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A compulsion is the performance of an action or desire to perform an action for a very specific reason. This reason may be arbitrary or based upon logic, societal belief, or personal experience. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) may for example, compel an affected individual to wash their hands several times instead of one to get them clean. The person may or not be aware that washing your hands once or twice gets them reasonably the same amount of clean as washing them six or nine times, but sees the logic that if one wash is good and kills germs that two or ten washes should kill germs the first wash missed.

Oftentimes a person with a compulsion is aware of the fact that their specific action or actions are viewed as bizarre or extreme in the societal eye but chooses to continue the action as it grants them personal comfort regardless of the opinions of others.

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13y ago

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