Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a disorder in which the child is suffering from unwanted thoughts. That is, a thought comes into the child's mind along the lines of, "What if I say something bad about my mother, something terrible will happen to her today." "What if I tell my father I didn't like the way he spoke to me, he might get in a car accident and something bad could happen." So Obsessive Compulsive Disorder are characterized by a lot of self-doubt, characterized by thought intrusions where most kids know are not true, but they can't help it anyway. Some children have a thought that goes through their mind that goes, I will keep my family safe if I line up all of the toy soldiers on the edge of my bed, or, my mom won't get hurt if I go through a ritual with her and say things like, "Mommy, tell me that you love me back." "I love you." "Now tell me two times that this is going to happen and this is going to happen." They really use that as a means of warding off anxiety. The difficulty is that it really does two things. It temporarily reduces anxiety, but it also increases anxiety because they now have a ritual that they feel like they have to do in an exact way. If they don't do it in the exact way, they will feel like they will be punished, or something bad will happen to someone they know.