Practitioners and researchers sometimes use the phrase “obsessive slowness” to describe the behavior of people with OCD, but the phrase can be misleading.
Although it might take a person with OCD 30 minutes to wash their face, or an hour to decide what shirt to wear, it is not because he or she thinking or moving slowly. What takes time is making sure that a compulsive behavior, or ritual, is done well enough to calm the anxiety behind it.
If someone with OCD carries out certain behaviors slowly, then treatment for their OCD includes identifying the reason for the slowness. The three primary reasons for slow movement with OCD are doubtfulness, going for a just-right feeling, and perfectionism.
Underlying Doubt
People with OCD may not be certain they have actually performed a ritual, or done it properly. To assure or convince themselves that a ritual has been completed they might use some form of double-checking.
One way of double-checking is to observe one's self doing a task very slowly and carefully. Other ways, which also take time, include doing things a certain number of times, breaking an activity down into small steps that have to be accomplished a certain way, or getting something completed before counting to a particular number.
Doubt also slows the decision making process when needing to make a “perfect” decision is required. This can lead to a mental paralysis and long periods of agonizing and inaction.
It Has To Feel Right
Some people with OCD must perform a ritual until it “feels right.” If a movement or action does not feel right, then it must be done again. Only the OCD sufferer knows what the right feeling is. Though they may not be able to describe it, they know the feeling when it is experienced. Some OCD individuals cannot begin a ritual until it feels right to start, and they might wait quite awhile before it does.
Only Perfection Will Do
The need to do something perfectly can be triggered by several things, including magical thinking. An example of magical thinking is believing something bad will happen if a ritual is not done to perfection. If a mistake is made while performing the ritual - or if someone thinks a mistake has been made - the action must be done over.
Perfection can require many repetitions, and much time. If the rituals happen to be mental (performed in the mind), the person might look as if they are living in slow-motion though their mind is working on overdrive.
Another type of perfectionism that creates inefficiency is needing closure, or the inability to start something new until the current activity is definitely completed. Whether the ritual is a physical or mental, someone who requires closure can only think about, or tackle, one activity at a time.
Appearances
Obsessive slowness, then, is about having impossible standards related to obtaining certainty. Because the standards are difficult to meet, the thoughts and actions used to meet them take much time. To an observer, it may appear that an obsessive person is moving slowly.
Source: WSPS
Photo credit: Nicolas Alejandro / flickr
