Obsessions: Definition, Causes, & Examples​

By Charlie Huntington, M.A., Ph.D. Candidate
​Reviewed by Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D.
Obsessions are topics or thoughts that keep coming into our heads – whether we like it or not. Why do we get obsessed with things? When are obsessions unhealthy? Let’s find out.​
*This page may include affiliate links; that means we earn from qualifying purchases of products.
When I was a young child, perhaps five or six years old, I became obsessed with chewing evenly on both sides of my mouth. Every time I ate something, I would do my best to chew with one side of my mouth or the other and to keep track of the number of bites so that my chewing was evenly distributed on both sides. I thought often – though I would not quite say that I worried – about the possibility that my jaw would become imbalanced if I did not do this. ​
This thought kept me engaged in this behavior and kept me checking my mouth to see if it felt balanced.

A year or two after starting this pattern, I simply stopped caring – the concern went away and did not return. Looking back through the lens of somebody with knowledge of the psychological literature, I can see that I was engaged in what might be called a normative childhood obsession or repetitive routine (Bolton et al., 2009). I was highly focused on this thought, and often acted on it, but the thought did not cause me much distress and naturally faded as I grew up. It is quite common for young children to pass through a temporary stage where they become highly focused in this way.

Perhaps you can think of a similar thought that occupied you as a child. We might even call it an obsession. Where do our obsessions come from, and how do we know if they are healthy or not? Psychologists have plenty of answers to our curiosity about obsessions.​
​Before reading on, if you're a therapist, coach, or wellness entrepreneur, be sure to grab our free Wellness Business Growth eBook to get expert tips and free resources that will help you grow your business exponentially.​​​​​​​​​
Are You a Therapist, Coach, or Wellness Entrepreneur?

Grab Our Free eBook to Learn How to
Grow Your Wellness Business Exponentially!

 ✓  Save hundreds of hours of time  ✓  Earn more $ faster  
​✓  Boost your credibility ✓  Deliver high-impact content 

What Are Obsessions? (A Definition)​

Obsessions are often defined as pathological, meaning they are harmful and unhealthy in some way. For example, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition – the latest full version of the guide that psychologists, therapists, and psychiatrists use to diagnose mental disorders – defines obsessions as “recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges or images that are experienced, at some time during the disturbance, as intrusive, unwanted, and that in most individuals cause marked anxiety or distress” (APA, 2013). For many people, obsessions are indeed harmful or unwanted, but for our purposes here, we can define obsessions more broadly as the language used at the start of that definition: “recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges or images.”

Obsessions in Psychopathology

In the realm of psychopathology, or mental health disorders, obsessions frequently look like fears about becoming contaminated by things, aggressive impulses that one fears acting on, thoughts about keeping things in order, doubts about whether something happened or is true, or sudden and intrusive sexual thoughts (Rachman et al., 1980). As you might imagine, given the content of these thoughts, they are frequently experienced as upsetting, especially by people with diagnoses of obsessive-compulsive disorder or an anxiety disorder (APA, 2013).
 
While people with certain mental health disorders experience more frequent, long-lasting, and distressing obsessive thoughts than people without mental health disorders do (Garcia-Soriano et al., 2011), most people – as many as 90% of adults in the general population – report that they have had obsessive thoughts at least once (Purdon & Clark, 1994). These obsessive thoughts tend to be similar in their nature to the obsessive thoughts of people with OCD or anxiety, but just not as intense and difficult to deal with (Clark, 2004). For this reason, psychologists think of obsessive thoughts as existing on a continuum from relatively harmless to extremely distressing or impairing (Garcia-Soriano et al., 2011).​

Opposite of Obsession​

The opposite of obsession is to think very little about and feel indifferent toward a topic. In this regard, I always think of the differences between people who are sports fans and those who are not. I have a friend who struggles to stay focused at work when his favorite sports team is in the playoffs – he finds his mind is often wandering to the topic of the next game, or replaying the last game. Meanwhile, most of his work colleagues, because they are not obsessed with this sports team, are mystified at his level of interest and concern – if he brings up his thoughts about sports with them, they may even have a hard time staying invested in the conversation, because it simply doesn’t register as important to them.​

Causes of Obsessions

There is no definitive and proven theory about how we develop obsessions, but the prevailing perspectives come from cognitive psychology (Clark, 2004). These theories suggest that obsessions emerge when we develop dysfunctional beliefs about the thoughts we are having. Several key dysfunctional beliefs have been consistently noted (Taylor et al., 2010), with the impact of the obsession becoming stronger as these beliefs are more strongly held. Let’s use the example of my friend, the avid sports fan, to make these beliefs more concrete:
 
  1. Obsessions come when we become perfectionistic or unable to tolerate uncertainty around the thought. For example, my friend may become distracted by the desire to know as much about his team’s chances as possible. This obsessive line of thinking – “I just need to know if they’re really prepared this time” – could lead to reading lots of articles and ignoring his work. Or, when the team loses, he may become obsessed with trying to understand why.
  2. We become fixated on the idea of trying to control the thoughts, perhaps because they seem overly important to us. My friend might start to tell himself, “If I just read one more article, it will help me calm down and move on. I can control this.” We can also start to make the unhealthy assumption that since these thoughts keep coming up, we have to do something with them.
  3. We start to give ourselves more responsibility in the situation, or we overestimate how threatening the thoughts are. I think this is where our emotions start to get really involved. For example, many sports fans (and athletes, too) become superstitious about their routines around a game, often from the belief that it is only through identifying and taking the right actions that they will avoid an undesirable outcome. Fear about negative outcomes can also lead us to assume that, since the thought keeps coming up and coming up, it is especially likely to happen.

Obsessive Thoughts & Obsessive Behaviors

You might have noticed in these examples that obsessive thoughts become closely tied to behaviors. This is a phenomenon called thought-action fusion, and it seems to be central to the development of obsessive-compulsive patterns of behavior (Rassin et al., 2000). In other words, if we start to respond behaviorally in a certain way to obsessive thoughts, we develop a strong association between the thoughts and the actions. They get fused together, and the pattern becomes hard to break. We may even try to suppress the thoughts, but then trying not to engage with those thoughts – and not engage in the actions that accompany the thoughts – can cause us to become more distressed.
 
In fact, there is a lot of research on how thought suppression – just trying to ignore obsessive thoughts – does not work. Psychologists have done a lot of research studies where they give participants instructions like, “For the next few minutes, I want you to avoid thinking about a white bear” (e.g., Wegner, 1989). Being told not to think about the white bear actually increased the frequency of spontaneous and intrusive thoughts about the white bear!
 
It seems that if we try our best not to think about something, we become engaged in a couple of cognitive processes that make that avoidance difficult (Wegner, 1994). First, we have to work deliberately to find distracting topics to think about. Second, we end up tracking our own minds to make sure we’re not thinking about the topic. Since these are effortful things to do, we often cannot avoid returning to the thought before long. Thus, trying to ignore obsessive thoughts often does not work.

Examples of Obsessions

We can become obsessed with almost anything, but usually, our obsessions are focused on things that matter to or interest us. For example, I have developed a mild obsession with ways to reduce or reverse hair loss. Ever since I noticed that my hairline is receding, I have gradually come to think more and more about this topic. If I end up in front of a mirror, I always think about looking at my hairline. If I sit down at my computer without a task to do, the thought will appear in my head that I could use this time to do some more research on hair loss remedies.

Perhaps you have noticed frequent or intrusive thoughts in your daily life. It could be about the TV show you just started watching, your upcoming vacation plans, a project at work, or what you’re going to say in your toast at your sibling’s wedding next summer. Obsessive thoughts are a normal aspect of human existence. They do not necessarily reflect an unhealthy relationship with a topic; you may just be very interested in something.

Obsession vs. Love

In many instances of love, we experience a period of infatuation, when our thoughts naturally tend toward the person we love. In this sense, we may seem temporarily obsessed with the other person. However, healthy love for another person involves some boundaries between our life and theirs, and when those boundaries are crossed, obsessive love can result (Reynaud et al., 2010).

Obsession vs. Addiction​

A common aspect of addiction is obsessively thinking about and desiring the object of one’s addiction (Mansueto et al., 2019). In this sense, obsession is a part of addiction, but they are not the same. To successfully recover, most addicts need to learn how to effectively respond to their obsessive thoughts about their drug or behavior of choice – neither suppressing the thought nor giving in to it.​

Obsession vs. Passion

Passion is a strong liking for or interest in an activity, topic, or object. Passion may involve obsessive thoughts, but it is not a requirement for passion. In fact, one psychological theory divides passion into obsessive passion and harmonious passion and notes that obsessive passion can become impairing, whereas harmonious passion is usually a positive influence in our lives (Vallerand et al., 2003). I have a passion for rock climbing, but thoughts of rock climbing do not distract me or randomly pop into my head during the day, nor do I feel an unhealthily obsessive need to continue improving at rock climbing.

Obsession vs. Compulsion

Compulsions are the repetitive behaviors that we come to associate with obsessive thoughts – this combination is at the center of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) (APA, 2013). These behaviors are geared toward relieving distress associated with the obsessive thoughts, such as fear about a negative outcome. For example, many people with OCD engage in compulsive patterns of checking things (such as the burners on their stove) or cleaning things (such as their own hands) to avoid fears of harmful things happening (Rachman et al., 1980).

Obsessions in OCD

When people have obsessive thoughts that are impairing or distressing to them, and these thoughts are accompanied by compulsive behaviors, they are often diagnosed with OCD. What truly distinguishes people with OCD from people who experience more normative levels of obsession is the impairing and distressing nature of their obsessions (Rachman & de Silva, 1978). For example, I have occasionally worried that I left my car unlocked, and once or twice gone to check that I did lock it. However, I have never had to check dozens of times, to the point that I was late for an appointment or felt paralyzed with fear and the need to go check again.​

Obsessions in Autism

A hallmark – but not essential – feature of autism spectrum disorder is being primarily interested in just one or two topics (APA, 2013). People with autism do not experience their obsessions as impairing or distressing – they generally seem to take pleasure in their obsessions (Baron-Cohen, 1989). Usually, these obsessive topics are related to interest in how physical things work, such as the operations of trains or planes or a drive to perfect the mechanics of one’s tennis playing (Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 1999). It is theorized that people with autism gravitate toward these kinds of topics because autism is also characterized by deficits in understanding social interactions; by comparison, trying to understand how a car engine works is much more intuitive and satisfying, and much less likely to cause anxiety or distress (Baron-Cohen, 1995).​

Quotes on Obsessions

  • “A man may dwell so long upon a thought that it may take him prisoner.” – George Savile
  • “Obsessions are psychological rituals.” – Cathal O’Brian
  • “Romantic obsession is like a cataclysm breaking up the empty landscape. Like a strange exotic plant, it grows in arid soil.” – Rosemary Sullivan
  • “The purpose in an obsession is to satisfy the self, not the object or person desired. The object of the obsession is relatively unimportant, or is important only in relation to the one who is obsessed. Obsession is possessiveness—that is selfishness—taken to the extreme.” – Richard E. Mezo
  • “Obsession is the wellspring of genius and madness.” — Michel de Montaigne

Articles Related to Obsessions

​Want to learn more? Check out these articles:

Books Related to Obsessions

If you’d like to keep learning more, here are a few books that you might be interested in.

Final Thoughts on Obsessions​

Obsessive thoughts will come up for most people at some point in their lives. It seems that the meaning we assign to our obsessive thoughts may be the key to determining how much they impact us (Purdon & Clark, 1999). If you find yourself obsessed with something, you can recognize it as a natural human phenomenon. It’s only if it starts to really negatively impact your life that you might need to seek help around it. If you do want a resource for dealing with obsessive thinking that is bothering you, you could start by watching this video:​

Video: Anxiety and Rumination | How To Stop Obsessive Thinking​

Don't Forget to Grab Our Free eBook to Learn How to
Grow Your Wellness Business Exponentially!

References
Are You a Therapist, Coach, or Wellness Entrepreneur?
Grab Our Free eBook to Learn How to Grow Your Wellness Business Fast!
Key Articles:Content Packages:
Terms, Privacy & Affiliate Disclosure  |   About   |   Blog   |   Contact   |   FAQs
* The Berkeley Well-Being Institute. LLC is not affiliated with UC Berkeley.
Copyright © 2024, The Berkeley Well-Being Institute, LLC