Therapy
If you avoid places just in case, check again and again something you have already checked, or a thought keeps coming back even though you know it is irrational, that has a name and has treatment.
A phobia is an intense, disproportionate fear of something specific —an animal, a height, flying, public speaking— that the person rationally knows is not that dangerous but cannot control. Obsessions are thoughts that repeat and insist against one’s will, and they often push toward rituals or compulsions to calm the anguish they cause.
They show up as the systematic avoidance of certain places or situations, repeatedly checking something already verified (the door, the stove), washing hands more than necessary, needing things to be in an exact order, or being caught in a thought that returns again and again even though you know it is irrational.
The best-supported technique is gradual exposure with response prevention: approaching what you fear little by little without performing the ritual that relieves it, until the fear loses strength on its own. We always accompany it by also working on the personal origin of the symptom.
