Symptoms of Superstitious OCD

Obsessions: Superstitious OCD involves obsessions related to irrational beliefs or fears that certain actions or rituals are necessary to prevent harm or bring about positive outcomes. Individuals may feel compelled to engage in specific behaviours to ward off perceived threats.
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Compulsive Behaviours: Compulsive behaviours associated with superstitious OCD include engaging in rituals, routines, or actions believed to have a protective or symbolic effect. These behaviours are driven by the need to prevent negative consequences. They may also engage in mental compulsions including thought suppression, rumination, or "replacing a bad thought with a good thought". Compulsions can also include repeated boundary crossings, that is for example, walking in and out of a doorway over and over based on obsessive-compulsive based rules. Some individuals may have to e.g., summon a "good thought" before they can come home or enter into a new location to prevent a bad outcome or some form of ambiguous contamination attached to the location or an object. 
 

Avoidance: Avoiding specific words, numbers, times, dates, colours, phrases, or stimuli due to superstitions or fears. Avoidance may even include e.g., walking on certain sides of the street, or under ladders, or fear of opening an umbrella indoors. 
 

Magical Thinking: Superstitious OCD often involves magical thinking, where individuals believe that their actions have a direct impact on external events, regardless of logical or scientific reasoning. They may also believe that having an unwanted thought means the content of the thought will come true unless they neutralise the thought with a compulsion which has the power to "undo" this to prevent feared outcomes from happening. It is important to note, that many, if not most, individuals with this form of OCD have awareness that these thinking patterns and behaviours are not rational, however cannot bear the uncertainty around being unable to convince themselves with 100% certainty that it will not happen, leading them to reluctantly engage in the compulsive mental acts and behaviours "just in case". However, in doing so, the perceived validity of these thoughts is confirmed, and it feels like the only reason the feared outcome did not occur is due to their compulsive behaviours, reinforcing anxiety around the occurrence of unwanted thoughts and the perceived need to neutralise them. 
 

Impact on Daily Life: Superstitious OCD can significantly impact daily life by creating rigid routines and rituals that individuals feel compelled to follow. This may lead to disruptions in daily functioning, increased anxiety, and interference with relationships.​

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