A lady used to repeatedly wash her hands due to the fear of acquiring AIDS is due to

(A) OCD # Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric anxiety disorder most commonly characterized by a subject's obsessive, distressing, intrusive thoughts and related compulsions (tasks or "rituals") which attempt to neutralize the obsessions.# Obsessions are defined by:> Recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses, or images that are experienced at some time during the disturbance, as intrusive and inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or distress.> Thoughts, impulses, or images are not simply excessive worries about real-life problems.> Person attempts to ignore or suppress such thoughts, impulses, or images, or to neutralize them with some other thought or action.> Person recognizes that the obsessional thoughts, impulses, or images are a product of his or her own mind, and are not based in reality.> Tendency to haggle over small details that the viewer is unable to fix or change in any way. This begins a mental pre-occupation with that which is inevitable.# Compulsions are defined by:> Repetitive behaviors or mental acts that the person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession, or according to rules that must be applied rigidly.> The behaviors or mental acts are aimed at preventing or reducing distress or preventing some dreaded event or situation; however, these behaviors or mental acts either are not connected in a realistic way with what they are designed to neutralize or prevent or are clearly excessive.