To restore safety, compulsive washing or other types of cleaning are engaged in. Scrubbing hands and arms many times an hour for fear of having picked up some disease, even to the point where sores develop on the skin. This shouldn't be surprising, given the distressing, time consuming, and interfering nature of obsessions and compulsions. Undoubtedly, you have experienced some of these symptoms to one degree or another at some time in your life. Such experiences are not abnormal.
Anxiety becomes abnormal when it becomes excessive, irrational, and chronic.
The anxiety experienced by people suffering from these disorders is intrusive and disruptive to their everyday lives. We will turn to these questions in the next lecture.