compulsion
n. a type of behavior (e.g., hand washing, checking) or a mental act (e.g., counting, praying) engaged in to reduce anxiety or distress. Typically, the individual feels driven or compelled to perform the compulsion to reduce the distress associated with an obsession or to prevent a dreaded event or situation. For example, individuals with an obsession about contamination may wash their hands repetitively until their skin is cracked and bleeding. Such compulsions do not provide pleasure or gratification, although the individual may experience some temporary relief from engaging in them, and they are disproportionate or irrelevant to the feared situation that they are used to neutralize. See countercompulsion; obsessive-compulsive disorder. —compulsive
adj.