spite of living in the sterile environment of a quiet village in Hong Kong , she cleansed her kitchen several times a day", informs Dr Sheilu Sreenivasan.

The excessive, senseless, uncontrollable behaviours are compulsions; the excessive, useless, invasive thoughts are obsessions (worries, focus on your looks, etc). If you try hard to block these acts or thoughts from happening, you'll become very anxious, often feeling as though something awful will happen. Compulsions and obsessions seem to be both a result of anxiety and a means of briefly reducing anxiety. These acts appear to start with magical thinking, namely, the wishful idea that an action or thought by them will reduce some risk or some unpleasant feeling. For instance, Howard Hughes, the famous billionaire aircraft designer and movie producer, feared touching things because of possible contamination. Being afraid of germs, he became compulsively clean. Eventually, he avoided almost everything, staying locked in his apartment for many years. Even his eating utensils were sterilised, the handles wrapped in tissue, then wrapped with tape, and finally wrapped with tissue paper again before he would touch them. What's truly amazing is that with all his contacts and money, he didn't get treatment. Shame and hiding the problem are parts of the illness.