One of the most common obsession of obsessive-compulsive disorder is being afraid of harm. For instance, always being afraid of someone’s giving harm to his/her child. Obsessive-compulsive disorders are related to phobic disorders in that both involve severe anxiety and both may appear in the same patient. However, there are important differences. Phobic patients seldom ruminate about their fears, nor do they show ritualistic compulsive behavior. And the two disorders are evoked by different stimuli. Dirt, germs, and harm to others – common obsessive compulsive preoccupations – seldom cause major problems for phobic individuals.