Habit, Ritual or Disorder

Have you ever found yourself performing a particular behavior and immediately repeating it, or thinking about something that was followed by a specific behavior, and repeating the combination at different times during the day or week? Or maybe there is a special routine that you perform to help you overcome anxiety or difficulties.

Most people experience one, or more, of these behaviors in their daily lives. For example, you're leaving the house to meet a friend but the woodstove is full of burning wood. So, you check and double check the woodstove door to be sure it's secure. Or, every time you think about a loved one who died, you immediately look at the person's picture. Perhaps, before you meet with your dentist or doctor, you eat the same breakfast and/or wear the same clothing.

These behaviors can be described as habits, rituals or disorders. Habits are easy to understand because we all possess many habits. If you load the automatic dishwasher in the same way or hang clothes in the closet facing in the same direction, you are experiencing a habit.

Then there are daily rituals, such as: the morning routine and the evening routine when preparing for sleep. We are often unaware that these behaviors are rituals, but they are. Of course, we are familiar from watching movies with obvious rituals that portray people attempting to connect to the spirits or to bring good fortune.

A disorder is quite different, which is a classification from experts who study specific behaviors and who realize that there are conditions that standout and must be recognized. So, if you were to check the woodstove door five consecutive times before leaving the house, this is no longer a habit but a disorder.

Immediate repetitive patterns of behaviors or thoughts are classified as an obsessive-compulsive disorder, but it is important to understand that, as with any disorder, there are degrees of severity.

For an obsessive-compulsive disorder, this means that people experience very mild to extremely debilitating interferences within their daily lives due to the repetitions. Very mild indicates that the repetitive behavior is annoying, but life moves along. Moderate interference indicates that the repetitions are much too frequent and a person is often delayed when attempting to move from one event to another. With highly debilitating interferences, a person cannot stop performing the repetitions and seldom accomplishes any event in life.

So, if you find yourself repeating thoughts or behaviors, take a moment to consider if it is a habit, or not. This might help you to decide if you need to consider the behavior more carefully.