The Top 10 Compulsive Behavior Symptoms
Category: Personal Development: Basic (BA3)

The following ten behaviors are probably the most common of what could be categorized with "Obsessive-Compulsive" disorders. Many of them are "curable," but the person who has any of these compulsions should seek *professional* help in dealing with their particular problem area.

1. "Checking" Behaviors.
Worrying if you turned off lights or stove, locked the door, etc. Excessive daily checking and re-checking of these types of things is a compulsive behavior.

2. Needing to Buy Something Each Time You Go Shopping.
Lack of ANY willpower when it comes to buying when out shows compulsive behavior. This often leads to severe financial and business problems unless the person is financially very well off.

3. Gambling For Recreation, But Continually Losing & Going Into Debt.
Many people gamble for fun, and when they lose all their money they go home or quit. Compulsive gamblers keep going and borrow money, sell items to get money to gamble etc. They are "addicted" to gambling.

4. Substance Abuse/Addiction.
When alcohol, recreational drugs, or tobacco are so much a part of your life that without them you are agitated, afraid, anxious, or do not feel "yourself," then you have a compulsion to use those substances,even though they are harmful to your physical and emotional wellness.

5. All Work & No Play.
If you are a person who ALWAYS feels they have to be working or doing something "productive," such as your business work or other projects that are not considered "recreation," then chances are good you are compulsive about work. These people often are called "Type A" people, but a true compulsive workaholic will literally work until they fall asleep or are no longer able to function.

6. Compulsive Relationship Behavior.
Examples of this are the man or woman who *must* be in a relationship, sometimes with only one special person, or they feel lost. If the relationship is terminated by the other party, the compulsive "lover" will stalk, call incessantly, and do all kinds of legal and illegal things to get close to or "get back" the person they feel they must have in their life to be "whole." It is similar to the "Fatal Attraction" movie character Glen Close played.

7. Compulsive Lying.
This person, not unlike the gambler, or the alcoholic, has little or no control over the lies he or she tells. To the compulsive liar, lies come out of the mouth as easily as truths, usually with little or no forethought to why or what the consequences will be.

8. Compulsive Eating.
Eating disorders are well known by now, and the subject of numerous books and talk shows. The compulsive eater is a person who simply CANNOT say no to food! They may have just eaten a dinner, but they go back for more until they are either sick and must "purge" the food, or until they get so sick they cannot eat any more. Most people with severe overweight problems are compulsive when it comes to eating.

9. Sexual Compulsions.
Men and women who bounce from one bed to the next and MUST have an ongoing sexual relationship or very frequent sex no matter with whom or what the situation, are addicted to sex, and would be classified as having a sexual compulsion. These people unfortunately put themselves at high risk for getting sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, and very unhealthy personal and professional lives.

10. Compulsive Exercising.
Sometimes tied into competitiveness, sometimes to a weight or *perceived* weight problem, and sometimes simply another example of compulsive behavior, some people exercise to the extreme, often endangering their health. Some runners and "marathon" zealots may live to exercise. They do it for much longer than suggested by health experts, they do it harder than suggested, and they do it more frequently as well. It often interferes with their social and business life, and in women and men can cause unhealthy changes in the body's normal "rhythms," the person's body fat percentage, and can cause many "sports related" injuries to the knees, legs, hips, and other major joint and muscle areas.

Originally Submitted on 5/11/97.

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