Losing a job, worrying about holding on to a job, or fearing ever being able to find a job-these concerns are greater than ever in this economy. Lots of baby boomers look at dwindling retirement accounts and worry about how they will have enough to live on. Young people struggle to find their first jobs and layoffs affect almost every extended family. The shrinking economy has lots of people stressed out. Stress and OCD don’t mix very well. We know that obsessions and compulsions become more frequent and increase in severity when people with OCD experience stress and worry.

Furthermore, even if you have never had OCD, it’s possible for symptoms to appear when you’re tense and worried. Obsessions and compulsions can be ways of the brain to handle extreme fears or stress. For example:

Jan, a single mother, was laid off from work 6 months ago. She collected unemployment and cut expenses to the bone. For the first time she found herself shopping in resale shops when her kids outgrew their shoes. The family ate lots of rice and beans. She always kept a clean house, but lately Jan has been having worries about keeping her kids safe from germs. She spends her days cleaning and re-cleaning the house. She tells the kids that they can’t afford to get sick because her health insurance was cancelled. She starts to make them take showers when they come home from school and put their school clothes in the washing machine so that she can decontaminate them. Her oldest daughter, frightened by her mother’s strange behavior, phones her grandmother. “Grandma,” she whispers into the phone, “something’s wrong with mommy.”

Bill, a 67 year old retired autoworker understandably worries about the future of his health care benefits, pension, and retirement savings. These realistic concerns send him to his computer to check the daily news, stock market conditions, and the balances of his portfolio. The checking, rather than helping ease his tension, only increases his anxiety. He finds himself spending more time at the computer and less time with friends and family. Spending all day at the computer also hurts his health. His arthritis, until now helped by his active lifestyle, begins to act up. He takes more pain medications; adding to his lethargy. His isolation grows and he becomes more and more depressed and anxious.

Marianne, a recent college graduate hoped to find a job in public relations. She sent her resume to literally hundreds of companies. The few responses she received were all negative. She talked to her school’s career center and was told that she might have to settle for a job in another field for now. She finds a job working at a coffee shop. At first, she was glad to have a paycheck, but the more she works, the unhappier she becomes. One day she notices a hair in a cup of coffee as she hands it to a customer. Tired, she doesn’t take the cup back and watches the customer take a sip of coffee. Suddenly she feels sick to her stomach, imagining the hair going down the customer’s throat. She rigorously checks for hairs in every subsequent cup. Her productivity collapses. She checks the cups at every stage. When she begins to strain out cups of coffee into new cups her manager lets her go.

None of these people started off with OCD. Although most cases of OCD show early signs by young adulthood or before, for these folks, the stress and strain kicked their brains into a circuit of worry and fear. Hopefully as times or their circumstances get better, their symptoms will go away. However, if you or someone you care about starts to have obsessions or compulsions, you might want to check it out with a health care professional. And hopefully, our country will find a way to make health care affordable to every single American.

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    Last reviewed: 6 Jul 2009