# When tradition starts feeding the fear

**URL:** <https://forum.sharedquill.org/t/when-tradition-starts-feeding-the-fear/52908>\
**Category:** Research and News\
**Created:** [October 9, 2026, 1:35am UTC](https://forum.sharedquill.org/t/when-tradition-starts-feeding-the-fear/52908 "2026-10-09T01:35:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Elizabeth](https://forum.sharedquill.org/user_avatar/forum.sharedquill.org/elizabeth/32/17_2.png) [@Elizabeth](https://forum.sharedquill.org/u/Elizabeth)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 1:35am UTC](https://forum.sharedquill.org/t/when-tradition-starts-feeding-the-fear/52908/1 "2026-10-09T01:35:07Z")

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The part about the evil eye practices being treated differently depending on whether they fit cultural expectations really stuck with me. A ritual can be meaningful and shared by a whole community, but it can also become a source of distress when someone feels unable to stop or believes something terrible will happen if they don’t do it. That line seems difficult to judge from the outside. How can clinicians respect a person’s culture while still recognizing when a practice has become compulsive?

> **[Compulsion or Culture? OCD and the Evil Eye in India](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/non-weird-science/202610/compulsion-or-culture-ocd-and-the-evil-eye-in-india)**
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> What do you do when compulsions look like familiar cultural practices?