Anxiety is the most common type of mental disorder. Anxiety is defined as an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes. People with anxiety usually have recurring intrusive thoughts or concerns (American Psychological Association). Studies show that Anxiety begins in early adolescent years around the time in which they reach high school (Hjemdal, O., Vogel, P. A., Solem, S., Hagen, K., & Stiles, T. C. (2011). Individuals with anxiety attempt to avoid situations that cause uncomfortable thoughts or feelings which lead to the elevation of their anxiety. It is normal to experience some sort of anxiety in life but for most people …show more content…
Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or mental acts that a person feels compelled to perform with the desire to resist (APA).OC symptoms are heritable anxiety syndromes. The genetic factors are 26% -65% of variance. (Taylor, S., & Jang, K. L. (2011). The lifetime prevalence of OC is between 1% and 3 %( Endrass, T., Riesel, A., Kathmann, N., & Buhlmann, U. (2014).Common symptoms of OC reflect the need to establish control such as hoarding which they believe will prevent them from losing something that think may need some time in the future or arranging things symmetrically to maintain order from the chaos that is happening in their mind. There are many dysfunctional beliefs that contribute to OC symptoms. According to the American psychological association (APA) there are three inter-correlated belief types linked to OC symptoms A) perfectionism and intolerance of uncertainty, b) Over importance of thoughts and the need to control thoughts and c) Inflated responsibility and over estimation of threat (Taylor, S., & Jang, K. L. 2011). These beliefs independent of themselves can cause obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD). The desire for control and the sense of control are very relevant to understanding anxiety